Re: button accordion

[PETE RUSHEFSKY <rushefsky...>]

Owen-- tell us more about the movie with Tsiganoff in it.  Where can it be
seen/obtained?

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> From: Owen Davidson <owend (at) crocker(dot)com>
> To: World music from a Jewish slant. <jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org>
> Subject: Re: button accordion
> Date: Thursday, February 05, 1998 8:51 PM
> 
> It seems to me (who am an ardent accordiophile, though with no experience
> playing the diatonic instrument) that even if all the notes are present,
the
> blow-draw nature of the instrument not only makes for harmonic
disparities
> when playing eastern modes, but also limits the player to phrasing and
> ornament choices that don't fit the "voice" of the music.  So, while you
may
> be able to play the notes of a given tune, can you make it sound like
> "klezmer?"  I don't want to start that whole ball of wax rolling once
again,
> but if you look at the musics that use the diatonic accordion (Cajun,
> Tex-Mex, Vallenata, Quebecois, etc. etc.) you'll see that the music
itself
> has been very strongly informed by the nature of the instrument, with its
> inherent strengths and weaknesses.  The fact that you don't find them in
use
> in klezmer probably indicates that they're just not appropriate. 
Diatonic
> accordions are in use in various forms in eastern Europe. One is that
> amazing helikon instrument they use in Slovenia, or the Chemnitzer
> concertinas you find in polka bands.  The latter seem to do very well on
> minor-key sections.  I wonder if such an instrument could be optimized
for
> klez? We'd have to call it a Chelmnitzer...
> 
> About the chromatic accordion: I find that some of the hallmark
techniques
> of klezmer phrasing and ornamentation lay out much more logically (not to
> mention uniformly) on it than on the piano accordion.  I wonder if it
might
> be the instrument that Yankovitz played.  Anybody?  And check out a
> photograph of Mishka Tsiganoff with his instrument that appears briefly
at
> the very end of a film called "Angelo My Love."  It's hard to see it, but
I
> didn't think it was a piano keyboard...  Anybody got the dope on this?
> 
> Owen
> 
>    
> 
> >
> _________________________________________________________________________
>         Owen Davidson, Amherst, Mass.
>       The Wholesale Klezmer Band
> 
>       The Angel that presided o'er my birth
>       Said Little creature formd of Joy and Mirth,
>       Go love without the help of any King on Earth. 
> 
>                               Wm. Blake