Here is the Japanese sho, very closely related to the Chinese sheng. Though the sho is the later of the two instruments, it is still around 1100 years older than the earliest accordion. While not quite as grand as the sheng, the tone is lovely and remarkably similar to a contemporary accordion.
The recording above is a duet of Hohner Gola accordion and sho (Stefan Hussong & Mayumi Miyata are the musicians). If like me, you thought this was contemporary music written for the instruments, you would be mistaken. This Japanese gagaku is over 1000 years old. I intentionally did not post a video showing the two musicians playing it, just to highlight that tonally the instruments are almost indistinguishable.
Now, we all know that the harmonica, concertina, bandoneon, melodeon and accordion etc. are descendants of the sheng, thanks to the pioneering efforts of 18th century French missionary Fr. Jean Joseph Marie Amiot who introduced the free reed to Europe. The lineage is of the free reed aerophone - an unbroken link from the 3000 year old sheng to the 200 year old accordion.
But after all the sophisticated gagaku music, I will leave Coba with the most important message:
