Free Reed

Menzo Bandoneón - 31 Button Accordion

Western Europe

MENZE 31 Button Accordian - Total of 62 Buttons, is a free-reed instrument particularly popular in Argentina. It plays an essential role in the orquesta tipica, the tango orchestra. The bandoneón, called bandonion by its German inventor, Heinrich Band, was originally intended as an instrument for religious music and the popular music of the day, in contrast to its closest cousin, the German concertina (or Konzertina), considered to be a folk instrument. German emigrants to Argentina brought the instrument with them in the early twentieth century, where it was incorporated into the local music. Like accordions and concertinas, the bandoneón is played by holding the instrument between both hands and either pushing in or pulling out the instrument while simultaneously pressing one or more buttons with the fingers. Unlike the piano accordion, the bandoneón does not have keyboards per se, but has buttons on both sides; and also unlike most accordions, most buttons on the bandoneón produce a different note when played closing than when played opened. This means that each keyboard has actually two layouts - one for the opening notes, and one for the closing notes. Since the right and left hand keyboards are also different, this adds up to four different keyboard layouts that must be learned in order to play the instrument. There is also a difference between the notes produced on the button layout of an Argentine-tuned bandoneón versus a German-tuned one.

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Catalog#: HWMC