The bandoneon ( Spanish : bandoneón ) or bandonion is a type of concertina particularly popular in Argentina and Uruguay . It is a typical instrument in most tango ensembles. As with other members of the concertina family, it is held between the hands, and played by pulling and pushing air through bellows , routing it through sets of tuned metal reeds by pressing the instrument's buttons. Unlike most accordions, bandoneons always employ the same sets of reeds to produce their sound, and do not usually have the register switches common on accordions. Nevertheless, the bandoneon can be played very expressively, using various bellows pressures and other techniques. The left and right hand have different timbres due to the wooden box on the left side which gives the left hand a nasal and muted timbre, in contrast with the right hand which is usually bright and sharp.
32-462: The Bandonion, so named by the German instrument dealer Heinrich Band (1821–1860), was originally intended as an instrument for religious and popular music of the day, in contrast to its predecessor, German concertina ( Konzertina ), which had predominantly been used in folk music . It is believed that around 1870, German and Italian emigrants and sailors brought the instrument to Argentina, where it
64-415: A portable instrument (missionaries, traveling evangelists, army and navy chaplains, and so forth). The original more limited bandoneon layouts were supplemented more and more over time with extra chromatic keys, as the musical needs of bandoneon players became more demanding, leading to many variations. Because of their origin in earlier diatonic systems that were gradually expanded to include other notes of
96-466: A result, by the 2000s vintage bandoneons had become rare and expensive (costing around $ 4,000), limiting the opportunities for prospective bandeonists. In 2014, the National University of Lanús announced its plan to develop an affordable Argentine-made bandoneon, which it hoped to market for one-third to one-half of the cost of vintage instruments. As with other members of the concertina family,
128-505: A series of buttons . This differs from the piano accordion , which has piano-style keys. Erich von Hornbostel and Curt Sachs categorize it as a free reed aerophone in their classification of instruments , published in 1914. The sound from the instrument is produced by the vibration of air in reeds. Button accordions of various types are particularly common in European countries and countries where European people settled. The button accordion
160-431: Is often confused with the concertina ; the button accordion's buttons are on the front of the instrument, where as the concertina's are on the sides and pushed in parallel with the bellows. All accordions and concertinas have three main components: the reeds, bellows, and buttons or keys. Pushing or pulling the bellows slower or faster makes the sound softer or louder, respectively. The accordion has free reeds on both
192-453: Is similar to the harmonica, where the note changes depending on whether the player is breathing in or out. In most diatonic button accordions, each row of melody buttons produces a different major scale , with accidentals on 'helper buttons' at the ends of the rows. The diatonic button accordion is the most popular type of button accordion, and appears in many cultures, especially in folk music . One popular type of diatonic button accordion
224-495: Is the standard, one-row button accordion. This is tuned to a diatonic, 2.5 octave scale. The accompaniment side (bass/chordal side) buttons play a tonic chord when pushed, and dominant chord when pulled. This works well and is popular in basic Anglo-American fiddle tunes. The German melodeon was a popular, later version of a diatonic button accordion, especially in Scotland until around the 1920s. The chromatic button accordion
256-501: Is very common in Tejano (Texas-Mexican) music. The two-row button accordion is very common, with some variation. Mexican norteño musicians prefer accordions with more vibrato, and Texan musicians favor less vibrato. The vibrato comes from tuning the reeds ever so slightly different from one another. The button accordion arrived in Louisiana in the 1800s. It was a popular instrument with
288-442: Is very similar to piano accordion, but can have 3, 4, or 5 rows of buttons on the right hand side. It is unisonoric, meaning the same note is sounded whether the bellows are pushed or pulled. The chromatic button accordion is traditionally used in a concert setting, and is more popular in jazz and classical music because it can be freely played in any key, usually with identical fingering patterns. The first diatonic button accordion
320-594: The Cajuns and the French-speaking creoles . Later, a new, higher quality version of the button accordion was made in Louisiana, which became and remained popular with Cajun and Zydeco players. The Acadian tradition of southern Louisiana influenced some, such as Huddie "Leadbelly" Leadbetter . The button accordion was especially popular among African-Americans in Louisiana from 1880 to 1910. In some regions and groups,
352-440: The melodeon , Anglo concertina , or harmonica , a given bandoneon button produces different notes on the push and the pull. This means that each keyboard has two layouts: one for opening notes, and one for closing notes. Since the right and left hand layouts are also different, the bandoneon player is faced with learning four completely different keyboard layouts. Because of this challenge, many tango players play almost entirely on
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#1733085771338384-850: The orquesta típica . Original instruments can be seen in a number of German museums, such as the Preuss family's Bandoneon Museum in Lichtenberg and the Steinhart family's collection in Kirchzarten, Freiburg , which has now been moved to the Tango- and Bandoneon museum in Staufen since July 2014. Historically, bandoneons were produced primarily in Germany and never in Argentina itself, despite their popularity in that country. As
416-450: The treble and bass sides. In modern accordions, the free reeds are generally made of tempered steel. The press of a button or key opens a valve to allow air to pass through the reed or reeds to make a sound when the bellows are pumped in or out. In the diatonic button accordion, reeds are fixed in pairs so that one note sounds when air moves in, and a different one when air moves out. The button accordion has melodic notes on one side of
448-601: The Peguri system, are often referred to as "chromatic bandoneons", having been designed from the beginning with the expressed purpose of being fully chromatic instruments, unlike their bisonoric cousins. The Argentinian bandleader, composer, arranger, and tango performer Aníbal Troilo was a leading 20th-century proponent of the bandoneon. The bandoneon player and composer Ástor Piazzolla played and arranged in Troilo's orchestra from 1939 to 1944. Piazzolla's "Fugata" from 1969 showcases
480-432: The accordion sound. The button accordion was ideal for dance music of many cultures, because one could play both the melody and accompaniment at once, and still be able to sing or tap his or her feet. The many reeds produce a louder sound, ideal for a crowded dance hall . The diatonic 2-row button accordion with eight bass buttons is still very common in northeast Brazil. It is known as the fole to distinguish it from
512-416: The bandoneon is held between the hands, and pulling and pushing actions force air through bellows and then through particular reeds as selected by pressing the instrument's buttons. As with other concertinas, the button action is parallel to the motion of the bellows, and not perpendicular to it as with an accordion. Unlike the piano accordion , but in similar fashion to diatonic free-reed instruments such as
544-421: The bellows (usually the right side), and bass accompaniment notes on the other side (generally the left). Some button accordions have 'stops', which change the tone and are called things like "Organ" or "Trumpet" or "Tremolo". These allow the instrument to produce different tones for a variety of situations. Some popular examples are the three-stop accordion, with two sets of tenor reeds and one bass set, and
576-437: The box as switches (making it even more akin to a pipe organ), but it is generally more common to find switches on a chromatic or piano accordion. Button accordions are found with a wide variety of keyboard systems, tuning , action, and construction. The diatonic button accordion is bisonoric, meaning when a button is pressed, the note sounded changes depending on whether the bellows are being expanded or contracted. This
608-409: The chromatic scale over time, bisonoric instruments are often referred to as "diatonic" bandoneons, although, with the later instruments, as used in tango, this description became a misnomer, as the instruments are now capable of playing in all keys. Diatonic can also be re-analysed, through folk etymology , to refer to the two (di) different tones played by each key, that is to say, bisonoric. While
640-435: The classic German four-stop. The three-stop accordion has two sets of tenor and one set of bass reeds. The German four-stop is preferred by Cajun musicians and has one bass, one piccolo, and two tenor stops. This gives the instrument a denser sound. Most diatonic instruments lack switches, though there are some made by companies such as Hohner, as well as the one-row 'Cajun'-type boxes which have usually 3 or 4 stops on top of
672-476: The disruption of German manufacturing in World War II led to an end of bandoneon mass-production. The bandoneon was introduced to tango music with prominent composers and bandoneonists such as Eduardo Arolas and Vicente Greco and later was developed into the sextet formation (with two bandoneons) with Pedro Maffia and Pedro Laurenz whose style and technique established the base for the bandoneon section in
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#1733085771338704-448: The draw/pull, and largely eschew the close stroke (using the air release button to quickly close the bellows, before resuming playing on the pull stroke). These keyboard layouts are not structured to make it easy to play scale passages of single notes: they were originally laid out to facilitate playing chords in familiar keys, for supporting singers of religious music in small churches with no organ or harmonium , or for clergy requiring
736-403: The genre. A list of some current and historical bandoneon manufacturers: Carsten Heveling Exterior: A look inside a bandoneon: Although these squeezeboxes are similar in appearance, they are not bandoneons. Chemnitzer concertina : Chromatiphon : BandoMIneDonI (purely electric instrument with a MIDI attachment): Heinrich Band Heinrich Band (1821 – 1860)
768-409: The instrument, which plays the initial fugue subject on the 1st statement, then moves on to the outright tango after the introduction. With his solos and accompaniment on the bandoneon, Piazzolla combined a musical composition much derived from classical music (which he had studied intensively in his formative years) with traditional instrumental tango , to form nuevo tango , his new interpretation of
800-562: The piano accordion. It first appeared there in the late nineteenth century. Previously, one-row diatonic button accordions with two bass buttons were used. Later, chromatic accordions grew in popularity, increasing the possible styles that could be played on them. The concertina, button accordion, and piano accordion are all popular in Irish traditional music . The button accordion was first available for sale in Ireland in 1831. The button accordion
832-548: The standard bandoneon is bisonoric (different note on push and pull), with an idiosyncratic and difficult to learn layout, some bandoneon variants are unisonoric or monosonoric (same note on push and pull). These include the Ernst Kusserow and Charles Peguri systems, both introduced around 1925. These have some popularity in Europe, but in Argentina, the 142-tone 71-key rheinische system still dominates, as most tango repertoire
864-469: The tonal qualities and response of the instrument, but are intended to be easier to learn, more suitable for improvisation, and more accessible to players of other free-reed instruments. They have a similar aim to earlier chromatic bandoneon systems, but endeavour to overcome some of their ergonomic limitations by allowing the hands to move more freely, as with the western chromatic button accordion , or eastern bayan . Unisonoric instruments, particularly in
896-604: Was adopted into the nascent genre of tango music, a descendant of the earlier milonga . However, there is no documentation of how exactly the bandoneon was introduced in the Rio de La Plata region. The instrument was also adopted in the in genres such as the Chamamé . By 1910 bandoneons were being produced in Germany expressly for the Argentine and Uruguayan markets, with 25,000 shipping to Argentina in 1930 alone. However, declining popularity and
928-671: Was first mass-produced in Europe in 1835, with the piano accordion coming later. It was the first mass-produced, loud, durable, portable instrument – though it was not cheap. At first, the button accordion was too expensive to be very common among the lower and middle classes, but as it lost its novelty (around the 1860s ), it became more widespread among these groups, too. Surviving early instruments show that at first they only played chords, and were to be played left-handed, unlike now. The first accordions only had 5 buttons (10 chords), so they were mostly used for accompaniment. Early minstrel troupes toured America as early as 1843, spreading
960-404: Was patented under the name 'Accordion' in 1829 by Cyril Demian . The same year, Charles Wheatstone made the first concertina. The first chromatic button accordion was made by Franz Walther in 1850. The name 'Accordion' is thought to originate from Akkord , the German word for chord. The accordion may have originated with traditional reed instruments from southeast Asia. The button accordion
992-421: Was the inventor of the bandonion ( bandoneón ); this 'hand-organ-like' instrument is a free reed instrument in the concertina family of instruments. This German engineer, inventor or industrial designer biographical article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Button accordion A button accordion is a type of accordion on which the melody -side keyboard consists of
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1024-437: Was written on, and is idiomatic to, this system, and therefore certain runs and scale passages written for the tango bandoneon are more difficult on the unisonoric system. In the 21st century, further efforts have been made to create a simplified bandoneon, with keyboards that mimic the isomorphic layouts of chromatic button accordions . These "hybrid bandoneons" are internally identical to the traditional bandoneon, and preserve
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