Art Deco Style CBA? 1930's?

[hais1273]

Now, I rather like Finnish traditional music, the accordion in all its various incarnations seems to play an important role.


Here is a very nice clip of Sakkijarven Polkka, played on an early chromatic button accordion. Are they buttons or large keys? what ever they are I like the design, shape, colour.

 

[maugein96]

Loved that tune, but have no real clue about the accordion. I cannot work out the make from the photo.

Looks as though it is a C system chromatic with square buttons, although the Finnish C system usually has E in the first row, which does not appear to be the case in the accordion in the photo accompanying the clip. The colours of the buttons/keys dont correspond with the usual Finnish system.

The Russian influence is evident in the tune, although if you didnt know already, it might be worth mentioning that in certain parts of south west Finland, and the Aland Islands, Swedish is widely spoken as a first language. That being the case, they may well use normal Swedish C system accordions in those parts of Finland. Unfortunately I dont know enough about the Finnish accordion scene to be certain about that.

Great tune, regardless of the quirks of Finnish geography!

Photo attached to show usual Finnish chromatic button arrangement.

 

[maugein96]

Teppo Välimäki, the player in the clip, comes from Jalasjärvi, which is close enough to the Swedish speaking area in south west Finland to have been influenced by Swedish and Finnish CBAs.

He is also a fiddler and player of 1 and 2 row diatonics.

I have seen accordions like the one in the photo which were apparently made in the 70s to a Retro spec, so it might not be a 30s model. The Finnish word Harmonikka appears in the logo, but I cant make out any of the other letters on them.

Check out this guy, Esko Kononen, playing firstly a French type valse musette, then La Cumparsita, a tango, both in a Finnish style. Not trad, but his style is fairly easy on the ear.



Youll see accordions of the same make as the one on your clip appearing as pop-ups in the background to the music.

Finnish system is very interesting. It seems to give the player the benefit of playing C system with a more natural hand position. No question about thumb use here. I would never even consider learning Finnish C system without the thumb.