The Accordion in the 19Th Century, Which We Are Now Presenting, Gorka Hermosa Focuses on 19Th C
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ISBN 978-84-940481-7-3. Legal deposit: SA-104-2013. Cover design: Ane Hermosa. Photograph on cover by Lituanian “Man_kukuku”, bought at www.shutterstock.com. Translation: Javier Matías, with the collaboration of Jason Ferguson. 3 INDEX FOREWORD: by the Dr. Pr. Helmut Jacobs................................................................ 5 INTRODUCTION......................................................................................................... 7 CHAPTER I: Predecessors of the accordion.............................................................. 9 I.1- Appearance of the free reed instruments in Southeast Asia.................... 10 I.2- History of the keyboard aerophone instruments: The organ................... 13 I.3- First references to the free reed in Europe.............................................. 15 I.4- The European free reed: Christian Gottlieb Kratzenstein....................... 17 I.5- The modern free reed instrument family................................................ 18 CHAPTER II: Organologic history of the accordion............................................... 21 II.1- Invention of the accordion..................................................................... 21 II.1.1- Demian’s accordion..................................................................... 21 II.1.2- Comments on the invention of the accordion. ............................ 22 II.2- Organologic evolution of the accordion................................................ 24 II.3- Accordion Manufacturers...................................................................... 31 CHAPTER III: The free reed instruments in the 19th century music..................... 33 III.1- Earliest appearances of the free reed instrument family in occidental music.................................................................................... 33 III.2- The diatonic accordion in the music of the 19th century...................... 33 III.2.1- Spread of the diatonic accordion in the 19th century.................. 34 III.2.2- The diatonic accordion in the 19th century classical music........ 34 III.2.3- The diatonic accordion in the 19th century popular music......... 39 III.2.4- Earliest recordings...................................................................... 48 III.3- The concertina in the 19th century music.............................................. 50 III.4- The harmonium in the 19th century music............................................ 55 ANNEX I: Repertoire list for concertina................................................................... 73 ANNEX II: Repertoire list for harmonium............................................................... 76 BIBLIOGRAPHY........................................................................................................ 93 5 FOREWORD By Prof. Dr. Helmut C. Jacobs1 Gorka Hermosa, born in 1976 Urretxu, Basque Country, is not only one of the most singular and versatile interpreters among the most relevant Spanish accordionists, but also a knowledgeable authority on the international literature written for the accordion. In his study, he has canvassed all the literature written since the 19th c. for the instruments that –like the accordion- have a metal free reed as a principle for their sound such as the physharmonica, the harmonium, the concertina etc., whose interpretation with the accordion is possible without hindrance and implies, enriching the extension of its repertoire. Gorka Hermosa completed his accordion degree at the Jesús Guridi Conservatoire, Vitoria. He has received numerous awards at national and international accordion contests. In 1998, he started his career as concertist and as soloist of different music ensembles, playing since then in Spain and other European countries. In his recordings, he introduces the accordion in unusual and extraordinary ensembles (among other, with the hurdy-gurdy, the flamenco guitar, the harpsichord or the bass clarinet) and opens new stylistic paths for the instrument when he integrates elements from jazz, folk, pop and flamenco in his music. Gorka Hermosa displays a versatile and original perception of the instrument not only in his arrangements for different instrumental ensembles, but also in his compositions for accordion solo. In his first book El Repertorio para acordeón en el Estado Español, 2003, Gorka Hermosa describes, systematically and thoroughly, almost all the compositions written in Spain for accordion solo, accordion with other instruments or with symphonic orchestra. In the second part of his book, he includes short biographies of the composers. This valuable reference book is necessary for those interested in the repertoire for the accordion. Oposiciones para acordeonistas is his second book. It is a complete guide, in two volumes, enormously useful for those interested in preparing entrance exams to be an accordion teacher in Spanish conservatoires. His third book El acordeón en Cantabria, describes the history of the accordion in this Spanish region, where he lives. In his fourth book, The accordion in the 19th century, which we are now presenting, Gorka Hermosa focuses on 19th c. works that were written in Europe for instruments with metal free reed. Not only are the works documented, but also the diversity of the multiple types of instrument with respect to their structure. The first chapter deals with the predecessors of these instruments, for example, the tcheng in Asia or the guimbarde, the glass harmonica or the different types of organ in Europe. In this context, he also describes an extremely interesting sketch drawn by Leonardo da Vinci of a small pipe organ, with a hand-operated bellows. This organologic idea is enormously similar to the concept of the portable keyboard musical instrument, which the accordion fulfils. In the second chapter, he presents, in a very accessible way, the complex organologic developments in metal free reed instruments all through the 19th c. starting from the accordion patented by Cyrill Demian in 1829 in Vienna. In the third chapter, he describes the music written during the 19th c. for instruments such as the physharmonica, the harmonium or the concertina and their interpreters. In his book, Gorka Hermosa has succeeded in efficiently describing a panoramic view of the history of metal free reed instruments and their abundant literature, 1 Helmut C. Jacobs (Bonn, 1957) is a Professor of the Romance Philology department at the University of Duisburg-Essen. His remarkable work as an accordionist and musicologist has focused on the history of free reed instruments, publishing monographic CDs about different composers (Karg-Elert, Regondi, Beckman, Lundquist, Brehme, Jacobi, Klebe, Graham...) and books of great 6 displaying an enormous variety of aspects, always in a precise clear style that focuses on what is essential. The book contains a lot of illustrations, which add a greater documental value. At the end of the book, we can find listings of the original compositions for the concertina and the harmonium, which show the wealth of compositions and the significance of the musicians who wrote for these instruments during the 19th c., among which some of the most outstanding composers at the time are featured. 7 INTRODUCTION This book tries to display a general and systematic picture of the free reed keyboard instruments and their musical and organologic developments during the 19th c., gathering and comparing 400 bibliographical sources in relation to the accordion and presenting them orderly, trying to approach the subject in the most pluralist and rational way. All through the 19th c., there was such an amount of different proposals for free reed instruments that it is not easy to draw the line that separates the instruments that were real accordions from those which were not. Nevertheless, what is certain is that we cannot take diatonic accordions from the 19th c. as the only predecessors of the modern accordion. This is the reason why, when trying to analyze the history of the accordion, we will not only analyze the history of the diatonic accordion but will also go over the history of all the other free reed keyboard instruments existing in the 19th c., which could be subjected as predecessors of today’s concert accordion. In chapter I, we will analyze the antecedents of the accordion and will vindicate that the first known predecessor of the free reed instruments is not the tcheng. In chapter II, we will analyze the organologic evolution of the accordion and will question that it was invented by Demian in 1829. In chapter III we will describe the evolution of the accordion in the 19th c. music and will try to argue that current convertor accordions have more similarities to the concertina or the harmonium than to the diatonic accordions from the 19th c. Finally, in annexes I and II, we will present a list of Romantic works written for concertina and harmonium. We would like to especially thank Prof. Dr. Helmut C. Jacobs, for all the support, information and encouragement he has given us to carry out this project. We would also like to thank all the authors quoted in the bibliography for their enormous musicological work, and to make special mention of authors such as Pierre Monichon, Alfred Mirek, Terry E. Miller, Pat Missin, Michel Dieterlen, Frans Van der Grijn, Joris Verdin, Gotthard Richter, Ralf Kaupenjohann, Henri Doktorski, Rob Howard, Javier Ramos, Beniamino Bugiolachi, Ivan Paterno, Allan W. Atlas, V.R. Zavialov… without which The accordion in the 19th century