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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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The
popularity of the accordion started to arouse interest also in great musicians
who started to write interesting musical pieces for this instrument. In
1883, Petr Ilic Ciaikovski introduced a piece for accordion in his "Suite
nr. 2 in C major"; in 1898 Umberto Giordano used the accordion during the
3rd act of his "Fedora"; Alban Berg in the lst act of his "Wozzek" (1921)
and, more recently, there has been Darius Milhaud and Dmitri Sostakovic.
During the first years of this century the accordion starts to get
better known all over the world. In France, in the Austro-Hungarian Empire,
in Russia and in the Americas it was already known among the middle classes,
but the middle-lower classes also started to appreciate it thanks to the
Italian emigrants. As a matter of fact the latter have been the real propagators
of the accordion: very often those emigrants trying to find a job, especially
in the Americas, brought the accordion with them, to make them feel nearer
to their homes, to their families and to their far away native country
when listening to it's music.
After the invention of celluloid in the United States of America and
with the use of mother-of-pearl, the aesthetics of the instrument changed.
The year 1953 was undoubtedly the year of the largest expansion of
accordion production and marketing. As a matter of fact the instruments
exported from Italy totaled 200.000 pieces, and the same quantity was exported
from German centres at Trossingen and Klingenthal. During recent years
the development of electronics has had its influence also on our popular
instrument: Felice Fugazza, a music composer and teacher at the Bologna
Conservatory was the first to introduce transistors into the accordion
in the late 1950s.
Today the instrument has thousands of fans all-over the world and for
several years now especially in the East European countries, it has earned
the right of entry into the Conservatories.
Also in Italy the image of the accordion has undergone a substantial
evolution, the idea of an instrument used only for popular music and amusement
has been overcome thanks to composers such as Franco Alfano, Felice Fugazza,
Luciano Fancelli, Ferrari-Trecate and musicians of worldwide renown, such
as Gorni Kramer, Gervasio Marcosignori and Salvatore Di Gesualdo, to mention
just some among the Italians.
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