Accordion Anniversary

Subject: Accordion Anniversary
From: cptsnapper
Date: 13 Jan 08 - 02:12 AM

In case anyone is interested on January 13th. 1854 Anthony Faas patented the accordion.

Subject: RE: Accordion Anniversary
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 13 Jan 08 - 02:34 AM

He should dug up and shot.

eric

Subject: RE: Accordion Anniversary
From: GUEST,tony geen
Date: 13 Jan 08 - 10:52 AM

What exactly did the patent cover? The accordion has been around much longer than 1854 (mine must be nearly that old).

Subject: RE: Accordion Anniversary
From: cptsnapper
Date: 13 Jan 08 - 12:39 PM

Sorry, I don't know I just saw it mentioned in a newspaper

Subject: RE: Accordion Anniversary
From: Les in Chorlton
Date: 13 Jan 08 - 12:47 PM

Did he also copyright the banjo and the Bodran?

I know, that was very childish, I just couldn't stop myself.

Subject: RE: Accordion Anniversary
From: Les from Hull
Date: 14 Jan 08 - 10:20 AM

'In 1854, the first U.S. patent for an accordion was issued to Anthony Faas of Philadephia. Pa. (No. 11,062). Faas claimed two improvements. First, he combined with the diatonic scale of the large keys two other scales, namely, one for producing all the intermediate notes, or semitones, and the other founded upon the subdominant of said diatonic scale, and both arranged so as to be fingered by a single set of small keys for the purpose of enabling the instrument to produce full and correct harmony in any key. His second improvement consisted in providing the accordion with a sound-board, for the purpose of producing more strength, fullness and resonance of tone with the instrument.'

Subject: RE: Accordion Anniversary
From: Greg B
Date: 14 Jan 08 - 06:55 PM

Hmmm.... sounds like a 3-row of the G/C/C# variety...

Subject: RE: Accordion Anniversary
From: greg stephens
Date: 15 Jan 08 - 04:52 AM

FCC# more like, if they got it right in the description. Though it sounds as if the F and C# row are combined in some clever way so they use the same keys. Interesting. I think we need an accordion nerd here to explain more fully.

Subject: RE: Accordion Anniversary
From: catspaw49
Date: 15 Jan 08 - 06:34 AM

This date of 1854 may be incorrect because although the accordion may have physically existed, it was not used in its standard role as a torture device until the 1920's when "Lady of Spain" was written. As has been oft noted, accordion players know only 2 songs. One is "Lady of Spain" and the other is not. Nowadays that is not strictly true as a few other winners like "Carnival of Venice" and "Tico-Tico" have caused both violent bouts of diarrhea and projectile vomiting to many listeners, even those suffering from profound hearing loss.

The following is a brief history of this non-tune and its importance to the accordion as written by your typical accordion nerd (Sam Pirt excepted).


Lady of Spain: The History
as researched by Toby Hanson

Lady of Spain was written in the 1920s by three English songwriters who were fed up with English dance bands that played mostly American music. They took an old Spanish folk form and write a new melody and words for it. It became popular with big bands, especially Guy Lombardo. It was written as a quasi-Spanish Fox-Trot. In the 1930s, American accordionists picked it up and began playing it as their "Spanish" piece. One of the earliest pictures of Lawrence Welk is him from his George Kelly touring days in a Spanish costume for Lady of Spain. It really took off when Dick Contino did the "authoritative" virtuoso version, complete with bellows shake and sudden modulation from C to Db. He made it famous playing on the radio in the late 1940s. Specifically, he played the piece on a talent search-type show and won the $5, 000.00 grand prize with it. He also initially popularized Tico-Tico. [So it is not strange that the opening track of the anthology of American accordion music, `Legends of the Accordion' (Rhino, R2 71847) starts with Lady of Spain by Dick Contino]

Lady of Spain became a true accordion cliche from weekly national television exposure by Myron Floren. It, along with Tico Tico and the Clarinet Polka and Carnival of Venice became accordion standards. Nowadays everybody dreads Lady of Spain because it's seen as extremely corny. At the Northwest Accordion Society Social Monday night, I was talking with another player about L. of Spain. He claimed that the song ruined the accordion and that L. of Spain is the reason that nobody takes it seriously. I disagree. I love Lady of Spain. A month ago I did my two-year review (I'm a composition maj. at Cornish College). I had to perform before the music faculty to decide if I could continue my degree at Cornish. Rather than write a "serious" piece, I wrote and performed my World Tour Variations on Lady of Spain where I did the piece in various styles (Russian, Fr. Musette, Irish, etc.). The faculty loved it and I was invited to return and finish my degree. Moral: love it or not, Lady of Spain is here to stay. Ole!


........uhhhhh...yeah...............right.......




...and ole' right back atcha' Toby, you poor sick fuck.

Spaw