Diatonic button accordion
Encyclopedia
A diatonic button accordion or melodeon is a type of button accordion
where the melody
-side keyboard is limited to the notes of diatonic scales in a small number of keys
(sometimes only one). The bass side usually contains the principal chords
of the instrument's key and the root notes of those chords.
The available notes on the melody side are based on different keys. For example, you could have a 1-row melodeon in the key of G. This would give you the notes G/A - B/C - D/E - F#/G spread over 4 buttons. Commonly used melodeons nowadays include the D/G box with 2 rows, used especially in English traditional music (particularly for the accompaniment of social and Morris dancing), while instruments in G/C, C/F or G/C/F (with three treble rows of buttons), are widely used in France, Italy and central/eastern Europe.
The three-row button accordion is also popular in Mexico and the United States (in Conjunto, Tejano, Zydeco and Cajun musics) and Columbia (in Vallenato & Folklor musics). This system of note organization is also commonly referred to as the "International System." This system involves each row being tuned a fourth apart (ex: Bb/Eb/Ab; A/D/G; G/C/F; F/Bb/Eb or E/A/D).
Irish traditional musicians generally favour instruments in B/C or C#/D. Because the keys of the latter are a semitone apart, all the notes of the chromatic scale are in theory available (unlike the D/G box or others where the interval is a fourth).
There are many variations on these layouts, with 2½ row melodeons (a.k.a. "Club" system after the Hohner originals), accidentals and various options which players sometimes customize to suit their own requirements.
The two-row melodeon (tuned in fourths) is apparently limited by being able to play only in its two given major keys - e.g. D and G, and their associated minor keys of B and E. However some tunes in the major keys of E and A can also be managed, and in practice most British and Irish traditional music, and North American music with these roots, strays little from this limited set of keys. The vast majority of the traditional repertoire can be played using just fourteen notes available on all two-row melodeons.
A majority of the traditional Irish tunes are based on the modes
around the key of D major, those keys are easiest to handle. However, since every tune has its own combination of bellows work, it's about as easy or difficult to play in any of the keys of the general repertoire.
Well known melodeon players currently recording include English musicians John Spiers
(of Spiers and Boden
and Bellowhead
), Saul Rose
, John Kirkpatrick, Andy Cutting
(of Blowzabella
) and Tim van Eyken
. There are also many current or recently deceased non-English players whose recordings can be easily located outside their home countries, including Marc Perrone (France), Riccardo Tesi
(Italy), Máirtín O'Connor
(Ireland), Bobby Gardiner
Ireland, Sharon Shannon
(Ireland), Marc Savoy
(Louisiana Cajun), Yves Lambert (Quebec, Canada), Kepa Junkera
(Basque), John Delafose (Louisiana "zydeco"), Boozoo Chavis
(Louisiana "zydeco"), Flaco Jimenez
(United States "conjunto" musician) and Israel Romero
(Colombian Vallenato
Musician).
:de:Bild:Schwarz-kaerntnerlkand.jpg Picture of Steirische Harmonika or Slovenian
-style box is very popular in the Alpine region of Europe. This type of box was also made in the U.S. by Anton Mervar
Button Accordion Manufacturer (1885-1942), inducted on November 30, 1991.
The main differences are the use of bigger, deeper bass reeds (Helicon reeds) and the single unisonoric note in each RH row but one.
Most diatonic button accordions (e.g.: melodeon
) are bisonoric, meaning each button produces two notes: one when the bellows
is compressed, another while it is expanded; other instruments (e.g.: Garmon) are unisonoric, with each producing the same note regardless of bellows direction; still others (e.g.: schwyzerörgeli
, trikitixa
) have a combination of the two types of action.
Button accordion
A button accordion is a type of accordion on which the melody-side keyboard consists of a series of buttons rather than piano-style keys. There exists a wide variation in keyboard systems, tuning, action and construction of these instruments...
where the melody
Melody
A melody , also tune, voice, or line, is a linear succession of musical tones which is perceived as a single entity...
-side keyboard is limited to the notes of diatonic scales in a small number of keys
Key (music)
In music theory, the term key is used in many different and sometimes contradictory ways. A common use is to speak of music as being "in" a specific key, such as in the key of C major or in the key of F-sharp. Sometimes the terms "major" or "minor" are appended, as in the key of A minor or in the...
(sometimes only one). The bass side usually contains the principal chords
Chord (music)
A chord in music is any harmonic set of two–three or more notes that is heard as if sounding simultaneously. These need not actually be played together: arpeggios and broken chords may for many practical and theoretical purposes be understood as chords...
of the instrument's key and the root notes of those chords.
Melodeon
There is some geographic disagreement over the terms button accordion and melodeon. In England a bisonoric (different note on push and draw of the bellows) instrument with one, two or three rows of buttons on the right hand (melody) side is likely to be called a melodeon. In Ireland a melodeon refers only to one-row instruments, while in the southern United States even these are called accordions.The available notes on the melody side are based on different keys. For example, you could have a 1-row melodeon in the key of G. This would give you the notes G/A - B/C - D/E - F#/G spread over 4 buttons. Commonly used melodeons nowadays include the D/G box with 2 rows, used especially in English traditional music (particularly for the accompaniment of social and Morris dancing), while instruments in G/C, C/F or G/C/F (with three treble rows of buttons), are widely used in France, Italy and central/eastern Europe.
The three-row button accordion is also popular in Mexico and the United States (in Conjunto, Tejano, Zydeco and Cajun musics) and Columbia (in Vallenato & Folklor musics). This system of note organization is also commonly referred to as the "International System." This system involves each row being tuned a fourth apart (ex: Bb/Eb/Ab; A/D/G; G/C/F; F/Bb/Eb or E/A/D).
Irish traditional musicians generally favour instruments in B/C or C#/D. Because the keys of the latter are a semitone apart, all the notes of the chromatic scale are in theory available (unlike the D/G box or others where the interval is a fourth).
There are many variations on these layouts, with 2½ row melodeons (a.k.a. "Club" system after the Hohner originals), accidentals and various options which players sometimes customize to suit their own requirements.
The two-row melodeon (tuned in fourths) is apparently limited by being able to play only in its two given major keys - e.g. D and G, and their associated minor keys of B and E. However some tunes in the major keys of E and A can also be managed, and in practice most British and Irish traditional music, and North American music with these roots, strays little from this limited set of keys. The vast majority of the traditional repertoire can be played using just fourteen notes available on all two-row melodeons.
A majority of the traditional Irish tunes are based on the modes
Musical mode
In the theory of Western music since the ninth century, mode generally refers to a type of scale. This usage, still the most common in recent years, reflects a tradition dating to the middle ages, itself inspired by the theory of ancient Greek music.The word encompasses several additional...
around the key of D major, those keys are easiest to handle. However, since every tune has its own combination of bellows work, it's about as easy or difficult to play in any of the keys of the general repertoire.
Well known melodeon players currently recording include English musicians John Spiers
John Spiers
John Spiers is an English melodeon, concertina and bandonion player.-Career:He plays with the duo Spiers and Boden and the band Bellowhead, and used to be a part of Eliza Carthy's old band The Ratcatchers.-Personal life:...
(of Spiers and Boden
Spiers and Boden
Spiers and Boden are an English folk duo. John Spiers plays melodeon and concertina, while Jon Boden sings and plays fiddle and guitar while stamping the rhythm on a stomp box.-Biography:...
and Bellowhead
Bellowhead
Bellowhead are an English contemporary folk band originally brought together by John Spiers and Jon Boden. The eleven-piece band plays traditional dance tunes, folk songs and shanties, with arrangements drawing inspiration from a wide diversity of musical styles and influences...
), Saul Rose
Saul Rose
Saul Rose is an English folk melodeon player and singer.- Biography :Born in Harrow, he first picked up the melodeon after breaking his leg at the age of eleven and was taught his first tunes by his father....
, John Kirkpatrick, Andy Cutting
Andy Cutting
Andy Cutting is an English folk musician and composer. Born 18 March 1969 in Harrow, he plays melodeon and has had instruments made by Castagnari to his own specification. He won the Folk Musician of the Year at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards 2008 and 2011...
(of Blowzabella
Blowzabella
Blowzabella are an English band who play bagpipes, hurdy-gurdies and an array of acoustic instruments to produce an inimitable, driving, drone-based sound influenced by British and European traditional dance music.-History:...
) and Tim van Eyken
Tim Van Eyken
Tim van Eyken is an English guitarist and melodeon player of Belgian descent.-Biography:Van Eyken first started playing penny whistle after seeing James Galway on television. He graduated to playing for his mother, then a member of the Beetlecrushers clog dance team. There was pressure from the...
. There are also many current or recently deceased non-English players whose recordings can be easily located outside their home countries, including Marc Perrone (France), Riccardo Tesi
Riccardo Tesi
Riccardo Tesi is an Italian musician. He specializes in folk music. His instrument is the diatonic accordion or melodeon. He has founded or recorded with a number of groups, including Banditaliana and Ritmia...
(Italy), Máirtín O'Connor
Máirtín O'Connor
Máirtín O'Connor is an Irish button accordionist who began playing the accordion at the age of nine, and his career has seen him as a member of many traditional music groups including, Midnight Well, De Dannan, The Boys of the Lough, and Skylark....
(Ireland), Bobby Gardiner
Bobby Gardiner
Bobby Gardiner is an Irish accordionist and lilter.-Biography:Irish Accordion Master Bobby Gardiner was born in Aughdarra, Lisdoonvarna, the Burren area of Co. Clare. He began playing at the age of eight, on his mother, Delia's, old melodeon with the likes of Micho Russell and Micleen Conlon.At...
Ireland, Sharon Shannon
Sharon Shannon
Sharon Shannon is an Irish musician. She is best known for her work with the accordion and for her fiddle technique. She also plays the tin whistle and melodeon. Her 1991 album Sharon Shannon is the best selling album of traditional Irish music ever released there...
(Ireland), Marc Savoy
Marc Savoy
Marc Savoy is an American musician, and builder and player of the Cajun accordion.Savoy holds a degree in chemical engineering but his primary income is derived from his accordion-making business, based at his Savoy Music Center in Eunice, Louisiana. His wife is the singer and guitarist Ann Savoy,...
(Louisiana Cajun), Yves Lambert (Quebec, Canada), Kepa Junkera
Kepa Junkera
Kepa Junkera is a Basque musician and composer. A master of the trikitixa, the diatonic accordion, he has recorded more than 10 albums...
(Basque), John Delafose (Louisiana "zydeco"), Boozoo Chavis
Boozoo Chavis
Wilson Anthony "Boozoo" Chavis was a zydeco musician - music created by French speaking Creoles of South-West Louisiana. He was active from 1954 until his death during which time he largely sang and played the accordion. Chavis was also a prolific writer of zydeco songs...
(Louisiana "zydeco"), Flaco Jimenez
Flaco Jiménez
Leonardo "Flaco" Jiménez is a Tejano music accordionist from San Antonio, Texas. Jiménez's father, Santiago Jiménez Sr. was a pioneer of conjunto music. He began performing with his father at age seven and recording at age fifteen, as a member of Los Caporales...
(United States "conjunto" musician) and Israel Romero
Israel Romero
Israel Romero Ospino or popularly known as "El Pollo Isra" is a Colombian vallenato musician, composer and accordionist...
(Colombian Vallenato
Vallenato
Vallenato, along with cumbia, is currently a popular folk music of Colombia. It primarily comes from the Colombia's Caribbean region. Vallenato literally means "born in the valley". The valley influencing this name is located between the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta and the Serranía de Perijá in...
Musician).
Polka box
Steirische HarmonikaSteirische Harmonika
The Steirische Harmonika is a type of bisonoric diatonic button accordion important to the alpine folk music of Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, the German state of Bavaria, and the Italian South Tyrol...
:de:Bild:Schwarz-kaerntnerlkand.jpg Picture of Steirische Harmonika or Slovenian
Music of Slovenia
The music of Slovenia is closely related to Austrian and Northern Italian music because of its common history and Alpine and littoral culture, and in some southern regions to Croatian . In the minds of many foreigners, Slovenian folk music means a form of polka that is still popular today,...
-style box is very popular in the Alpine region of Europe. This type of box was also made in the U.S. by Anton Mervar
Anton Mervar
Anton Mervar was a manufacturer of button accordions.He completed his apprenticeship at Lubas & Sohn in Slovenia in 1912, after which he moved to the United States. In 1921 he opened his own factory in Cleveland, Ohio. Every second year he travelled to Europe to get parts for his accordions.Mervar...
Button Accordion Manufacturer (1885-1942), inducted on November 30, 1991.
The main differences are the use of bigger, deeper bass reeds (Helicon reeds) and the single unisonoric note in each RH row but one.
Hybrids
Melodeon (organ)
A melodeon is a type of 19th century reed organ with a foot-operated vacuum bellows, and a piano keyboard. It differs from the related harmonium, which uses a pressure bellows. Melodeons were manufactured in the United States sometime after 1812 until the Civil War era...
) are bisonoric, meaning each button produces two notes: one when the bellows
Bellows
A bellows is a device for delivering pressurized air in a controlled quantity to a controlled location.Basically, a bellows is a deformable container which has an outlet nozzle. When the volume of the bellows is decreased, the air escapes through the outlet...
is compressed, another while it is expanded; other instruments (e.g.: Garmon) are unisonoric, with each producing the same note regardless of bellows direction; still others (e.g.: schwyzerörgeli
Schwyzerörgeli
The Schwyzeroergeli is a type of diatonic button accordion used in Swiss folk music. The name derives from the town/canton of Schwyz where it was developed. Oergeli is the diminutive form of the word Orgel...
, trikitixa
Trikitixa
The trikiti , trikitixa or eskusoinu txiki is a two-row Basque diatonic button accordion with right-hand rows keyed a fifth apart and twelve unisonoric bass buttons...
) have a combination of the two types of action.
Classical
- Dances from a New England Album, 1856 for orchestraOrchestraAn orchestra is a sizable instrumental ensemble that contains sections of string, brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. The term orchestra derives from the Greek ορχήστρα, the name for the area in front of an ancient Greek stage reserved for the Greek chorus...
by William BergsmaWilliam Bergsma-Biography:After studying piano with his mother, a former opera singer, and then the viola, Bergsma moved on to study composition; his most significant teachers were Howard Hanson and Bernard Rogers. Bergsma attended Stanford University for two years before moving on to the Eastman School of...
includes parts for melodeon (movements I-III) and harmoniumHarmoniumA harmonium is a free-standing keyboard instrument similar to a reed organ. Sound is produced by air being blown through sets of free reeds, resulting in a sound similar to that of an accordion...
(movement IV).
See also
- AccordionAccordionThe accordion is a box-shaped musical instrument of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone family, sometimes referred to as a squeezebox. A person who plays the accordion is called an accordionist....
- Cajun accordionCajun accordionA Cajun accordion also known as a squeezebox is single-row diatonic button accordion used for playing Cajun music.-History:Many different accordions were developed in Europe throughout the 19th century, and exported worldwide...
- Chromatic button accordionChromatic button accordionA chromatic button accordion is a type of button accordion where the melody-side keyboard consists of rows of buttons arranged chromatically. The bass-side keyboard is usually the Stradella system or one of the various free-bass systems. Included among chromatic button accordions are the Russian...
- Piano accordionPiano accordionA piano accordion is an accordion equipped with a right-hand keyboard similar to a piano or organ. Its acoustic mechanism is more similar to that of an organ than a piano, as they are both wind instruments, but the term "piano accordion"—coined by Guido Deiro in 1910—has remained the popular...