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The FASCINATING HISTORY Of The ACCORDION ...
A Short Outline by Ivo Baldoni of A. Baldoni Music
In Collaboration with Beniamino Bugiolacchi, Civico Museo Internazionale
Castelfidardo.
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In
Italy the accordion appeared for the first time in 1863. A pilgrim passing
through the territory of Castelfidardo on his pilgrimage to the Sanctuary
of the "Black Madonna" of Loreto, stopped by chance in Antonio Soprani's
farmhouse. He was carrying a rudimentary music box with him: the Accordion:
a queer object arousing the curiosity of Paolo Soprani, Antonio's eldest
son. Young Paolo opened the instrument, he disassembled it and immediately
perceived the possibility to build other, similar items. The accordion
was given to him as a present, and the ex-farmer soon successfully opened
a small handicraft laboratory and sold the aesthetically and musically
improved product mainly in nearby Loreto, the destination of a continuous,
considerable flow of pilgrims.
So was born, between history and legend. THE ITALIAN ACCORDION INDUSTRY.
Thirteen years later, in 1876, at Stradella near Pavia, Mariano Dallape,
born at Cavedine del Trentino, also started to produce considerable quantities
of accordions, maybe in view of the curiosity aroused by Damian's Accordion
in Tirol. Soprani and Dallape did not know each other and never met, but
they both had the same intuition as far as the development of the musical
instrument is concerned: the first improving the Viennese patent, succeeded
in making the instrument known in all areas of the country; the second
prepared the way for the modern accordion by applying basic innovations.
From those two centres of development, but especially from Castelfidardo,
the construction of the accordion expanded very quickly, also thanks to
the large number of craftsmen who first worked in the two pioneers' laboratories
and then started production on their own. In 1865, Cesare Pancotti opens
the second Italian factory at Macerata; Settimio Soprani, one of Paolo's
brothers, follows 1872 with a new laboratory at Castelfidardo, Giovanni
Chiusaroli at Recanati in 1886, and Sante Crucianeli at Castelfidardo in
1888.
There was an extraordinary growth of new laboratories during the last
decade of the 19th century: Luigi and Giorgio Savoia started their activity
at San Giovanni in Croce (CR), Giuseppe De Bernardi at Diano Marina (IM),
Giuseppe Janni at Giulianova (TE), Pasquale Ficcosecco at Castelfidardo,
Antonio Ranco at Vercelli, Ercole Maga at Stradella, Fidele Socin at Bolzano,
the Scandali brothers at Camerano (AN).
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