How Western Media Portrays the Accordion

[saundersbp]

I agree with a lot of what has already been said and don't find genre pigeon holes (folk, jazz, pop, classical instrument) that useful as most vibrant instruments embrace them all and creativity transcends them. The accordion is a very young instrument and historic folk roots aren't a limit to it evolving into a superb classical instrument. Many other older instruments have had such a journey. As Walker says, this evolution is gathering great pace across Europe.

My own introduction to the accordion as something more than a danceband/folk dance instrument was in 2001 when a locally well known and respected pianist/organist in Siracuse, Sicily, played classical pieces on the piano accordion at a free concert in a public hall and who was obliged to return several times to the call "Bis! Bis!" from an enthalled, and very mixed, audience.

This is really heartening to hear as live music inspires young people to take up instruments in a way that recorded music and Youtube doesn't.

From personal experience playing abroad in Germany, France, Slovenia, Italy etc. (not the accordion!) you get great numbers and age diversity in audiences in cities but also in the most remote places. You can also be really daring in your choice of music as long as there is good variety. There are often plenty of babies screaming too! Conversely in the UK audiences are mostly lovely oldies and tend to appreciate a more conservative choice of music.

 

[Walker]

It's interesting how at the start of the thread we were considering why as an instrument the accordion was not respected or often portrayed as an instrument for numpties. However, at times the posts move more towards the issue of the accordion not being popular, like in the 1950s.

To me there are two different issues here.

Does the accordion deserve to be respected? I think it does. If our instrument has the respect of fellow musicians that would be awesome. To achieve this we only need to produce music worthy of admiration (easier said than done). Sure, not every accordionist plays like Martynas Levickis or Ksenija Sidorova, but there is space for everyone in this world.

However, does the accordion need to be super popular? I suspect the way to increase popularity is similar to the first answer. We only need to produce music worthy of admiration... ​

 

[Ffingers]

"I suspect the way to increase popularity is similar to the first answer. We only need to produce music worthy of admiration..."

Agreed - with the caveat that popularity has rarely been a measure of value nor quality.

In my youth in the 1950s and '60s the outpourings from some radio stations and recording studios rarely included music of lasting quality; but the stuff that did last beyond a few weeks has lasted for decades and will possibly stiil be played for decades/centuries more.
But the 'filtering of time' has seen most of it fade into oblivion.

Therre is a lot of music which I am now hearing for the first time which never made it into the commercialised worlds of Western Europe and the Americas, but has remained popular in the regions in which is was created, being handed down through the generations.
It seems that the further East that you go, the more art, music and dance become intergenerational.

 

[saundersbp]

Only need to produce music worthy of admiration...

Spot on!

I noticed when I first picked up the accordion how teachers of a certain persuasion and the moribund UK accordion organisations offering exams were stuck in a sort of repertoire time warp c1940-70. To me as a musician and non-accordionist a lot of this stuff belonged to a distinct genre of its own - 'naff' !

My own experience with children is that if you offer them something of quality they recognise it, and will respond accordingly and be inspired. Of all the population they have the most open hearts and minds and live music is the best way to sow the seed of inspiration.

Even within the classical sphere the accordion can claim a huge amount of music as its own just as the piano has so successfully done. A lot of 2 stave Clavier music (as distinct from absurd virtuosic stunts playing 3 stave German organ music) suit the accordion and were written simply with a keyboard instrument in mind without being prescriptive of what that instrument would be.

The repertoire we have is already enormous!

 

[JeffJetton]

We only need to produce music worthy of admiration... ​

A good path to broadening the respect for the instrument, sure. And respect is a valid goal, if only to remove a potential barrier to someone considering picking up the instrument.

Although to me, things like respect and admiration are acts of "taking" by us. The audience gives the admiration and respect. That is, the line of transmission is from the audience, to the performer and/or instrument.

There's also the other direction to consider. What can the audience get from the accordion? What do we have to give them? (You can always spot a musician who more concerned with the first direction than they are with this one... you leave the performance with the feeling of being impressed, but little else.)

The more the accordion, or any instrument, can do to give delight, inspiration, comfort, and other such gifts to the listener, the better. Once that's accomplished, respect tends to follow, but also sort of becomes irrelevant.

 

[Tom]

Plenty of white people playing cumbia in Italy.

I'm fortunate to live in a place where the accordion never died, even if it has to be associated with polkas. Like most on here, when you actually play it in public people love it. I don't care if it ever is as popular as it is in Louisiana or New Mexico, I only care about whether I will ever be able to remember 2 hours of music.

 

[Walker]

@JeffJetton, fascinating words. Thank you. Well, I would maybe only add one or two thoughts...

Although to me, things like respect and admiration are acts of "taking" by us. The audience gives the admiration and respect. That is, the line of transmission is from the audience, to the performer and/or instrument.

You know, Admirari; to wonder at or admire - it is quite a lovely and warm emotion, it is a response to witnessing some excellence beyond the norm (skill, kindness, courage, selflessness etc). Admiration is also the seed of inspiration and ultimately creativity. Perhaps to receive admiration is not an act of taking. If anything it is a response to giving...

There's also the other direction to consider. What can the audience get from the accordion? What do we have to give them? (You can always spot a musician who more concerned with the first direction than they are with this one... you leave the performance with the feeling of being impressed, but little else.)

To me there are two kinds of musician in the world. There is the musician who plays from the heart and there is the musician who plays from the ego...

For the musician who plays from the heart, their act of giving oneself (in music) is often responded to through the emotion of admiration (and respect).

The musician who plays from the ego. Their aim is often to impress others and dazzle them with musical fireworks. I think this is the lesser of the two types of musician. It leaves me cold.

Thanks buddy!

 

[saundersbp]

To me there are two kinds of musician in the world. There is the musician who plays from the heart and there is the musician who plays from the ego...

Many shades of grey in between, but also more categories if that's your thing.

The performances I find most confusing (and I'd call a third type of musician) are slick YouTube type ones because I don't know what I am listening to as it's generally been so mucked around with / enhanced / perfected etc.

Then, is there room for a fourth type of musician, the person that plays from the soul?

 

[losthobos]

Then, is there room for a fourth type of musician, the person that plays from the soul

That is the only type of musician..!!
Otherwise, no matter how fast, how complex they play, no matter how many notes there are to a bar or how many modulations there are to a piece, no matter what grade they have paperwork to claim achievement by and regardless of wether they schooled at great conservatories
They will merely remain a TYPIST....

 

[JeffJetton]

Like most on here, when you actually play it in public people love it.

You know that's true. A lot of people, despite whatever preconceptions they might have of the accordion, have never seen an accordion up-close and in-person before, and they're pretty much always fascinated by it.

Someone over on the "juggling" forum on Reddit made a good observation when giving advice to an aspiring performer: "You aren't entertaining jugglers--it's all new to them." I made a point to remember that, since it applies to us too!

 

[Tom]

Played about an hour and a half yesterday, everything pre 2000 except one original, including the obligatory Beer Barrel. One kind lady said it reminded her of being in Europe. All positive responses, no Lawrence Welk jokes, just one story about Dick Contino walking around Italianfest with no shirt on, feeling studly. Look what we have to put up with! All in all, a good time at new location, will try to continue Saturdays until it gets cold or they close for winter. Will try to sing at least one tune this weekend, scary.

 

[Alan Sharkis]

Accordions, at one point, were tuned to A=442 or higher. Accordionists loved it. Other musicians hated it. That might be one reason why it lost respect among other musicians, but not the most significant one. If I might offer a couple of examples: working with a bassist in many cases means that the accordionist has to forego his or her left hand, although a former teacher has told me that there is a way to work with a bassist. Unfortunately, he didn’t elaborate. Working in the crowded area of a musical theater orchestra pit presents other problems. For example, accordioists need room to expand their bellows; other musicians don’t. Arrangements may call for an accordion to sound after a very long multi-measure rest and the accordionist might find it hard to count those many measures, so he might ask the conductor to cue him. The other musicians in the pit may not understand becauses their pauses are shorter, and resent the accordionist’s request. It goes on and on.

 

[actionsub]

It seems weird, but what got me looking into accordions was, of all things, pro wrestling. I watch a show from Houston TX on streaming video where one of the wrestlers is a Latino named Diego de la Cruz whose entrance involves him coming through the curtain with his tag team partners, peeling off a long and very energetic Norteno riff on his melodeon, and then coming to the ring. Without the accordion, he looks like many other young Latino males; his ring outfits look much like the basketball jerseys and shorts often worn as casual wear.

 

[Dingo40]

I don't even know any accordionists who wanna listen to an hour an a half of tooth enamel melting musette...

That reminds of the time my cousin hired a "bal musette" group to play at his wedding reception.
Good of their kind as they were, after two hours (the music essentially lacking variety) the guests were ready to kill them all!

 

[Tom]

Wait till the Harry Potter / Weird Al movie comes out. Accordion sales will increase by 17.45%. You heard it here first. Get ready.

 

[JerryPH]

You might be on to something there. As you may know, there are some "pop classical" YouTube stars that are enormously popular, such as the Piano Guys (7 million subscribers) and Lindsey Stirling (over 13 million subscribers!). They do these elaborate videos like the one you posted, with beautiful imagery and stirring music... sometimes classical, sometimes instrumental arrangements of pop and more modern tunes... people love it.

Maybe there needs to be an accordion version of that sort of thing?

Even when the ingredients are all there, the popularity is not quite as high. Use my video as an example, good song, well produced, cute gal, great modern song... relatively low views. What is the answer??



BTW, this couple above need to be commended. Even due to where they are, the tribulations that their country is going through, they actually are taking the time to create a series of videos on how to play the accordion, in quite the unique and interesting way, using modern music as the "carrot". Well done!