Piano accordion

The piano accordion is a chromatic accordion with a keyboard on the right ( treble ).

For the bass part ( on the left ), there are different constructions, which are also used in modern chromatic button accordion, see bass systems. The market offers different sized instruments, which are usually distinguished by the number of bass buttons and the number of registers. Left-handed, it is possible to play a 180 - degree rotation of the instrument, the keyboard with the left hand and the bass part corresponding with the right hand. The keys of a piano accordion are slightly narrower than the piano. Twelve white accordion keys correspond to its width is about eleven white piano keys. Budding accordionists who have already mastered an instrument with keyboard, much can be transferred in the treble with respect to the playing technique.

History

Accordions with free reeds were built relatively late, however, was the ability to use the piano keys on Zuginstrumenten with free reeds, known before the invention of the diatonic accordion. In Vienna, Anton Haeckl built already in 1818 the so-called Physharmonica, two of these small instruments that have been built in 1825, located at the Technical Museum in Vienna, exhibit Inv. No. 19.480 (20 white keys) and Inv. No. 38 956. The Physharmonica looked so much like the small hand-held harmonium, which are still popular even today in India. She had a piano keyboard. The smaller version of the instrument resting on the left arm and was played with the right hand. The range of this small variant of the Physharmonica was from H to g''.

In a display of 14 April 1821 in the general musical newspaper is found among others the sentence: "Even in a very small formats manufactures of master copies thereof which lie comfortably in the left arm, indess the right hand plays. "

A patent ( privilege ) received Haeckl for such instruments on 8 April 1821. Very early instruments that were built in France, looked like a somewhat oversized modern piano accordion, but they were also set up as a piano and with both hands on one manual played. The bellows was moved with the feet on cables. The instrument did not have a bass part. It looked like an accordion, but is regarded as a precursor of the harmonium. An instrument from 1880 with Inv. No. 15,289 is a " Busson Brevete " (Paris ) at the Technical Museum in Vienna. Anton Reinlein, a game watch manufacturer from Vienna, reported an improvement in on such instruments. Erroneously, you will very often find that patent specified for the invention of the harmonica.

On February 10, 1824 Anton Reinlein and his son Rudolph Reinlein received the patent for it. It also had resounding tongues " Chinese-style ", and a Handbalg. It was designated as a harmonica. The Official Journal of the Wiener Zeitung reported on March 24, 1824 about it.

Matthew Bauer, an instrument maker from Vienna, built chromatic instruments. In 1851 he built an instrument which had two rows of buttons in the arrangement like the piano. 1854 in the German industrial exhibition in Vienna presented Matthew Bauer an instrument with 22 white and 15 black keys and one with three rows of buttons in B- handle assembly. The picture archive of Hohner, newspaper reports and promotional material, which are obtained support this claim. The originals are in the Austrian National Library. Matthew Bauer experimented with all possible key assignments, including a very early version of the melody bass from him was built. An exhibit can be seen at the Technical Museum in Vienna, the bass part with three pinblocks, Inv. No. 22,308.

More on the history of the accordion see accordion.