The Accordion in the 19th Century - Gorka Hermosa

III.2- The diatonic accordion in the music of the 19 th century
III.2.1- Spread of the diatonic accordion in the 19 th century
Although soon after its invention the accordion was introduced in the wealthy
social classes, before long, lower social classes took over the instrument, to become
with the pass of time, an ostracized instrument generally played by street musicians all
over the world. Its melancholic sound, its easy portability, its substantial loudness and
musical possibilities -like the feasibility of playing an accompanied melody- motivated
people all over the world to play the accordion; this is shown by the early reference
dates in which we have knowledge of the accordion: [40, 122, 142, 157, 202, 239, 244, 246, 253, 287,
289, 310, 359, 415, 416]
COUNTRY YEAR
Austria 1829
Russia 1830
England 1831
France 1831
Germany 1834
USA 1835
Switzerland 1836
Spain 1836 144
Scotland 1838
Italy 183?
New Zealand 1839
Belgium 183?
Iceland 1841
Canada 1843
Brazil 1845
Japan 1850
Argentina 1852
Ireland 1855
Australia 1855
Madagascar 1870
34
The most widely used accordion in the 19 th c. were the
diatonic ones, with a single row of buttons on the right
keyboard and two buttons on the left 145 , producing a bass and
a chord (tonic or dominant depending on the bellows opening
or closing). The musical ambition of most accordionists did
not go further than just learning simple melodies. At the end
of the 19 th c., the performers with more enthusiasm or
resources started to use accordions with two rows on the right
board, since they could gain a wider range of altered notes.
The increase in the quantity of notes on the right board did not
get much circulation and the 19 th c. unisonoric accordions did
not become other than prototypes with very limited
propagation. [96, 202, 211]
With these narrow resources, the repertoire that the
19 th c. accordionists played did not go beyond easy melodies
from well known classical works to folk or popular rhythms,
that is to say, tonal pieces with very few alterations and
harmonic accompaniment exclusively tonic and dominant,
generally learnt by ear. Only a few of them dared to try
compositions with more difficulty, but they usually were only
variations on the melodies or rhythms mentioned above. [96,
202]
During the 19 th c., learned music circles ignored the diatonic accordion almost
completely. The concertina, thanks to Giulio Regondi principally, had significant
acceptance in England between 1840 and 1860 and for this, early romantic-style
compositions, with ballroom music reminiscences, were written. But the best accepted
free reed instrument was certainly the harmonium, with a huge extremely interesting
repertoire. [96]
143 Fig. taken from: Dieterlen [66] page 1312.
144 The newspaper Diario de Madrid published the following advert on 2/7/1840: “A family leaving our city has to sell varied
furniture such as wardrobes, an office desk, a bedside table, a dressing table, some blankets, a cot with a brand new mattress, a
nearly new and complete French fireplace with matching fireplace screen, a heater, etc., as well as a medicine store box with set
English scales, an ebony flute with eight silver keys, a beautiful portable map of Spain and Portugal, new and printed in London, a
checkers set, a metal Dutch oven, an accordion, an overnight bag, a feather scarf, a fur neckerchief, a tablecloth set, and several
books. All these items will be on sale from today, 2 nd of the current month, at Calle Carretas, 13, 4 th floor door No. 3, opposite the
Post Office, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. and from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. [310]
145 Mainly due to the fact that they were cheaper and it was easier to learn to play them.