The Accordion in the Americas: Klezmer, Polka, Tango, Zydeco, and More!

Glossary

Glossary Accordion: Refers to a variety of bellows-driven portable free-reed instruments with different physical and musical characteristics. The accordion belongs to the aerophone family—its sound is produced by air flowing past a flexible reed in a frame, causing it to vibrate. Air pressure is generated with a bellows that is operated manually by pushing and pulling. In a free-reed instrument, the physicalcharacteristics of the reed itself, such as material,mass,length,andstiffness, primarily determine the pitch or frequency of the musical note produced. The pitch is further affected by the physical dimensions of the chamber in which the reedisfittedandbytheairflow.Theinstrument’snamereflectsitsuniquefeature bywhichthroughthehandingofonekeyorbutton,afullchordresounds(derived from the older German word Accord, meaning “chord”). Bandonion:ThediatonicGerman(Chemnitz)concertinadistributedbyHeinrich Band(Krefeld)inthe1840s,which—unlikeitsEnglishcounterpart—worksonthe same two-pitch (push/pull) principle as the diatonic accordion. This type of concertina , in Spanish called bandoneón, is traditionally featured in tango music due to the instrument’s popularity in Argentina in the late nineteenth century, when tango developed from the various dance styles in the River Plate area (Argentina and Uruguay). The Argentine musician Astor Piazzolla (1921–92) is considered one of the most famous exponents of this instrument. Chromaticbuttonaccordion:Atypeofbuttonaccordionwhosetreble(melody)keys are arranged chromatically. The bass-side keyboard is usually arranged in the Stradella system (a button board layout that features rows of single-note buttons ofrelatedkeytonalities)orinoneofthevariousfree-basssystems(abuttonboard of single-note buttons). The best-known types of chromatic button accordions 316 Glossary are the Russian bayan, the French musette, and the Viennese Schrammel accordion . The first chromatic button accordion was built by the Viennese musician Franz Walther in 1850. Concertina: A free-reed instrument similar to the accordion but with buttons parallel to the bellows on both sides (the buttons or keys of an accordion are perpendicular to the bellows). Concertinas come in square, hexagonal, and octagonal shapes. TheEnglish(orWheatstoneEnglish)concertinaisafullychromaticinstrument onwhichasinglebuttonproducesonepitchregardlessofthepush/pulldirection ofthebellows.TheinstrumentwasdevelopedbythephysicistSirCharlesWheatstone in the late 1820s; he filed a patent for an improved version (a hexagonal double action, forty-eight key instrument) in 1844. Thesquare-shapedGermanKonzertina(orChemnitzconcertina),withsingle notes on the bass side, was developed in Chemnitz by Carl Friedrich Uhlig in the early 1830s. The various German concertina types share common construction featuresandcorebuttonlayout.IntheAmericanMidwest,theterm“concertina” often refers to the Chemnitz concertina. The hexagon-shaped Anglo (or Anglo-German) concertina is the British adaptation of the Chemnitz concertina. Diatonic accordion: A type of button accordion whose treble (melody) keys are limited to the notes of diatonic scales. “Diatonic” refers to the arrangement of the seven natural pitches within an octave without altering the established pattern of a key or mode (such as the major and minor scales). The available notes on the melody side of a diatonic button accordion are based on different keys. Most diatonic accordions are “single action” (they produce two different sounds on one button when the bellows change direction). Left-hand buttons are usually “doubleaction”(theyproducethesamepitchonpushandpull)andplaybass notes and chords for accompaniment. Other diatonic members of the accordion family include the German Konzertina (or Chemnitz concertina) and its derivatives, the Anglo (or Anglo-German) concertina, and the Argentine bandoneón. Freereed:Thetermreferstothesoundproductioninavarietyofinstruments,such as harmonicas, reed organs, and accordions, as well as the Chinese sheng and the Japanese sho. The reed is fixed by one end in a close-fitting frame—the optimal distancebetweenreedandframeis0.03millimeter(lessthanthewidthofahair). Airflowoveronesideofthereedcreatesanareaoflowpressureonthatside,causing the reed to flex toward the low-pressure side. The reed frame is constructed 317 Glossary so that the flexing of the reed obstructs the airflow, which reduces or eliminates the low-pressure area and allows the reed to flex back. Each time the reed passes through the frame, it interrupts airflow. These rapid, periodic interruptions of the airflow create the audible vibrations perceived by the listener. Uni-sonority, bi-sonority: The free reeds used in accordions are usually steel tongues, riveted to a metal reed-plate with two slots of the same size of the reeds. One reed is attached on each side of the plate, and a leather tap covers the opposite side to each reed to prevent air from entering and actuating the reed. If the pair of reeds is identical, the same pitch will sound on either push or pull; this principle is called “uni-sonor” (used in the piano accordion and certainconcertinas).Ifthereedsareofdifferentsizeorthickness,eachbutton actuatestwodifferentpitches—oneonbellowspush,andtheotheronpull;this iscalled“bi-sonor”(usedindiatonicaccordions).Thethreebasicmodelswith combinationsoffixedchordsandsinglenotesthatwereeitheruni-orbi-sonor existed as early as 1834. Piano accordion: A...