Accordions are well-loved in Newfoundland. In fact, in 2005 Newfoundlanders broke the Guinness Book of World Record for the “Largest Accordion Ensemble.” Nicknamed “The Accordion Revolution,” over 989 accordionists gathered in a city park to play “Mussels in the Corner” continuously for five minutes (Best 2006, 1; CBC 2005, np).83 Many provincial tourism advertisements feature the accordion prominently. The button accordion has been cast as the dominant instrument, far more so than the fiddle, in the marketing of Newfoundland culture in the 21st century. Although I’ve discussed the role of the “fiddler” or dance musician, I’ve said very little about actual accordions. Despite filling the same role as a dance instrument the accordion differs from the violin in many obvious technological manners but also in terms of how it is valued in terms of class distinctions.
The accordion was invented in 1829 in Germany, with almost simultaneous Viennese and British patents (Eydmann 1999, 596; S. Johnson 2012). Throughout the 19th century the accordion went through many innovations and experimentations. The first accordions were quite small, almost palm sized, with separate large bellows meant to be used by the solo travelling musician (Jacobson 2007, 217). Various types of
accordions with many names such as the “Symphonium,” the “Demian,” and the
“Flautina” proliferated in the 19th century (Eydmann 1999, 596; Jacobson 2007, 217). In both the 19th and 20th centuries the rhetoric of accordion manufacturers was of
“innovation.” Constant improvements were made to make the instrument respond quickly and increase its versatility. One of the major innovations in accordion
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technology was put forth in 1850 by Walter who designed an instrument with three diatonic rows of buttons which together created a “forty-six-note fully chromatic scale” with “double action” (Jacobson 2007, 218). This meant that the pitch did not change with bellow direction. The diatonic accordions are known as “single action” and each button creates two pitches, one each on the draw and push of the bellows. In early to mid-20th- century America, the accordion was associated with innovation and marketed alongside other technological advances such as clocks, cars or televisions.84
There are two types of accordions – the button accordion (which has many
variations in design and tuning) and the piano accordion. The piano accordion is used by classical players and is unusual in Newfoundland or Labrador. The piano accordion is much larger with full-sized piano keys and bass buttons for single notes, triads, and seventh chords. The button accordion has rows of buttons on both the melody and bass sides and comes in both diatonic and chromatic versions. The diatonic button accordion, or melodeon, is the most prominent accordion in Newfoundland although the chromatic button accordion is gaining popularity in the early 21st century. Very few piano
accordions have been used by prominent players in the province; a notable exception was Ray Walsh who played one on the television show All Around the Circle. Jacobson explains that in 1920s America the two types were distinguished by ethnic monikers, the Viennese or button accordion and the Italian or piano accordion (2007, 219, 228). By 1938, the term accordion came to refer only to the piano accordion in the US, due to its hegemony in that country and by 1950, 95% of all accordions sold in the United States
84 For a detailed discussion of accordion marketing in the United States please see Jacobson 2007, 218-222.
Two full-length books regarding the accordion in the Americas have recently been published, please see Jacobson 2012 and Simonett 2012.
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were imported from Italy (ibid., 219). In Newfoundland, an accordion is assumed to be a button accordion.
The accordion became popular quite quickly after its invention and was distributed around the world. The accordion swiftly became known in Scotland as lessons were being offered in Aberdeen by the 1830s (Alburger 1983, 196). Accordions were first imported into the southern United States and Louisiana in the 1840s but did not become a big part of the Cajun tradition until the turn of the 20th century (DeWitt 2003, 307). The first accordions in central Canada were noted in Quebec in 1843 and were purchased by the Ursaline nuns in Quebec City who ordered five more between 1846 and 1853 (S. Johnson 2012, 4-5). The 10-button single-row melodeon was popular in Ireland by the end of the 19th century and was taken up by iconic players such as John Kimmel, Peter Conlon, Frank Quinn, Joseph Flanagan in the early 20th century (G. Smith 1997, 435). Piano accordions were not advertised in Canada until the 1930s and then marketed primarily to women (S. Johnson 2012, 7). Ethnomusicologist Sherry Johnson has given a short but detailed account of the catalogue marketing of accordions in Canada through Eaton’s in the late 19th and early 20th centuries (ibid., 6-7).
With the advent of newspapers in Newfoundland in the 19th century the first commercial mentions of violins and accordions can be tracked (Canadian Heritage 2002, np). I will compare the commercial appearance of violins and accordions in
Newfoundland. One may surmise that violins were available prior to the offering of lessons as the modern instrument was developed in the late 17th and early 18th century in Italy. In fact, in 1766 there was at least one notable fiddler in St. John’s by the name of Richard Doyle (C. Byrne 1992, 364). B. Foley’s advertisement for his new music school
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in St. John’s appeared on February 17, 1814 and it gives an insight into the instruments already present in the city for which he expected to find students:
B. Foley respectfully informs the young ladies and gentlemen of St. John’s that he has commenced school for the instruction of music. Musicians, for private balls, on the shortest notice, and most reasonable terms. Teaching, the polite
accomplishment of music, comprising octavo and concert flutes, fiddle, dulcimer, piano-forte, union pipes, etcetera, terms made known at the school (Royal Gazette and Newfoundland Advertiser 1814, np).
We know certainly that at least three violins were in the possession of the late Neil Shannon when his assets were auctioned off on January 8, 1819 (Newfoundland Mercantile Journal 1819b, np). Later that year, violins were being sold by John
Stentaford along with flutes, fifes, cellos and instruction books for tenor-viol among other instruments (Newfoundland Mercantile Journal 1819a, np). In comparison, the first record of a violin being sold in Atlantic Canada was in 1804 in Saint John, New Brunswick (Saint John Gazette and General Advertiser, np).
The first accordions in Atlantic Canada were received in 1842 from the vessel Edwin of London in New Brunswick which included accordions with “10 to 21 keys” from the firm of Messrs Broadwood and Sons (New Brunswick Courier 1842, np). The first accordion in Newfoundland was marketed in 184585 through a Conception Bay newspaper along with “flutes; violins; fifes; clarionets; strings; violin; accordians; harps eolian” (Weekly Herald and Conception Bay Advertiser, np). By 1850 accordion lessons and instrument repair were being offered by J. F. Meyers from the Kielty’s Hotel (Times 1850, np). In 1852, J. F. Meyers had started selling accordions and flutinas priced from one to four pounds and ten shillings (Newfoundland Express 1852, np). In 1851, there
85 There is a possibility that these were available since Nov 20, 1844 as the cataloguer from the Atlantic
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were several auctions from businesses such as the American Bookstore and M’Coubrey and Finn which included accordions, the latter of which had two dozen of the instruments (Times 1851a, np; 1851b, np). By 1863, J. J. Coleman was making a living “tuning and repairing pianos, harmoniums, melodeons, accordions, concertenos [sic]and organs” (Daybook 1863, np).86 Clearly, the accordion was becoming popular in Newfoundland in late 19th century.
The humble accordion has not always gotten the respect it perhaps deserves considering its popularity. There is a joke which goes something like this:
Q: What is the definition of a gentleman?
A: A gentleman is a man who knows how to play the accordion but does not.87
An examination of the accordion’s history shows that there is some truth in this joke. Although marketed originally as a leisure-class instrument for genteel women it
eventually became associated with the working class (Eydmann 1999, 597-598; Jacobson 2007, 220-221). There is an attitude which looks down on accordions as lesser
instruments next to violins which have a long history of hand-made craftsmanship, high art compositions and antecedents in the Middle East and India and bowing in Central Asia.88 In comparison, the accordion is a product of the industrial revolution. Although the best are hand-made, the invention of the accordion is connected to manufacturing and it was a new instrument with no history in the high art classical tradition until the 20th
86 Around the early 1860s there are many ads for melodeons from New York. At first I was quite excited as
the German single row button accordion is often referred to as a melodeon, but then I realized that the ads were referring to a precursor of the pump organ which was also called a melodeon.
87 I believe I heard this in my family in which there are fiddle players but few accordionists. This joke has
also been told about other instruments, particularly reed instruments including the bagpipes and uileann pipes. For more about accordion jokes see March 2012.
88 For a history of the violin in Southern India and the origins of bowing please see (Raghavan 1957;
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century. Edymann attributes some of the disregard for accordions in Scotland to the fact that the accordion appeared just at the end of the “Golden Age” of fiddling during a period when new influences were seen as diluting or polluting factors for the purer and older tradition (1999, 595). For example, Francis Collinson who published The
Traditional and National Music of Scotland (1966) ignored accordions completely despite their being as “common as blackberries” (Eydmann 1999, 595). Snyder explains that, in an interview with Alan Lomax in 1988, Lomax admitted that many professional scholars have deliberately ignored the accordion as it was perceived as having taken over the role of instruments such as fiddle and bagpipes (1997, 39).89 While not as much scholarly attention has been focused on the accordion, as say the fiddle, there are still a number of regional studies which either privilege the accordion or at least take it into account. These studies represent many parts of the world including various regions and diasporas of North America, Europe and the British Isles, Asia and Australia.90
In his article, “Country Music in Diffusion” folklorist Peter Narváez discussed how the accordion was considered by Newfoundland audiences to be an essential part of any country band in the 1940s and 1950s (2012, 270). Ethnomusicologist Kelly Best suggested that the accordion and particularly its synthesis with country and western
89 Accordions are not the only new free-reed instrument to come under fire for being useful and popular but
“inauthentic.” In India the harmonium became extremely popular as an easy and reasonably affordable accompaniment instrument used by singers, but was banned by All-India radio as it was considered unsuitable to classical Hindustani music with the official reason cited as its inability to produce microtones (Jairazbhoy 1971; Kaufman 1968; Nueman 1977; Vedavalli 1978).
90 (Please refer to: Alburger 1983, (Scotland); Bell 1987a, 1978b (Canadian Survey); Best 2006,
(Newfoundland); Brunskill 1990, (Northwest Territories); DeWitt 2003, (Cajun); Fairbairn 1994, (Ireland); L. Hart and Sandell 2001, (Quebec); Hiscott 2000, (Inuit); S. Johnson 2012, (Canadian Survey); Kaeppler 2001, (Oceania); Keil 1982, (Slovenia and Milwaukee); Kwan 2004, (China); MacAoidh 1994, (Ireland); McCullough 1977, (Ireland); Sarkissian 2000, (Malaysian-Portugese); G. Smith 1997, (Ireland); Snyder 1994, (African American); 1997, (Mississippi)).
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music91 have created a backlash by many Newfoundland musicians seeking a more “authentic” version of the tradition (2006, 7). Often the accordion accompanies songs in this style, and as Best states, some musicians feel that it has:
contaminated the music by mixing it with popular American forms. They appear to see these songs as the sonic equivalent of a bad “Newfie” joke. Perhaps, the sound of an accordion came to represent, for some purists, support of a distasteful stereotype. (ibid.)
In England, the accordion was demarcated from the concertina by appropriate performance venues. Whereas the concertina which was considered suitable for concerts, the accordion was considered a private instrument to be played only at home (Eydmann 1999, 596). This may have been in part due to the fact the accordion was first marketed to middle and upper class women as a genteel instrument, akin to the harp or guitar, which were more suitable than an ungainly instrument such as the violin (ibid., 597-598). In the United States, accordion advertisements were also aimed at middle class women and children by offering smaller, lighter, “slim” accordions in a variety of colours
(Jacobson 2007, 219-222). By the 1860s in Scotland, German melodeons had entered the market and prices had started to drop at which point the rural working classes took up the instrument (Eydmann 1999, 601). The melodeon was particularly maligned and kept out of the standardization of Scottish folk music in the 1930s whereas “modern” and
“serious” accordions such as the chromatic button and piano accordions were given parts in contemporary Scottish country dance bands (ibid., 605). While the melodeon was relegated to the working class and rural peoples there was a campaign in the mid-20th- century to legitimize the piano accordion in North America so it could join the western
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classical music canon. The piano accordion was favourably compared with the piano and suggestions were made that the accordion improved upon the piano in sustained tones. Teachers were encouraged to teach classical repertoire and composers were
commissioned to write for the instrument (Jacobson 2007, 221-227).
In Newfoundland, however, the older style of diatonic melodeon playing remained strong in the dance tradition and was reinforced by popular radio performers such as “Ma” McNulty. The new chromatic style, described by Smith (1997), which became popular in Ireland in the mid-20th century, is only starting to become more prominent in the province in the past few decades as exchanges with Irish musicians become more frequent and a desire to learn from modern Irish style recordings becomes stronger.