Info on Accordion/Melodeon

Subject: Info on Accordian/Melodeon
From: GUEST,Jim
Date: 05 Jan 05 - 10:34 AM

I'd appreciate some help with a 2nd hand instrument purchased last week. It's marked "Encore= Accordian" (though it's probably a melodeon by my reckonong!), "Made in Germany" and looks pretty old. It has 10 pearl-topped buttons which open 2 rows of half-tubular sprung steel "stops" on the right hand side of the instrument and 3 sprung spade-like metal stops on the left hand side. One of these (topside) is for a full chord, another (underside) simply opens to allow air in/out.   There are also 6 buttons acting as sliders to change the octaves. Opening Button 1 appears to give the same sound as opening Button 6; the same can be said of buttons 2 and 5. Button 4 plays a different scale - Minor I think?

As a harmonica player (playing by ear) I can identify with playing of the scale, starting though on the 3rd button (rather than the 4th hole of a harmonica). The 1st note of the scale is C#. It's obviously a Diatonic, rather than a Chromatic, so pretty limited (I assume) in what types of music can be played.

I'd be very grateful for any help with any further information about this type of instrument. I may have bought a lemon; though it certainly does have a good big sound to it. If you could direct me to any website/book(s) that might explain how to play it I'd be grateful.

(I must say that I was surprised to find that the scale was C# and not C)
Thanks Mudcatters - Happy New Year
Jim

Subject: RE: Info on Accordian/Melodeon
From: manitas_at_work
Date: 05 Jan 05 - 11:51 AM

It's unlikely to be chromatic with a single row. I suspect it's just in an old pitch.

Subject: RE: Info on Accordian/Melodeon
From: Torctgyd
Date: 05 Jan 05 - 12:18 PM

Almost certainly it is in the old pitch rather than the modern A=440Hz. Sounds like a single row melodeon and if it's in tune with itself then have fun playing it. Many traditional tunes can be played on it (cajun, for example is played on a one row as are East Anglian tunes in the UK). If you can play a diatonic (not blues) harmonica you should be able to easily handle the treble side and if you can live with the occasional 'wrong' bases inherent in this instrument you should sound proficient quite quickly.

Subject: RE: Info on Accordian/Melodeon
From: GUEST,Jim
Date: 05 Jan 05 - 12:30 PM

Thanks "Torctygd" - it certainly is in tune with itself, and produces some great tremolo sounds with different "sliders" opened. I don't hear any occasional "wrong" bases though, but I was curious to note the 3rd 'spade-like metal stops' on the left hand side of the instrument played bass notes.

Subject: RE: Info on Accordian/Melodeon
From: Bernard
Date: 05 Jan 05 - 03:16 PM

The 'spoon bass', as it is often called, is standard in that respect - one paddle is for the tonic and dominant bass note, one for the tonic and dominant chord, and the other is the air key, just as you described.

I agree that it is highly likely to have been produced in 'old band pitch' which makes it appear to be in C#, and should be a lot of fun to play!

Subject: RE: Info on Accordian/Melodeon
From: Little Robyn
Date: 05 Jan 05 - 03:35 PM

Jim says it 'produces some great tremolo sounds with different "sliders" opened.'
It sounds like Henry Kipper's old Tremelodeon to me!
Robyn

Subject: RE: Info on Accordian/Melodeon
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 05 Jan 05 - 10:15 PM

G'day Jim,

What you have is a single row button accordion ... and, since it is a simple one with just the 2-button "semi-automatic" bass - it is a melodeon.

I made some suggestions about the different modes and styles for such an instrument on a thread about 4½ years back: Tips on single row button accordion

The breakdown I first gave was brief, because I knew that (the late) Rick Fielding was a very capable musician ... and he picked up quickly. If you know your way about the mouth organ ... well, that's the traditional (old) start for button accordion!

The box you have is almost certainly in "old high" tuning, aka "Kneller Hall" (British Military Music School) ... and that's A = 456 Hertz. It probably isn't worth getting retuned ... but have fun with it ... and you may go out and buy a better (-tuned) one!

Regards,

Bob

Subject: RE: Info on Accordian/Melodeon
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 06 Jan 05 - 10:05 PM

G'day again Jim,

With a set of six 'stops' (each of which controls one bank of reeds) this sounds like one of the big 'windjammers' (melodeons) that were popular with the German immigrants to Australia in the 1880s. most of the reed sets will be either different octaves of the diatonic key (C ... but "old high pitch")- or slight variations to create a "tremolo" effect.

However your fourth stop, which you say "... plays a different scale - Minor I think? ..." may actually be a "Quint" set ... more or less a harmony set (mostly in fifths ... thus 'quint') meant to be selected along with one, or more, of the nominal key sets - to create an extended harmony. Those few I have met that have encountered such reed sets ... haven't been too enthusiastic - but we don't come from quite the same musical history!

I do have a photo, somewhere, of Mark Schuster - performer, collector and folklorist, from Toowoomba in south-east Queensland - playing a big 6-stopper at the (Australian) National Folk Festival some years back ... and a CD of him playing his traditional music on similar accordions.

Regards,

Bob

Subject: RE: Info on Accordian/Melodeon
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 07 Jan 05 - 12:03 AM

Errr ... G'day yet again Jim!

I was sure that Mark Schuster had some sort of a web site ... but it took a lot of finding: ozbox.net/instruments

This link takes you straight to the page with the photograph of Mark Schuster (stnding, right side). I presume the box he is holding is the "massive German Six-Stopper", to which he refers, and I suspect it should be quite like the one you have.

If you want any detailed background on things like the (presumed) 'quint' stop, I'll bounce them off Mark directly ... or you may prefer to approach him yourself.

Regards,

Bob

Subject: RE: Info on Accordian/Melodeon
From: Bernard
Date: 07 Jan 05 - 12:55 PM

The purpose of a 'quint' is not harmony, but to give the instrument a more 'nasal' tone. It is far more commonly found on organs, both pipe and electric, and is known as a 'mutation stop'. To be accurate, the 'twelfth' (or octave quint) is more common on church organs, and the quint is somewhat peculiar to theatre organs. It also exists on the low pedal stops to 'fake' a sound an octave lower... sorry, I'm going off at a tanget here... organs are my babies!!

If you try the lowest and highest octave stops and the quint together with no tremolo, you will find it gives a wonderfully interesting sound!

Subject: RE: Info on Accordian/Melodeon
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 07 Jan 05 - 08:55 PM

G'day Bernard,

Well ... I did phrase it: "... more or less a harmony set (mostly in fifths ... thus 'quint') ...". I was unaware of "quint" stops (they don't seem to appear on any button accordions past the first decade of the 20th century) until Malcolm Clapp (my accordin repairer, in those days, showed me some ... and a new(-ish)Hohner mouthorgan with the same feature. It still looks pretty weird to me - thanks for your insight ... and the organ connection!

Regards,

Bob Bolton

Subject: RE: Info on Accordian/Melodeon
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 07 Jan 05 - 11:54 PM

Brenard - you beat me to it. I am also a pipe organ player - well, not for many years now - bit hard to carry one around....

I think I mentioned this in the thread Technique: Piano Accordion for The Recycled Muso.

Subject: RE: Info on Accordian/Melodeon
From: GUEST,Jim
Date: 10 Jan 05 - 12:03 PM

Can't thank you enough Bernard , Bob Bolton and others. I'm off and running now with this 6-stopper with quints!
G'day to you too, and thanks again!

Subject: RE: Info on Accordian/Melodeon
From: GUEST,Folkiefrank
Date: 10 Jan 05 - 03:26 PM

A friend has inherited a three row button-box bearing the name Paolini Enrico, Castelfidardo, Italia. She thinks it dates from C1930. Anyone any info?

Subject: RE: Info on Accordian/Melodeon
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 10 Jan 05 - 04:24 PM

G'day Folkiefrank,

I've got no close knowledge on the Italian accordions (I do own a pretty-sounding Frontalini, I picked up 2nd hand). However I do have an interesting little Italian book on Fisarmoniche (accordions) that may have an example of Paolini Enrico. I'll check tonight.

Castelfidardo is a (ex-?) Papal state ... on the east coast of Italy ? ... and home to many high grade accordion makers - in the past, at least - including the various Soprani family businesses ... so it is an area noted for high quality accordions. If my Fisarmoniche book lists a Paolini Enrico box, it will have some background details.

Regards,

Bob

Subject: RE: Info on Accordian/Melodeon
From: GUEST,folkiefrank .
Date: 10 Jan 05 - 04:28 PM

Thanks Bob

Subject: RE: Info on Accordian/Melodeon
From: GUEST,folkiefrank
Date: 11 Jan 05 - 03:10 PM

Any joy Bob/anyone?

Subject: RE: Info on Accordian/Melodeon
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 11 Jan 05 - 08:18 PM

G'day folkiefrank,

Errrr ... mea culpa maxima (or did that go me a coyboy ... mexican cowboy ... ?)

I can only plead that, after lying on the Blood Bank bench watching quantities of my blood pump into a filter ... separate out serum ... then pump that lot + anti-coagulant back in and pump out a bit more to filter ... for an hour - I went home and we had a bunch of musicians over for their first Backblocks Session of the year. We all enjoyed ourselves immensely ... then the Mudcat stayed at the bootom of the delta when I got to the computer ... and I clean forgot to find the little Fisarmonische book.

I'll tie a string round my thumb drive ...

If we still have mudcat when I get home (6 or 7 hours hence) I'll get back with whatever info I can glean.

Regards,

Bob

Subject: RE: Info on Accordian/Melodeon
From: GUEST,folkiefrank
Date: 11 Jan 05 - 09:31 PM

You're not a vampire are you Bob? Await yor gen with anticipatory breathlessness!Cheers, Frank

Subject: RE: Info on Accordian/Melodeon
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 12 Jan 05 - 03:21 PM

G'day again folkiefrank,

(Well ... I tried to send this last night ... but the 'cat submerged for 2 hours ... so it's ow morning, before I head off to work!)

"... not a vampire are you ..."

Well ... no. I've given blood since 1963 - but have been trying, this last year, to develop antibodies to Rh factor ... for the Red Cross Blood Bank's Rh Project (protecting mothers and babies where the mother's Rh -ve blood might develop antibodies to her baby's blood). Unfortunately, my blood system has stayed relentlessly tolerant. I can't go back to donating whole blood until another year's clearance, so I started ... yesterday ... donating plasma at the Plasmapheresis Unit. All very perplexing ... and hard work - my right hand almost got RSI from pumping away on the squeezeball ... to keep everything flowing clean and clear!

Anyway, I have searched my copy of Le Physarmoniche, F Galbiano & N Ciravegna, BE-MA Editrice, Milano, 1987 ... but I didn't find anything by Paolini Enrico. Essentially a guidebook/catalogue of Snr Galbati's collection, in Brugherio, and covering some 100 instruments ... from early Austrian and German accordions, English concertinas, French Flautinas, German Bandoneons - on to mostly Italian accordions in the categories: diatonica (single or multi-row "push-pull" types), cromatica (3 to 6-row "both ways" chromatics) and tastiera piano ("piano accordions"... some of which you would recognise as such!).

With its base in a Milan collection, the earliest Italian examples in the book tend to be from Stradella and Milan in the north-west ... but the text details how Paolo Soprani, in the Castelfidardo, on the mid-west coast, improved his style of instruments from an Austrian accordion he acquired in 1860 ... and then introduced a 'factory system' (along with his brothers Settimio, Pasquale & Nocola).

This was his biggest contribution - and was why his factory survived for 140 years, or more. It also trained a lot of potential independent accordion makers ... many of whom chose to run smaller 'artisan' accordion workshops in the Castelfidardo area. Such workshops produced small runs ... and 'one-offs' ... of fine instruments but often left little history.

So: As we don't have a 'rogue's Gallery' shot ... what is this accordion like?

Is it a 3-row diatonic (different notes on push and pull - and only 12 or 16 bass buttons) ... or a basic Continental chromatic (same note both ways - and something more like a piano accordion set of 'stradella' basses) ... ?.

A photo would be helpful ... but you can't send one by Mudcat PM ... even if you do sign on. If you have an image, could you send it to my address: [e-mail] ... and I ought to be able to get a general match in style and period from other makers in the same region.

Regards,

Bob

Subject: RE: Info on Accordian/Melodeon
From: GUEST,folkiefrank
Date: 12 Jan 05 - 03:40 PM

That's fantastic stuff Bob! I don't have an image of the beast, and I don't have much experience of Accordions (or any other instrument for that matter). I will get a pic and e-mail it to you. Another bit of info is that it has the most wonderful heavy leather carrying case of obvious Quality! Will be in touch, many many thanks!