The Accordion by Malaïka

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 is a hand-held musical wind instrument that is made of bellows attached to two rectangular frames on which buttons are mounted and, on some models, keys resembling piano keys. Playing The accordion is played by pushing in and pulling out the bellows. This action forces trapped air to pass over metal tongues called reeds. This flow of the air makes the reeds vibrate and produce sound. There is a reed for each note and the player releases them by means of a system of valves activated by the buttons and keys. The right-hand plays the melody studs while the left-hand of the accordionist plays the low notes or chords. Different types of accordions There are two types of accordions: diatonic and chromatic. Diatonic accordions (also called double-breathed) enable two related notes to be played by pressing the same button. One note is produced when the bellows is compressed and the other when it is Enlarged. Chromatic accordions produce the same note during both compression and expansion of the bellows. The most widely used chromatic accordion is the piano accordion, which has a keyboard like a piano in place of the right-hand buttons. Background The patent for the accordion was filed in Vienna in 1829 by Cyril Damian, an Armenian manufacturer. His "Akkordion" was an improvement over the "Handaoline" invented by the German, Buschmann. The first accordions had six melody buttons and two bass buttons. In subsequent versions, extra buttons helped to produce a wider variety of notes and chords. The piano accordion was developed in the 1850s, mainly in Italy. Repertoire There is a large repertoire of popular and traditional music for the accordion but it was also used in classical music by the Russian composer Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky and the Austrian composer Alban Berg in his opera Wozzeck composed in 1921 and staged in 1925. The concertina The concertina is a small reed-organ instrument with hexagonal ends similar to the accordion. There are two models, one with single and the other with double action. Charles Wheatstone invented it in 1829 based on the "sheng", an ancient Chinese mouth organ.