"Alexandre Sènou Adandé" Ethnographic Museum
(Benin)

The "Alexandre Dumas" School of Foreign Languages
(Bulgaria)

Burkina Faso Cultural Heritage Branch
(Burkina Faso)

The Museum of Art and Archeology of the University of Antananarivo
(Madagascar)

National Museum of Mali
(Mali)

St. Boniface Museum
(Manitoba, Canada)

Andalusian Study and Research Centre
(Morocco)

Musée acadien de l'Université de Moncton
(New Brunswick, Canada)

World Music Research Laboratory
(Quebec, Canada)

Canadian Museum of Civilization
(Quebec, Canada)

Museum of the Romanian Peasant
(Romania)

The Arab and Mediterranean Music Centre
(Tunisia)
THE ACCORDION

Accordion
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Note Book
Accordion
St-Étienne de Lauzon, Québec,
Canada
1990-1991
Makassar ebony, maple, cardboard, iron,
chromed metal, cotton, canvas, leather
34 x 34 x 16 cm
Canadian Museum of Civilization, Canada




The accordion was invented in the 19th century. It is a wind instrument that has a sound box containing free reeds and a keyboard consisting of a row of buttons for the right hand and a few keys for the left hand that allow the musician to play chords. When the musician's fingers release the air in the central bellows by pressing on one of the buttons, it pushes air through the reeds enclosed in the box, making them vibrate. The diatonic accordion features a mechanism that allows the musician to produce one note by pushing on the bellows and a different note when the bellows is pulled.

Accordions of this type were manufactured in Quebec from the early part of the century. Made by the Gagné et Frères company in Quebec City. The accordion is the second most popular instrument for playing traditional dance music after the violin, especially in Quebec but also in other regions of Canada.