Bandoneon

A rioplatense bandoneonist of tango playing a bandoneon.

Advertising of the bandoneon and concertine factory Hugo Stark, Klingenthal, Germany.

Advertising of the bandoneon "ELA" in the German magazine "Gut Ton", 1932.

Old advertising of the "Josef Wiesner" bandoneon factory in Munich, Germany.

Publicity of the bandoneon factory, harmonious and concertine "Fidel Socin", Bolzano, Italy.

Portada de la revista German "Gut Ton" en 1932, la era de oro de fabrication de bandoneones en ese país.

The bandoneon is a wind musical instrument, free (or free reeds) with bellows of the concertina family (in German konzertina), rectangular in shape, square section and particular timbre. Its original name in German is bandonion, but its hispanicization in the Río de la Plata established the word "bandoneón" to name the instrument in Spanish.

It was initially designed in Germany as an evolution of earlier (free-reed) reed instruments, such as the concertina or others. It is said that its use was initially as a portable organ to play religious music; hence its sacred and melancholic sound.

When he arrived at the Río de la Plata by the hand of sailors and immigrants, he was adopted by musicians of the time and that is how he collaborated in the formation of the particular sound of Río de la Plata tango, becoming a true symbol of it.

In the popular music of Argentina

It is widely used in the Río de la Plata, particularly in Buenos Aires, due to the link between this instrument and tango. It is also popular in Argentine Mesopotamia for its use in chamamé, particularly in the province of Corrientes.

In other Argentine provinces it also had a great influence, such as in Santiago del Estero in the chacarera and Salta in the zamba among others. And in other musical genres found on the banks of the Río de la Plata, such as the chimarrita, or chamarrita, or even "creole waltzes" which are also part of the music of "las milongas" both in Uruguay and Argentina.

The development and evolution of the bandoneon are largely unknown, but Carl Friedrich Uhlig (1830) and Carl Zimmermann (1849) can be highlighted as great collaborators in its design. The name comes from the German bandonion, and this is a portmanteau by Heinrich Band (1821-1860), who was one of the first to engage in trading them.

The bandoneon player is called a bandoneon player. In tango slang he is called "bandoneonista cadenero" to the performer who literally takes the entire orchestra with him, who with a gesture or a look ends up uniting all the instruments and takes them with him on the bandoneon.

Operation

In addition to the notable timbre difference between the bandoneon and the accordion and other instruments with single reeds (free-reed), the bandoneon uses buttons instead of keys, which is why they are called keypads instead of keyboards. The buttons are made of galatite.

The bandoneon used in both tango countries, Argentina and Uruguay, is known as Rheinische Tonlage 38/33. These two numbers mean that it has 38 buttons for the high register (discante) and 33 for the low register (bass): a total of 71 buttons. There is an astonishing number of bandoneon variants and models, and each one has its history.

Technically, the bandoneon has a quadruple button panel, since when the bellows is opened each button pressed generates a tone and when the bellows is closed the same button emits another tone. Therefore, it is necessary to learn the location of 71 tones by opening the bellows and another 71 by closing it.

For each button there is a system of reeds —steel voices riveted to a zinc, aluminum or duralumin support (called a comb) (the latter in inferior quality bandoneons)—, similar to that of the harmonica. The number 142 does not refer to the number of buttons (which are only 71 in the models used in Uruguay and Argentina) but to the number of tones generated by the reeds (free reeds).

The bandoneon has to touch it with a bit of sprout, of violence. You gotta hit him, hit him, demand everything. I do not conceive of someone who touches the bandoneon as if it was a little boy who is stepping on; you have to touch it with everything you have inside. You can't touch it as a clavict; you have to use another kind of force, it's more physical. As the fat fat. Federico, you have to touch him with all the weight of the body. Don't touch it as some technical fanatics say, opening and closing. Shut up, hams can be phrased; you can't do anything. I'd say not ten percent of the notes I play by closing. I use closing simply for a need to breathe with the cage, but ninety-five percent of the notes, when I have to sing a melody, I have to sing it opening. Because that way you enjoy what you touch. Close the bandoneon is zero, nothing.

Astor Piazzolla.

Tuning

Inside a bandoneon.

From the factory, the tuning of the bandoneon is A4 = 435 Hz. The English symbol A4 represents the la₄ (the la₃ in Franco-Belgian notation, which is the tone la in the fourth octave (on the piano that la is found five white keys to the right middle C).

In 1859, the French government enacted a law establishing a fingerboard pattern for use in state-licensed music establishments. It was the first attempt to standardize the tunings and avoid the chaos of tunings from place to place, especially because of the problem of changing the tuning of instruments such as pianos, organs, etc. The standard tuning fork was A4=435 Hz (so the la₄ was 435 Hz). The bandoneons that arrived at the Río de la Plata were tuned to 435 Hz, original from the factory, here they were raised to 442 Hz, which is the standard bandoneon tuning that is still maintained. That's how the great tuners Romualdi and Fabiani explained it, 442 Hz is barely a decimal point higher than 440 Hz that doesn't interfere with the rest of the tempered instruments, so the bandoneon shines with all its harmonics... it's a brilliant 440 Hz.

The law became quite a popular tuning standard even outside of France (for example in Germany). When the first ELA bandoneons appeared in 1864, the French tuning standard had already been in force for five years, so the bandoneons were tuned like this and the initials NA (Normales Abstimmen, in German) were specified. to specify that the pitch of the₄ was 435 Hz.

German flagon brand Cardinal, manufactured approximately in 1920 by ELA for the company Hohner, open, curved, showing the bellow.

The bandoneon models that arrived in the Río de la Plata, (from the two best-known factories: ELA and Doble A) with 142 voices and even those with 152 voices, had two low notes on the left keyboard: sol in the upper part and la in the lower part, belonging to the octave that is below the lowest do of the bandoneon. These two notes had no practical application, since they were an octave lower than the rest of the keyboard.

In 1955, ISO proposed that worldwide the la₄ did not have 435 Hz but 440 Hz. The reason was that in experiments with waves under conditions In the lab, 440 Hz was easier to reproduce than 435 Hz.

In Argentina, some musicians preferred to take advantage of the complete change in tuning to change those two notes to fa and mi of the eighth of the do low, respectively, leaving fa above the keyboard and mi on the end towards the front side. In this way the keyboard was complete to study by opening.

Another view of the same Cardinal bandoneon.

Some bandoneon players also changed the si closing the bellows of the last high octave of the low keyboard for la closing, so that the keyboard would be more coherent. But in this way the si was lost, since on the keyboard under that note there is no “opening”. That is why in some instruments two notes were changed and in others three.

The tuning proposed by ISO in 1955 (la₄ = 440 Hz) became a standard in 1975 and is known as the ISO16 standard. The dates explain why so many instruments are oblivious to this change: the bandoneons that were never retuned are not only below A4=440 Hz, but also have the three notes of the bass keyboard: sol and la bass opening and si alto closing.

The acronym NA (Normal Abstimmen) indicates that the tuning of the la₄ is 435 Hz, while the acronym OS (Orchester Stimmung or 'orchestral tuning') indicate that the tuning of the la₄ is 438 Hz and 440 Hz.

Today you can find bandoneons raised up to 445 Hz, but the tuning must always be in relation to that of those instruments with fixed tuning that play along with it, such as the piano. In general, the bandoneons with tuning 445 Hz, 448 Hz are instruments that have many tunings or bad tunings and the material of the reeds is worn, therefore they must be tuned higher because they no longer support 442 Hz, the reeds are unrecoverable since the tuning it consists of filing each voice and they constantly lose material at each tuning, they are instruments for study, rarely for professional use because they lack good harmonics and a great indication to know the real state of the instrument.

Retuning

In the bandoneon the voices can be tuned in order of a third, but the normal tuning is one octave higher than the note that is played, beyond the third, the voice goes back to its basic note, this basic note it is in relation to the length and width of the tongue. Removing material (reducing its thickness) it is only possible to go all the way around twice maximum in each voice: beyond that the reed weakens and breaks with normal use.

There's another way to change the pitch: instead of removing material, you add material to the brass of the voice. Lead is used to drop the octave and alter the pitch (in English pitch), but the lead solder must be strong, made with gas, so that the lead does not dislodge with the movement of the metal (which, for example, in the la₄ must vibrate 440 times per second).

There are unisonorous, bisonorous and trisonorous bandoneons; the unisonores respond to the first period and to smaller and lighter models for children, the bisonoros are the most used for their brightness and octave tuning, the trisonoros have a third voice for a tremolo effect.

The bandoneon keyboards are played with four fingers of each hand (the thumb is not used for the keypads). On the right side and on the outside, the standard bandoneon has a lever to play with the right thumb; This lever acts as a clutch: it allows air to pass in order to open or close the bellows without having to generate any sound.

To compose a chord, you have to press several buttons at the same time.

History of the bandoneon

German accordion mark "Doble A" (AA, by Alfred Arnold).

When we say "Acordeón" today, we usually want to refer to a typical Bandoneón that ended up becoming popular as the characteristic instrument of Tango Rioplatense, the 142-tone bisonoric diatonic accordion (also called Argentine Accordion, or Argentine Tango Accordion). It is worth knowing that there are many keyboard diagrams, sizes and types of bandoneon (including curious specimens with sound-amplifying horns) most of which have been forgotten, eclipsed by the success of the particular model adopted by tango musicians. It is important to demystify the belief that the Bandoneón was created in order to play "religious" or that it formed an important part in its beginnings of religious services, a story that we will not find documented in any German historical source. Thanks to historical documents, it is known that the bandoneon was used to a large extent as an instrument for the harmonic accompaniment of songs, arias and folk music from the German southeast.

The accordion was developed in Germany as an evolution of instruments with similar characteristics and smaller size, such as the concertina and the harmonika, both with a bellows mechanism similar to the accordion known today. Many of these modifications were designed and carried out at the request of Heinrich Band by the manufacturers. Musician, teacher and dealer of musical instruments, Heinrich Band (1821-1860) contributed greatly to the popularization, evolution and teaching of the instrument, finally bequeathing his name to it, and establishing itself as the first key figure in the history of the instrument.

Among the most recognized accordion factories are those of the Arnold family. In 1864 Ernst Louis Arnold (from Carlsfeld) acquired Carl Friedrich Zimmermann's factory and began the production of E. L. A (Ernst Louis Arnold) bandoneons. When Ernst Louis Arnold died in 1910, his eldest son Hermann took over the company. The following year, Alfred Arnold established his own factory 'Alfred Arnold Bandonion und Konzertina Fabrik Carlsfeld'. Finally, in 1929, the first "AA" (by Alfred Arnold), whose excellence has been recognized ever since.

At the same time, Ernst Hermann Arnold continues to manufacture the old ELA line. Alfred Arnold died in 1933 and Paul Arnold in 1952. They were succeeded in manufacturing by Arno Arnold (son of Paul) and Horst Arnold (son of Alfred). But the German Democratic Republic brought the bandoneon practically to extinction, when it expropriated the Arnolds' factory in 1949, with the aim of turning it into a “people's factory” (incorporating in 1952 the Klingenthaler Harmonikawerke). Paul Arnold managed to flee to the West in 1950 and set up his own factory in Obertshausen, which lasted until shortly after his owner died.

Currently the accordion is still manufactured both in Germany and in the rest of the world in an industrial and traditional way. New bandoneon makers around the world include: Harry Geuns (Belgium), Klaus Gutjahr (Germany), Uwe Hartenhauer (Germany) and La Bandonion & Concertinafabrik Klingenthal (Germany), Danielson (Brazil), Luis Mariani (Argentina), Angel Zullo (Argentina), Bandoneón Toscano (Argentina, Mendoza), Juan Pablo Fredes (Argentina, La Plata), Baltazar Estol, Oscar Fischer, Tomás Schlottauer, among others.

In Argentina and Uruguay the accordion is considered an inseparable instrument from tango orchestras. It arrived in the country around 1900, imported from Germany by immigrants.

There is no doubt that the accordion found an irreplaceable place in tango. In lunfardo (the slang used by tangueros from Uruguay and Argentina), the bandoneón is known as fueye, replacing the “y” instead of the “ll” and pronouncing it as a sh Rio de la Plata (in Uruguay and Argentina). The fueye is the soul of tango orchestras.

A tango with lyrics by Pascual Contursi and music by Juan Bautista Deambroggio, composed in 1928 and which Carlos Gardel incorporated into his repertoire, already treats the accordion as an adopted son:

Arrangement,

Old man was deflated,

I found you like a pebete,

that the mother left.

News

Inside a bandoneon.

Bandoneon who belonged to Ástor Piazzolla.

Bandoneon built by UNLa. Pichuco Project

The bandoneon is currently in danger of becoming extinct in both Argentina and Uruguay. This is due to numerous causes, both social and religious:

• More than 50 years ago, the German factories of more impact bandoneons were closed (ELA and AA)
• In the absence of qualified personnel, often used instruments fall into the hands of amateur repairers who end up ruining them.
• Of those in Argentina (country where almost all the interpretative technique of the instrument was developed) many were deteriorating by normal use, misuse, poor storage or bad repairs.
• New European factories are not exported to South America for cost reasons.
• In Argentina and Uruguay, most of the bandoneons used belong to the missing German factories ELA and AA. Many times the instruments are priced only by their brand or general external state, making them almost inaccessible to the general public. This cost, most of the time, does not take into account the sound quality of the instrument (The German factories ELA and AA at the time, built different qualities of bandoneons under the same marks and submarks).
• On October 1, 2009, in addition to the fact that tango is declared a heritage of humanity, the Luthiers Angel Zullo and his son Gabriel presented the first Argentine Bandoneon A-Z, in which they worked more than 5 years in the construction of their own machines and tools and the only ones to build their own combs and tongues in Argentina. The musician Rubén Juárez was responsible for testing and giving the good look to this emblematic instrument for national music in a recital held at the National Centre for Music and Dance, a meeting organized by the Argentine Association of Luthiers, with the support of the Secretariat of Culture of the Nation. At present they are built in Buenos Aires on demand in an artisanal way.
• In Argentina, the Union of Typical Orchestra (UOT) and civil society The House of the Bandoneon they worked for the situation to begin to reverse, and among other measures they brought together signatures to declare the bandoneon as Cultural Heritage of the Nationin October 2009 the law 26.531 of "Protection and Promotion of the musical instrument called bandoneon" was sanctioned.
• Exhibitions of original instruments are at the Bandoneon Museums, for example in Germany by the Preuss Family in Lichtenberg, and another by the Steinhart Family in Kirchzarten/Freiburg.
• Since 2013 the University of Lanús "UNLa" has been carrying out a bandoneon manufacturing project to integrate this instrument, together with the corresponding teaching material, into the schools of the area. Currently the Pichuco Project is in its third stage, with bandoneons that have been handed over to schools and libraries that dictate workshops. The Pichuco bandoneon is made entirely from UNLa, except for combs imported from Czech Republic.

Tuning

• If the bandoneon is not tuned in 440 Hz, it represents a problem when playing together with other instruments that if they have that tuning; so you should spend more money to tune it and be able to join with other instruments of fixed tuning such as the piano or other bandoneon.
• Usually the bass keyboard of the 71 button bandoneon brought a Sun and a the "Bringing up": when it comes to tuning, it is convenient to move them to a fa and a my grave of the next octave, in order to have a more coherent keyboard.
• If the seller says that the bandoneon has been recently refined, it is appropriate to make sure that the instrument has inside the luthier seal that performed the work; otherwise it will be a guaranteeless tuning, and therefore technical problems can be expected.

List of luthiers and manufacturers

A list of some current bandoneon manufacturing companies:

• Asociación Argentina de Luthiers
• Baldoni Accordions (United States).
• Bandoneon AZ - Angel and Gabriel Zullo (Argentina)
• Bandoneones A. A. Alfred Arnold (Germany).
• Bandoneones F. F. - Juan Pablo Fredes (Gambier, La Plata, Argentina)
• Bandoneones Baltazar Estol (Argentina)
• Bandoneones Toscano (Argentina, Mendoza), Vicente Toscano, manufacturer and restorer of bandoneons.
• Bandonion " Concertinafabrik Klingenthal (Germany).
• Mario Bianco (Uruguay).
• Castagnari, Italy.
• Danielson Industria de Acordeões e Bandoneões (Brazil).
• D. " J. Trupin SARL (France).
• Enrique Fasuolo (Argentina)
• Oscar Fisher (Argentina).
• Giustozzi (Italy).
• Klaus Gutjahr (Germany).
• Harry Geuns Bandoneons (Belgium).
• Uwe Hartenhauer (Germany).
• Ricardo Matteo (Uruguay).
• Luis Alfredo Mariani Museum (La Reja, Moreno, Argentina)
• Pigini Fratelli & C. snc (Italy).
• Premier Bandoneonbau Peter Spende (Germany).
• Stagi Accordions " Bandoneons (Italy).
• Tangobrujo Venta & Restauraciones - Daniel Barrientos (Argentina).
• Victoria Accordions Company (Italy).