Melanie Spiller and Coloratura Consulting
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Instrument Biography: The Accordion
Melanie Spiller and Coloratura Consulting
In the interest of space, the reed organs known as the accordion and the harmonica have been
broken out of the Free-Reed Organ (Pump Organ) biography. For more on organs in general, check
out my blog post on Pipe Organs.
This article focuses mostly on the accordion, but its younger siblings, the concertina and the melodeon
won’t be left out. Accordions, concertinas, and melodeons are free-reed instruments invented in the early
19
th
century. All have keyboards attached to headboards that are joined by expandable bellows. The
bellows drives air across the reeds. Simple models have only a few buttons or piano keys, but all—especially
accordions—can be quite complex.
All three instruments are free reed instruments that are played by squeezing the bellows. The bellows are
squeezed when the player presses the headboards toward one another. Unlike other instruments where
the bellows are separated mechanically from the keyboard, the keyboards, and chord buttons are attached
to the bellows itself and the movement of the arms pumping the bellows is coordinated with the hands as
they dance across the keys.
In this article, the term accordion is used to mean a rectangular headboard-shape with a piano keyboard on
the treble (right-hand) side. Concertina is used to mean a smaller non-square or rectangular headboard
with pushbuttons rather than a keyboard. Melodeon is used for the instrument that is rectangular like the
accordion, but only has pushbuttons on the treble headboard.
Accordion
Although it’s suffered a lot of disrespect—American writer Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914) said that “the
accordion is an instrument with the sentiments of an assassin”—the accordion is really an interesting and
amazing instrument. It cleverly uses physics and science to make music, and has captured the attention of
many famous folks from many walks of life.
An accordion is a small portable organ of the free-reed type. (An “organ” is an instrument that sounds
when air is expelled from a bellows. Yup, just like your lungs.) The accordion’s reeds are arranged so that
one note sounds as the bellows are expanded (a “draw”—like an inhalation) and another when they are
compressed (a “blow”—like an exhalation). Pressing a single key can sound two different notes because
there are two reeds in each chamber.
The accordion has two rectangular headboards connected by a folding bellows. Inside the headboards,
metal tongues act as free reeds. The draw reeds sound when the headboards are moved apart from one
another (the player opens his arms and expands the bellows), and the draw reeds sound when the
headboards are pushed together.
The left hand works the bellows and a large number of “touches,” buttons, or studs, which are used mainly
for bass lines and accompaniment. The melody is usually played with the right hand, for which the larger
instruments provide a keyboard of four or more octaves. Concertinas and melodeons use buttons on both
sides but maintain the separation between treble and bass.
The earliest instrument of this type were made by Buschmann (1822), Buffet (1827), and Damian (1829).
You’ll read more about these fellows in the history section. As an instrument of the non-elite, the accordion
spread across the globe with immigrants. Both button and piano forms were popular, and the accordion has
been used for folk or ethnic music, popular music, and light classical music.
Between 1900 and the 1960s, the accordion enjoyed a “golden age.” It sat center stage during the
vaudeville years, and accordions were often heard on the radio between the 30s and the 50s. In the 50s
and 60s, Myron Floren was the biggest name on the Lawrence Welk show because of his musical stylings on
the accordion (not to mention the popularity of the polka).
The accordion is considered the national instrument in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and you’ll hear it featured
in their folk music, which is called sevdalinka. The accordion is widely used in Brazil in both traditional and
pop music, including forró music, particularly the sub-genres of xote and baião . It’s also important in
sertanejo music and Brazilian gaucho music.
Concertina
The concertina is an instrument similar to the accordion and preferred in England. It’s smaller and has
hexagonal headboards with buttons on each. Each end has a handle or grip of some sort and buttons that
are pressed to change the notes. In addition to changing which button is pressed, the player must also
change the direction of the bellows to articulate the beginning of a new note.
The bandoneon is a related square instrument invented by a fellow called Heinrich Band (1821-1860) in the
1840s and still popular in Argentina, Uruguay, and Lithuania.
Melodeon
The melodeon was originally called a lap organ to distinguish it from its pump organ relative. It’s like a cross
between a concertina (with buttons for note selection) and an accordion (with keys for note selection) in
that it changes notes depending on the direction of the airflow (like a harmonica). The left hand plays the
bass notes and the right hand plays the treble.
Accordion History
The accordion, like the free-reed organ, is in the same family as the sheng (see the free-reed organ post for
more about the sheng). The sheng is much older, and made its way to Europe, probably through Russia, in
the late 18
th
or early 19
th
century.
The basic form of the accordion is credited to Christian Friedrich Buschmann (1805-1864) in 1822, although
there are similar instruments from earlier. Buschmann’s lever-like keys were improved in 1829 by Cyrillus
Demian (1772-1847) of Vienna, who called it an “Akkordion” (German for “harmony”) for the first time.
Demian’s instrument was similar to Buschmann’s but he included buttons for accompanying chords in the
left hand.
Demain’s instrument had only a left-hand button board with the right hand reserved for operating the
bellows (the reverse of today’s instrument). His primary concern in applying for a patent was the ability to
sound a whole chord by pressing a single key, something that’s still used on the left-hand headboard. His
instrument could sound two different chords with the same key, because it was a bisonoric instrument,
which means that it made one note or chord during the draw and another during the blow of the bellows.
(Unisonoric means that blow and draw get the same note from a single key or button.)
Made in rosewood with inlays of ivory and mother-of-pearl, Demian’s accordion was copied by various
other instrument makers, who, unable to use the copyrighted name, called their versions the
Handharmonika. Around that time, harmonicas (for which Buschmann also gets credit) with chambers were
already available, along with bigger instruments (pump organs) that worked by hand-driven bellows. The
diatonic key arrangement was already in use on harmonicas, so it was a short leap to the accordion.
By 1831, the accordion had crossed the channel to England. Reviews were not favorable at first, but it
became popular anyway. By the mid 1840s, the accordion had also made its way across the Atlantic, and it
was quite popular in New York and around North America.
Charles Wheatstone (more on him in a bit) squished both chords and keyboard together into a single
squeezebox. He got a patent in 1844 on what he called a concertina, which had reeds that could be tuned
with a simple tool.
Adolph Müller (1801-1886) described a whole bunch of different accordions in his 1833 book “School for
the Accordion.” At the time, Vienna and London were merrily exchanging musicians, and it’s possible that
Wheatstone knew about Müller’s book.
The flutina, a precursor of the accordion that had a row of diatonic (Do-Re-Mi) buttons in 1831, was created
by Pichenot Jeune (which means “young Pichenot,” and his real name and dates are not known), and
resembles the concertina in construction and sound. It’s a one-sided bisonoric melody-only instrument that
has keys operated with the right hand and bellows by the left (the reverse of Demain’s and more like
today’s accordion).
In 1852, Monsieur Busson of Paris introduced piano-type keys. I found no information on this fellow other
than that his first name might have been Christian, that he had an accordion society, and that he
manufactured accordions, possibly called Busson Brevet.
By the beginning of the 20
th
century, the bass keyboard had developed enough to produce accompaniment
in all key signatures, but the instrument had been relegated to use in cafes, dance halls, and music halls.
There was a brief resurgence of popularity when, in 1931, the accordion turned to serious music, and a
music school was established for accordion players in the German town of Trossingen, chosen for its
proximity to the Höhner accordion factory. The British College of Accordionists was founded in 1936.
As its popularity waned again, it found a home in American jazz, in the traditional Schrammel quartets of
Austrian folk music, in Klezmer music, and in polka bands. The accordion is still used for folk music in
Europe, North and South America, as well as in Mexico. In Europe and North America, it’s often associated
with busking. Rarely, it’s used in both solo and orchestral classical performances. It’s also used in
mainstream pop music. Surprised? See my list below…
Concertina History
Sir Charles Wheatstone (1802-1875) was a British physicist who is chiefly remembered for his work on the
telegraph. But as the son of a Gloucester music seller, he had an interest in instruments. After an internship
with his uncle, an instrument maker, he developed the symphonium in 1829 (another free-reed organ, like
a harmonica, except buttons were depressed to change notes) and the concertina in 1844.
Concertina developed independently in both England and Germany. Carl Friedrich Uhlig (1798-1874)
announced the German version in 1834. (Remember: Pre-Internet, it was perfectly possible for someone in
England to develop something “new” that had already been developed 800 miles away in Germany ten
years earlier.)
The concertina soon expanded to have a complete chromatic scale. This meant that chamber music and
concert pieces with orchestral accompaniment could be written specifically for the concertina, and there
were many virtuosi on the instrument.
By the 1850s, the Anglo-German concertina’s ability to play both melody and accompaniment led English
manufacturers to develop the duet system. That’s when the various “flavors” became popular—the duet,
the Chemnitzer, the Carlsfeld, and the bandoneon. It took until the end of the century for two styles to
emerge as the most popular (the Chemnitzer and the bandoneon).
The Salvation Army used the concertina in its bands in English-speaking countries world-wide. German
emigrants spread the Chemnitzer and bandoneon to the US and South America. But in the early 20
th
century, the concertina’s popularity began to wane. The accordion grew in popularity in its place, and the
mass production of instruments like the accordion and the piano allowed a greater breadth of musical
styles requiring more chromatic options (such as blues and jazz). Also, once the radio and the phonograph
were invented, there were simply fewer amateur musicians who wanted to play concertinas.
By the mid-19
th
century, most concertinas used accordion reeds and cheap buttons. Although it had been
on the rise in popularity, interest in the polka soon faded in response to Nazi control of the music clubs in
Germany.
The folk revival movement in the 1960s led to a slight uptick in popularity for the concertina, especially in
traditional Irish music. Renewed interest in the tango since the 1980s has also brought the bandoneon back
into popularity. In a wild whirl of anachronism, 20
th
century innovation includes the concertina in Morris
sides.
Melodeon History
The melodeon’s history was harder to trace. It was first patented in 1829. Melodeons are widely used in
Asia and elsewhere. It’s most likely the instrument that Buschmann invented in the 1840s, because the
shape is the same for accordions and melodeons. It was Demain, after all, who attached levers that would
evolve into the modern keyboard. It’s considered an American instrument (although I couldn’t find anything
to explain why), and was popular before the 1850s.
The melodeon could be considered a small pump organ with one keyboard and one or two sets of reeds.
Accordion Structure
The accordion, concertina, and melodeon are members of the aerophone family. Changing directions
(pushing or pulling) on the bellows causes a change to the pitch and is called being bisonoric. When the
same pitch sounds, it’s called unisonoric.
Orchestral instruments are usually tuned to A= 440 Hz (you know, that note that the instruments all play
before the conductor comes out? That’s it. A=440.) Harmoniums are frequently tuned to 438 Hz, accordions
to 442 Hz, and Baroque groups tune to 415 Hz. This disparity of tuning might explain why accordion has
such a low reputation. If other instruments can’t tune to it, it’s out of luck (and will always be a little bit
sharp--high).
Bellows are the most recognizable part of the accordion and provide the primary means of note production
and articulation. Like a violin’s bow, the instrument responds to the motion of the player as he manipulates
the bellows. Bellows are used for volume control, vibrato, pulsed sounds, clear and crisp notes, and, in
some instruments, by pushing the “silent air” button, making a whooshing noise.
The bellows is squeezed between the left- and right-hand keyboards, and is made of pleated layers of cloth
and cardboard with added bits of leather and metal. Moving the bellows creates pressure (when it blows)
and a vacuum (when it draws) alternately, that drives air across the internal reeds.
The body consists of two wooden boxes joined by the bellows. The rectangular boxes house the reed
chambers. Each side has grills that allow air in and out of the bellows and allow the sound to project. The
grill for the right-hand manual is usually larger, and often decoratively carved.
The size and weight of the headboard varies, depending on the accordion’s type, layout, and playing range,
which can be very small (with only one or two rows of bass notes and a single octave of treble), to 120-bass
standard accordion, and all the way up to a 160-bass converter model.
The reeds inside the instrument generate the tones. These are arranged in ranks, which can be further
categorized into registers, like those on a pipe organ, and produce different timbres. All but the smallest
accordions come with switches that control which combination of reed ranks operate, organized from high
to low. Each register stop produces a separate sound timber and most accordions have treble switches.
Larger (and more expensive) accordions also have bass switches.
Höhner, a German company, invented a high-tempered steel reed in 1857, which made the sound more
stable and predictable (and less affected by weather conditions), and increased the accordion’s popularity.
When a key is pressed down on the headboard’s keyboard, a pallet, which is a little cup-like cover that sits
on the reed chamber, is lifted, allowing air to flow into the chamber in either direction. The reeds vibrate as
a result. Air flow direction is determined by the bellows.
Early accordions had lever-like keys rather than the piano-like keys we’re used to seeing today.
Modern accordions have treble notes played through the keyboard in the right hand and bass played
through push buttons in the left. Beginners’ models might have 25 treble keys and 12 bass buttons. A
professional model might have 41 piano keys, 11 treble registers, and a master coupler for changing
registers, plus 120 bass buttons, and seven bass registers. (Registers change the quality of the notes played,
like a pipe organ—flute sounds and viols, and so forth.) Bass options on a professional model might include
single notes or chords structured around a particular note.
The 120-button Stradella fixed bass keyboard was developed by Mariano Dallape in 1876. It has two rows
of bass notes and four rows of chord button and some models have a converter switch that enables chords
to be played in any inversion (a fancy way of saying that the note you think of as the bottom of the chord
might be located in a different octave).
Some accordions use a chromatic button board for the right-hand manual. Others use a diatonic (Do-Re-Mi)
button board, and yet others use a piano style keyboard. The keyboard or buttons don’t respond to how
firm the touch is, and so pressure doesn’t affect dynamics (loudness and softness). All expression of this
nature comes through how the bellows are manipulated.
Chromatic button accordions, and the bayan, a Russian variant, use a button board (like a melodeon) and
the notes are arranged chromatically. There are two systems of tuning, referred to as the B-system and the
C-system.
Diatonic button accordions use a button board limited to prescribed diatonic scales (key signatures) with a
smaller number of keys, often arranged in a single row.
Piano accordions use a keyboard similar to that of a piano, at right angles to the headboard, with the tops
of the keys inward, toward the bellows. The number of keys varies.
The reeds and registers are described by number systems. A piano type accordion identified as 37/96 has
37 keys (three octaves plus one note) on the treble and 96 bass keys. Reeds 5+3 means that there are five
reeds on the treble side and three on the bass. Registers 13 + 7 means that there are 13 register buttons on
the treble side plus a special master switch that activates all ranks, like “tutti” on a pipe organ, and there
are seven switches on the bass side.
The Schrammel accordion, used in Viennese chamber music and klezmer, has the treble button board of a
chromatic button accordion, and a bisonoric bass button board. The Schwyzerörgell or Swiss organ has a
three-row diatonic treble and 18 unisonoric bass buttons. The trikitxa of the Basque people has a two-row
diatonic, bisonoric treble and a 12-button diatonic unisonoric bass.
In Scotland, there’s a British chromatic accordion, with a right-hand that’s bisonoric and a left hand
following the Stradella system.
The left hand is often used for playing accompaniment, and the buttons often have concavities or studs to
help the player navigate without being able to see the keyboard. The Stradella bass system (also called
standard bass) is arranged in the circle of fifths and uses single buttons for chords.
The usual 120-button fixed bass keyboard consists of two rows of bass notes arranged in fifths, and four
rows of chord buttons (major, minor, dominant 7
th
, and diminished triads). With full coupling, the bass
notes contain five octaves, with chord notes in the upper three.
The Belgian bass system is a variation used in Belgian chromatic accordions and is also a circle of fifths, but
in reverse order (more on the circle of fifths another time). This Belgian system has three rows of bass
buttons and three rows of chord buttons, which makes it easier to play melodies, and combine chords.
There is more space between the buttons in the Belgian System than in the Stradella. The Belgian system
didn’t take off much outside of Belgium, though.
There are other free-bass systems that allow greater access to melodies in the left hand, and to choosing
the notes that make up the chords rather than using the ones that come with the instrument. These are
often used for jazz and classical music. Some models can convert between free-bass and Stradella bass and
are called converter bass.
The larger piano and chromatic button accordions are heavy and have two shoulder straps that make it
easier to balance the weight and increase bellows control while sitting or standing. The player puts the
instrument on, like a reversed backpack, with shoulder straps.
Diatonic button accordions have only a single shoulder strap and a right-hand thumb strap. All accordions
have a leather strap on the left-hand manual to keep the player’s hand in position while pulling the bellows
apart. There are straps above and below the bellows to keep it closed when not being played.
Accordions come in many sizes. In 1902, the Empress accordion was only 8 inches by 6.5 inches.
There are accordions with their own amplification, as in the echophone accordion, which had an ear-
trumpet-looking thing poking out of one side of the bellows.
Concertina Structure
A concertina is an accordion-type free-reed instrument with two hexagonal headboards that are connected
by bellows. Each headboard contains a small button keyboard. The player plays the melody on buttons or
keys with the right hand, and the accompaniment, consisting of bass notes or pre-existing chords, on the
left. Concertina buttons travel in the same direction as the bellows, unlike accordion buttons, which are
perpendicular.
Concertinas are six-sided, aeolas are eight-sided, and edeophones are 12-sided. Available notes and ranges
differ, button locations differ, some are bisonoric and others are unisonoric.
Concertina reeds can be steel, brass, or nickel-silver, and are brass or aluminum-framed.
Some concertinas offer chromatic scales with more than 12 steps per octave that allow the player to adjust
the pitch of individual notes. Treble and tenor-treble concertinas usually have three and a half or four
octaves. Baritones have similar ranges pitched down an octave from the treble. Bass concertinas transpose
two octaves down and piccolo concertinas are an octave up. All instruments play in the treble clef.
Concertinas can be categorized as English, German, or Anglo-German. The English concertina has a full
chromatic scale of about four octaves, and has a uniform tone, with the same note sounding on both
inward and outward movement from the bellows (it’s unisonoric). The German type sounds different notes
with inward and outward movement (it’s bisonoric).
English concertinas are fully chromatic, with buttons in a rectangular arrangement of four staggered rows
with the short side closest to the wrist. The two innermost rows play a diatonic C-major scale (the white
notes on the piano), and the out rows complete the chromatic scale (the black notes on the piano). Rimsky-
Korsakov’s “Flight of the Bumblebee” was transcribed for the English concertina. It would be fun to hear it
on the concertina, wouldn’t it?
English concertina is played by placing thumbs in the thumb straps and little fingers on metal finger rests,
leaving only three fingers for playing. Some players rest both the ring and little fingers on the metal rest and
leave only two fingers free for playing. In the classical style of Guilin Regondi (1822-1872), all four fingers
are used.
Invented in the 1960s, duet concertinas are most like accordions in that they’re meant to play a melody in
one hand with accompaniment in the other. They have single note button layouts with bass in the left and
treble in the right hands, like other concertinas, but with some overlap. They’re held by placing the whole
hand through a leather strap with thumbs outside and palms resting on wooden bars.
The German concertina is bisonoric, can be diatonic (Do-Re-Mi) or semi-chromatic, and has buttons in each
row that pivot on a shared pivot arm, and the headboards are square. German concertinas use more than
one reed per note—some use as many as five reeds--to produce a fuller sound for its three octaves.
Sometimes these multiple reeds are deliberately out of tune with each other to produce a vibrato effect.
The Anglo-German concertina is a hybrid between the English and German concertinas. It uses concertina
reeds instead of long-plate reeds, has 20 buttons with independent pivots for each button, and has
hexagonal headboards. It’s been called the “anglo” concertina in England since World War I. The buttons
are arranged in two 10-button rows, each of which produces a diatonic major scale (Do-Re-Mi) in a pattern
devised originally for the harmonica, where pressing three adjacent notes in one row produces a major
triad (similar to a chord). Most of these concertinas have 30 buttons, but there are variations with 36, 38,
and 40 buttons, and rarely, as many as 55.
The Anglo concertina is held by putting the hands through a leather strap with the thumbs outside the
strap and the palms on wooden bars, just like the duet concertina. This leaves four fingers free and the
thumb is available for operating an air valve that expands the bellows without sounding a note, or
producing a drone. Often associated with the music of Ireland, Anglo concertinas are also found playing
English Morris and Boeremusiek.
Chemnitzer concertinas are bisonoric and are closely related to the bandoneon, but with a different
keyboard layout and decorative style. Otto Schlicht (1891-1988) made the most changes to this style, and
it’s the most common style in the American mid-west.
The bandoneon is bisonoric concertina, and is most often used in tango music. When the tango spread to
Paris in the early 20
th
century, the bandoneon was adapted with a new unisonoric fingering (called the
French or Piguri system). The bisonoric layout is considered more traditional.
South American tango bands often feature a special double-action square-shaped concertina. It was
invented by Heinrich Band (1821-1860) of Germany, and the early models had more than 88 notes—the
same as a piano—or more! Today’s instruments are usually restricted to 71.
Melodeon Structure
The melodeon is a button accordion—there’s no keyboard on the right-hand’s side. It’s a rectangular,
bellows operated, free-reed instrument with buttons on both headboards. Different notes are produced by
inward and outward pressure from the bellows (it’s bisonoric). It’s possible to get a unisonoric melodeon,
but it makes it rather heavy and less limber, so ill-suited to dance music.
The melody-side keyboard (for the right hand) contains one or more rows of buttons, with each row
producing the notes of a single diatonic scale (Do-Re-Mi). The buttons on the bass side (for the left hand)
are most commonly arranged in pairs, with one button of the pair sounding the root of the chord (the
lowest note) and the other button producing a major triad (notes that are two full steps apart), or
occasionally, a minor triad.
Because each button produces two notes, the diatonic scale (Do-Re-Mi) can be covered by only four
buttons on the right headboard. With seven notes in the scale, to make the second octave, notes are paired
differently—the row is skewed by one. The range is usually only two octaves—more, and this system might
become too complicated.
But that’s not to say that there aren’t more complicated instruments. Multi-rowed melodeons have been
common almost since the beginning. There are two systems; one where the notes from row to row are four
notes apart on the same scale (other instruments use this tuning, such as the hammered dulcimer. You just
get used to it), and the other where they’re a half-step, like on a piano.
Two-row systems are common in British traditional music, especially for Morris dancing. Three-row systems
are popular in Mexico, Colombia, and the US for conjunto, tejano, zydeco, and cajon music. Multi-row
systems allow for bisonority, and there’s much more flexibility for hand positions and phrasing.
Occasionally, sharps and flats are placed on an additional row, in two extra buttons, or on a shorter row of
four or more buttons, close to the bellows. With these amendments, a chromatic scale can be played.
One-row instruments have two or four buttons on the bass side. Two-row instruments have eight, and
three row instruments have twelve, arranged in the bass/chord pairs described earlier. There are new
instruments with more buttons that are popular in France, with 16 or 18 buttons.
Rhythmic effects from the push/pull of the melodeon’s bellows are particularly well suited to dance music.
Accordion Names
The name for this family of instruments is harmonika from the Greek harmonikos, meaning harmonic or
musical. Nowadays, languages adapt a form of the word accordion instead. There is a LOT of swobbling
back and forth about the difference between a concertina, a melodeon, and an accordion, and between
countries and languages, it’s impossible to keep straight.
Buschmann called his original instrument a Handäoline. Later Germans call it a Handharmonika or
Knopfakkordeon. American slang calls the accordion a squeezebox and African Zulus call the concertina a
“squashbox.” The Dutch term is trekharmonika for an accordion and trekzak for a melodeon. In Portugal,
the melodeon is a concertina.
In Estonia, the melodeon is a löötspill. Russions call it a garmon, and Slovenians call it a diatonicna
harmonica and frajtonarca. In Italy, the melodeon is a fisarmonica diatonica or an organetto. France uses
accordeon diatonique or diato, although melodeon is sometimes used for one-row melodeons. In Italy, the
organetto, a smaller version of the accordion, has almost completely replaced the zampogna, a type of
bagpipe whose repertoire it shares.
The accordion is called a melodeon in Britain and Australia. In Ireland it’s also a melodeon, but only if it has
only one row of melody buttons; instruments with more rows are called button accordions. In the US and
Canada, most melodeons are called accordions, because the name melodeon has already been given to the
free-reed organ.)
Composers
Solo works for the accordion have been composed by Alan Hovhannes (1911-2000), Virgil Thomson (1896-
1989), Alban Berg (1885-1935), Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953), and Roberto Gerhard (1896-1970). Louise
Reisner wrote Theme varie tres brilliant pour accordion method Resiner in 1836 (sorry, I didn’t find her
dates).
Other accordion composers include Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893), Umberto Giordano (1867-1948),
and Charles Ives (1874-1954).
Paul Hindemith (1895-1963), noted musicologist, wrote specifically for the chromatic accordion in 1922., as
does experimental composer Howard Skempton (1947- )
Alban Berg (1885-1935) wrote Wozzeck, Op. 7 for the accordion as did William P. Perry (1930-2010) in Six
Title Themes in Search of a Movie.
Concertina composers include Charles Ives (1874-1954), Percy Grainger (1882-1961), and Giulio Regondi,
who was a virtuoso concertina performer and composer and helped popularize it during the 19
th
century.
Bernhard Molique (1802-1869) wrote Concerto No. 1 in G for concertina and orchestra. Percy Grainger
(1882-1961) wrote Shepherd’s Hey (a “hey” is a kind of dance) for concertina.
William Bergsma. wrote Dances from a New England Album, 1856 with three movements that include
melodeon parts and a fourth with a harmonium part.
Players and Performers
Accordion players are quite varied. Giulio Regondi (1822-1872), a guitarist and melophone player, played
the accordion as well as the concertina. Sir Jimmy Shand plays the British chromatic accordion. So do Count
Guido Deiro and Pietro Deiro of Italy, and Pietro Frosini. Myron Floren was the biggest name on the
Lawrence Welk show, famous for his accordion stylings.
Weird Al Yankovic plays the accordion on many of his songs, most notably his polkas.
Concertina players include: Giulio Regondi, who was a virtuoso concertina performer and composer and
helped popularize the instrument during the 19
th
century and In Latin music, the concertino is even more
popular, with such performers as Luiz Gonzag (King of the Baião), Trio Dona Zefa, Trio Virgulino, and Trio
Alvorada, Mario Zan, Dominguinhos, Renatto Borghetti, Carlos Vives, Andres Cabas, Fonseca, and Bacilos,
Juanes and Shakira.
Richard Blagrave (1826-1895) once had his concertina playing described as that of “a first-rate workman on
a miserable tool.”
But it doesn’t stop there. Heavy metal has Turisas and Korpiklaani (Sarah Kiener, who also played the hurdy-
gurdy for Eluveitie); both are Scandanavian bands. And there are plenty of Anglo concertina players:,
including Scan Tester, John Spiers, William Kimber, and John Kirkpatrick.
There are big-time melodeon players in such great numbers that I’m only going to list their nationalities:
Basque, Belgian, Brazilian, Columbian, English, Finish, French, Irish, Italian, Mexican, Newfoundlandian,
Norwegian, Panamanian, Portuguese, Quebecoise, Russian, Scottish, Ukrainian, and American.
Sources
“Musical Instruments; Their History in Western Culture from the Stone Age to the Present Day,” by Karl
Geiringer, translated by Bernard Miall. George Allen & Unwin, Ltd., London, 1949.
“Harvard Concise Dictionary of Music,” compiled by Don Michael Randel. Bellknap Press of Harvard
University Press, Cambridge, 1978.
“Musical Instruments of the World,” by the Diagram Group, Sterling Publishing Co., Inc., New York, 1997.
“The History of Musical Instruments,” by Curt Sachs. Dover Publications, Inc., Mineola, 2006.
“The Norton/Grove Concise Encyclopedia of Music,” edited by Stanly Sadie. W.W. Norton & Company, New
York, 1994.
“The Encyclopedia of Music,” by Max Wade-Matthews and Wendy Thompson. Lorenz Books, Leicestershire,
2012.