Re: button accordion

[Paul M. Gifford <PGIFFORD...>]

Owen Davidson <owend (at) crocker(dot)com> wrote:

> At 10:18 AM 2/6/98 EDT, Paul Gifford wrote:
> >Max Yankowitz recorded first in 1913.  It sounds to me like a button 
> >accordion, or "garmonika" in Russian.  There were many different 
> >varieties of garmon or garmonika made in Russia at the turn of the
> >century, including "oriental" tunings used in the Northern Caucasus.
> >Maybe there was a "Jewish" tuning.  In Belarus today, the garmonika
> >is regarded as an "old-time" instrument.  The ones I saw there had
> >one or two rows, but I don't know the tuning.
> 
> I'd be interested in any information you may have on these instruments.
> 
I really don't have any further information, except to suggest that
you might want to do some research in Russian (Belarusian, etc.) books
on musical instruments.  I happened to read the liner notes of an
Melodiya LP which talked about the Saratov factory which made them
with "oriental" tuning.  These became very popular with people in
the Northern Caucasus, the Kalmucks, etc.  I visited a small local
museum in Zaslavl (Zaslava), 20 km outside of Minsk, which has what
is supposed to be the largest collection of Belarusian traditional
instruments (fiddles, cymbaly-s, button accordions, zhaleika, dudy,
and flutes), all collected this decade.  There is no sign on the
museum (ask the locals where it is!), and it is definitely post-
communist, across the village square from the town hall, with the 
Lenin statue.  There was an accordion maker's bench on 
display, with a partially finished button accordion.  Thus, I would
think that, before 1928, a lot of them were customized.  From some 
conversations, I gathered that there are some people in the former 
USSR who are into old accordions, tunings, etc., but I'm afraid
I don't have any names, other than Vladimir Berberov, of Minsk.

Paul Gifford