M
maugein96
Guest
The history of French musette accordion has been very well documented over the years, from its infancy on diatonic and mixte instruments, right up until the present day of the reedless digi boxes. Anybody with more than a passing interest in the genre will be familiar with the big name stars, and all of those schmaltzy type tunes associated with the romance of Paris.
The music has been played for over a century by musicians worldwide, from the very rough and ready musette pur to the more refined jazzy offerings of the modern day era.
In the period between the two 20th century world wars, various French accordionists decided that it was time the accordion lost its rough edge, and set about abandoning the three voice musette in favour of drier tuning. No doubt American jazz and swing played its part, as confirmed by the americain title given to the new sound. From that period onwards standard French accordions were typically made to cater for two principal schools of accordionists. The MMM musette tuning continued regardless, and was certainly the most popular amongst the big recording artistes. However, the LMM with bassoon reed and two flutes were produced in numbers to cater for those who had decided to abandon the three voice musette and go jazzy. Through time the LMM tended to predominate over the MMM, although the MMM continued to be popular.
How many of you have heard of an accordionist named Gilbert Roussel, from Calais? He was one of those pioneers of americain tuning. He played as part of the Trio Cavagnolo with Fred Alban, and Joss Baselli, and all of their accordions were dry tuned. Roussel played the Belgian bass system, and made several recordings backed up by an orchestra, often conducted by a guy named Roger Roger. (Yes Yes really really!). He later went back to classical accordion in the orchestra of Jean Wiener, a French pianist and composer.
Here is a clip of Gilbert Roussel playing musette style with orchestral backing, courtesy of Monsieur Roger Roger. Thought it might go some way to plug the musette style with the classical players among you. This is musette the way it was, albeit in a classical studio setting.
Anybody interested in hearing Mr Roussel playing classical, here is a link, to an albeit rather long clip.The music is different, but the accordion sounds the same!
The music has been played for over a century by musicians worldwide, from the very rough and ready musette pur to the more refined jazzy offerings of the modern day era.
In the period between the two 20th century world wars, various French accordionists decided that it was time the accordion lost its rough edge, and set about abandoning the three voice musette in favour of drier tuning. No doubt American jazz and swing played its part, as confirmed by the americain title given to the new sound. From that period onwards standard French accordions were typically made to cater for two principal schools of accordionists. The MMM musette tuning continued regardless, and was certainly the most popular amongst the big recording artistes. However, the LMM with bassoon reed and two flutes were produced in numbers to cater for those who had decided to abandon the three voice musette and go jazzy. Through time the LMM tended to predominate over the MMM, although the MMM continued to be popular.
How many of you have heard of an accordionist named Gilbert Roussel, from Calais? He was one of those pioneers of americain tuning. He played as part of the Trio Cavagnolo with Fred Alban, and Joss Baselli, and all of their accordions were dry tuned. Roussel played the Belgian bass system, and made several recordings backed up by an orchestra, often conducted by a guy named Roger Roger. (Yes Yes really really!). He later went back to classical accordion in the orchestra of Jean Wiener, a French pianist and composer.
Here is a clip of Gilbert Roussel playing musette style with orchestral backing, courtesy of Monsieur Roger Roger. Thought it might go some way to plug the musette style with the classical players among you. This is musette the way it was, albeit in a classical studio setting.
Anybody interested in hearing Mr Roussel playing classical, here is a link, to an albeit rather long clip.The music is different, but the accordion sounds the same!
