Accordion Colleagues
64th ATG Festival, Milwaukee, WI. June 21-25, 2004
Thank heaven for people like these guys. They're the ones who make things happen and they did it again in Milwaukee. What a treat to be able to hear so much world-class playing and see so many good friends all in one place.
First, we have the good Dr. Herbert Scheibenreif. Herbert and I stay in touch and he's always doing whatever he can to be of service to the accordion community.
Here's a great one with Stas Venglevski, ATG president, Herbert, my teacher, Joan Cochran Sommers, and Jerome Richard. Jerome is one of those players I wish everyone could hear. Simply smokin', melt-your-face improvisation. Loved it.
More accordion luminaries, Joe Petosa, Art Van Damme, myself, and John Castiglione. I hope I look as good as Art does when I'm 84.
Myself, Jerome Richard and Alexander Poeluev. It was great to hear the finest jazz and classical players at the same event.
Here I am with Kevin Friedrich and Stas. Kevin is simply the perfect person for his role as President of the CIA: ubiquitous, tireless and always smiling.
Henry Doktorski and his wife, Mary Kay, showed up on the last day. It was great to see them since we rarely actually meet!
Dee Langley gave me one of my favorite moments of the festival: her rendition of Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody. Awesome. That's my boy, Tate's, head in the foreground. He was enthralled with Amy Jo Sawyer's strolling accordion music.
62nd ATG Festival, Orlando, FL. June 27-30, 2002
Had dinner at Joe's Crab Shack with accordion buddies from WI, OR and all over.
Friday night Gala Dinner at the Sheraton Safari.
Peter Soave and his wife filled in for Frederic Baldo after he lost his passport in Paris forcing him to cancel. They were AMAZING. I hadn't heard him play since 1991 and wow, has he grown. Hot stuff. Here we are with Joan Sommers, president of ATG.
Here I am with Stas Venglevski, Peter and his wife, Madeline. Stas, too, keeps getting better. He's a great entertainer with chops from the Russian school. My favorite combination!
61st ATG Festival, San Antonio, Texas. July 19-23, 2001.
Wow, what a great weekend we had. There were players from all over the world, many of whom were extraordinary. Mika V�yrynen from Finland was our guest artist and it was a rare opportunity to hear his remarkable playing and to spend time hearing his views on the accordion and the accordion scene.
Here we have Joan Sommers, Mika and myself aboard the Boudros dinner barge. 14 of us had supper on the Riverwalk on Sunday night. It was a memorable way to say good bye and see San Antonio in style. 2nd photo shows me with Kevin Friedrich. Kevin and Joan are real driving forces behind the ATG festivals and give countless hours toward their success. Finally, our Russian guests, Alexander Shpak, Yelena Belashova and Alexander Sevastian are seen enjoying the dinner cruise. Sevastian won the Galla-Rini International Competition this year. I heard him play Moskowski's Spanish Caprice at the winner's concert and he is exceptional. Solid, satisfying, virtuosic, Russian-school playing. Bravo!
I was honored to serve on the jury for the Virtuoso Entertainment Competition. Pictured are Betty Jo Simon, Sylvia Zobek of Vienna, myself, Amy Jo Sawyer, Julia Cortinas and Kevin Friedrich, center. Nina Slyuser-Wegmann of Belarus was the winner and she amazed everyone by wringing some new passion out of Dark Eyes. She is an intense and unique talent. Here she is with her trophies. She also won 3rd place in the Galla-Rini Classical Competition.
Mika did a short talk on the accordion in Finland. Here we are discussing the construction of his Pigini/Lasse Pihlajamaa Special Mythos No. 15 accordion. It contains Italian mechanism, Russian reeds and many unique characteristics. Mika said he is very pleased with it.
I had a chance to get to know Raimondas Sviackevicius, one of the most active Lithuanian accordionists today. He gave me a beautiful plaque depicting his hometown of Vilnius. Here he is with Alexander Sevastian and myself. After playing in the Galla-Rini competition, Raimondas was hosted by Jack Stankus, a friend who is a Texan of Lithuanian descent. Sunday, July 29, Raimondas will play a concert in Lemont, Illinois before returning home.
Don with Peter Soave, at Music Centre, Dearborn Heights, MI, 7/4/1998. Don is holding a Pigini Super Bayan Sirius ca 1996 and Peter is holding his Pigini Mythos.
Vitali Dmitriev, Don Severs and Stas Venglevski at ATG 60th Anniversary Festival, Chicago, IL, July, 2000.
Don playing Vitali Dmitriev's Russian bayan. Taken in Chicago, IL at the ATG 60th Anniversary Festival, July, 2000. This instrument is a B system bayan that is light, well-constructed and has a fabulous sound. The left hand, however, has only one Stradella sound (tutti) and one free bass sound (16+16). There is also a serious break in the free bass sound after the bottom octave, since it sounds the same as the Stradella basses, then goes to 16+16 above the bottom octave. Italian bayans often have a choice of several Stradella and free bass registers (16, 16+16, 16+4, 16+16+4) and the sound is more even throughout the free bass range.
Don at home with his Pigini Super Bayan Sirius no. 219.
Three US Champions: 1979, 1955/1956 and 1999.
Don with his teacher, Joan Cochran Sommers, and Cathy Sommers at 1999 ATG Festival in Branson, MO.
Don with Anthony Galla-Rini at ATG 60th Anniversary Festival, Chicago, IL, July, 2000. Galla-Rini was the teacher of Joan Sommers, Don's teacher.
Don with Jane Christison and Kevin Friedrich at ATG 60th Anniversary Festival, Chicago, IL, July, 2000. Don and Kevin were enrolled in the Accordion Degree Program at UMKC at the same time and competed in the same Coupe Mondiale in Cannes, France.
Don with Lidia Kominska and Cathy Sommers at ATG 60th Anniversary Festival, Chicago, IL, July, 2000.
Don with Carmen Carrozza at the 1979 AAA National Competition awards ceremony in Miami, Florida, July 10, 1979.
Don with Max Bonnay and Max's father in Cannes, France after the 1979 CIA World Competition. The second one shows Joan Cochran Sommers, Ulrich Schmuelling of Intermusik, myself and Maria Rittmansberger after the competition. My bronze medal from placing 7th is one of my most meaningful possessions.
Don with Anthony Rolando and Valerie Vacco in Des Moines, IA in 1999 or so. They had a gig here, so I showed up and we had a great reunion. Anthony and I had both played in the AAA competition in New York in 1978 and he went on to play in 2 Coupe Mondiale world competitions. I remember hearing him play An American in Japan by Tito Guidotti, and it really opened my mind to the possibilities of free bass technique.
Don at dinner with Julia Cortinas, Jane Christison, Ron Wille, Friedrich Lips, and Joan and Paul Sommers. Kansas City, MO after Mr. Lips' concert there in 1998.
Amy Jo Sawyer, Natalya Semionova, Joan Sommers, Viacheslav Semionov and the late Robert Sattler. Kansas City, MO after Duo Semionov's concert there, ca 1997.
Don performing the Sonata by Peter Hoch at the Awards Ceremony at the AAA Festival in Miami, FL in July, 1979. This was Don's first chromatic button accordion. He had switched from piano accordion in November, 1978 after winning 2nd place in the AAA competition in New York.
Don performing the Accordion Concerto by Paul Creston in Los Angeles at the Accordion Federation of North America Festival in 1978.
Don with �ivind Farmen in Trondheim, May 4, 2001. �ivind's instrument is a B32 Zero Sette bayan with Anders Gr�the's patented terraced left hand. �ivind is the first accordionist in my experience who can play scales and arpeggios the way we routinely hear them at piano exams at the university level, legato at high speed in both hands. Quick jumps, parallel thirds and sixths and identical fingerings in both hands are also made possible by Gr�the's design. The design is only a minor modification of bayan convertor mechanisms, yet it provides dramatic technical improvements. Pigini and Jupiter have built their own versions of the terraced left hand.
Don with Magne Seim in Voss, Norway, May 9, 2001. Magne studied with Geir Draugsvoll at the Royal Copenhagen Conservatory and plays the modified Pigini pictured on my main Ergon Concept page. The instrument has terraced left hand buttons, but the buttons are normal bass buttons, not the mushroom buttons used by Gr�the. The construction is very solid and quiet, and Pigini has done a good job of solving the problem of keeping the buttons close together and minimizing travel when the key is depressed, yet still adequately opening the valve.
The second photo shows the Artigiana Voci bass reeds used by Pigini for Sirius accordions in the last 3 years or so. They have a distinctive black frame. The terraces of the bass buttons are actually scalloped where they meet the next higher row. This feature is found on Gr�the's design, too, and is necessary to keep the buttons a uniform lateral distance apart when the terraces are made. They also allow room for the fingertip to rest comfortably at the bottom of the keystroke. See photo below.
Don with Anders Gr�the in Sandvik, Norway, May 10, 2001. Don is playing a B system stradella instrument with terraced left hand buttons and Anders is playing his unique B system free-bass instrument. It has a 6-row B system left hand with a coupler that makes the first 3 rows sound an octave lower. This facilitates jumps and allows the player to approximate the stradella sound, with of course expanded capabilities such as playing any chord or octave desired.
The second photo shows the scalloping that allows the terraced buttons to remain close enough together. The third shows the "Gr�thecordion". The left hand manual is turned out as in my design, but it uses large buttons to match the right hand and the case is much deeper. Anders has since dismantled this instrument for parts. It was very heavy and deep, and only free-bass. The last photo shows a 1924 instrument found in the accordion museum in Castelfidardo. The left hand is again turned out to allow the wrist to remain straight, but this instrument is not as deep as Gr�the's design. It was immensely interesting for me to see actual attempts to implement ideas that were so much like my own.
Don with Jon Faukstad in Oslo, May 10, 2001. Don is playing a new C system Jupiter bayan owned by one of Jon's students. It has terraced left hand buttons, but while I was playing it I discovered that the terraces were not made deep enough, so that the top of the buttons is a little higher than the bottom of the buttons in the next higher row. I can't explain this, since it makes playing cleanly with the thumb in the 2nd and 3rd rows difficult. The only factor I can guess accounts for this is that the key travel was too much if the terraces were deeper.
Jon is playing his 1981 B system Jupiter bayan. The second and third photos show the single-plate construction of the bass and treble reed blocks.
Don with some of the local Accordion Club at Simen Korsvold's home in Sarpsborg, Norway, May 11, 2001.
Don with the Zero Sette team in Castelfidardo May 14, 2001. Pictured are Don, Alessio Gerundini, Torben Ejersbo, Stefano and Rudolfo with a B32 bayan. The B32 bayan uses Artigiani Voci bass reeds in an L-shaped reed block (pictured). Zero Sette provided overwhelming hospitality and technical expertise during my visit to the home of the Italian accordion industry. Molto grazie, Zero Sette!
Above are 3 photos of free-bass instruments made by Pigini for Ralf Jung. The first two show two different 5-row chromatic instruments with equal size buttons in both hands. They appear to have 3 sets of reeds in the left hand, 8-4-2. This would provide a nice balance with the left hand and still be reasonably light, but would lack the doubled unison sound of the bayan that many have grown accustomed to. The last photo is a smaller, 4-row instrument.
This is an interesting approach and one I have considered frequently. I think that large buttons are inappropriate, however, in the left hand due to the restricted range of movement due to the the bellows strap. I also see no reason to have the buttons on the front of the instrument, especially in a free-bass instrument. In a purely free-bass instrument, the need to use the traditional piston-rod mechanism that is used for the stradella system is removed. Thus, this instrument could easily use a left hand mechanism much more like that used in the right hand and place the keys on the side of the instrument to allow the left wrist to be straight.
One advantage of large buttons in the left hand is that it would allow the thumb to slide from key to key as it can in the right hand, both descending and ascending. This ability is essential for playing of legato polyphonic passages such as those found in Franck, Reger, etc. The right thumb typically slides up by rocking it back on the heel of the thumb, then playing the next note with the tip of my thumb and finally raising the heel. I think more research should be done to design a traditional small-button, terraced left hand manual that allows this kind of thumb technique.
December 16, 2004
Someone named Tito e-mailed me the image below. It shows a symmetrical, free-bass-only version of the Ergon. This is a great idea, similar to Ralf Jung's custom-made Pigini. I sometimes think the purely free-bass accordion will be the main classical accordion in 50 years. When you attend a classical accordion concert or listen to a CD, there is very little stradella used. The stradella bass rows are used for large jumps, but the chord rows are rarely heard. The stradella chord rows will always be with us for folk music, but I think they will evolve out of the classical accordion. Perhaps some combination of the photo below and Gr�the's 6-row design (to aid large jumps) would be ideal.
In summary, the bayan is really 3 instruments packed into one container. The right hand is a 4 rank, one manual reed organ. The left hand is (usually) a 3 rank, one manual reed organ with a completely different mechanism and acoustic. The left manual is also a one octave stradella keyboard, again with its own mechanism. This makes the bayan unique in the family of instruments. And, to paraphrase Torben Ejersbo, it also necessitates more compromises per cubic centimeter than any other instrument.
From the standpoint of construction, it is immensely desirable to build separate free-bass and stradella instruments. For 90% of my playing, this would work fine, except that I would have to transport two instruments to play a varied program. And I couldn't play certain pieces without modification, mostly Russian and European pieces composed for the unique capabilities of the bayan left hand. So, I think the best solution for most players is still the bayan design, since it allows using one instrument to play all the literature. The Ergon Concept approach is simply an option that could be built into any bayan.
Here are some pics of my Peter Pan convertor accordion:
I sold it to Roger Muma of Canada. In transit, a transmission rod got out of position and he was able to fix it. It's a little tricky just to open the thing up. There is no LH access panel. You have to take out the screws that hold the feet on, then the plastic body slips off.
Here's a great site showing the treble side of a Peter Pan disassembled. I'm hosting it also here. (Many thanks to Moshe Braner!)
Here are some photos of an Akko bayan made for Joe Papandrea. Joe's an internet accordion buddy of mine. He has a Pigini Sirius but wanted a real Russian bayan. He went to Russia a couple times to meet with Akko. Even though he was forced to drink vodka with the Akko guys, he's very happy with his instrument. The left hand is slightly terraced, somewhat like Jon Faukstad's student's bayan above. The LH goes down to D below the standard E. I think the LH is 16+16+4. The second photo also shows his friend, Rashid Karimov (left).
Here's a slideshow of John Tilt's Mythos no. 11. It was built for Jean-Marc Fabiano and has some custom features. All 15 RH registers appear as chin switches. (Pigini sometimes uses rotating chin switches that can actuate any of 4 registers, so that 7 or 8 chin switches suffice. My friend, Stephen Haley, of Hungary has Mythos no. 16 which has this feature.) Also, the left hand body is angled out to allow a slightly more ergonomic arm position. I'd never seen this before. Note there are 3 front sound vents on the LH.
August 7, 2007
Harry Geuns is a bandoneon builder in Belgium. I love the idea of building a non-diatonic, C (or B) system bandoneon that lets you use your thumbs. The small size allows the intimate immediacy needed for tango playing. Bayan players strive for this expressiveness, but they're just moving too many kilos. Norbert Gabla of Nurnberg, Germany, had this instrument made by Geuns.
Instruments like Gabla's cost 4600 euros, but Geuns is selling these for $975 on ebay with free shipping to the US. Beats a Peter Pan in my book.
Septempber 6, 2007
I'm humbled when I see similar attempts at ergonomic designs that had absolutely no impact on the development of the accordion. Like this one from www.carmencarrozza.com. This is apparently a Reuther Uniform keyboard, but I'd never seen one that had been turned at right angles to the player this way:
April 12, 2010:
Bruce Triggs (accordion.noir@gmail.com) just sent me this link: http://www.freepatentsonline.com/4159664.pdf
This appears to be an inside-out accordion with both manuals terraced. In my correspondence with Willard Palmer (of Palmer-Hughes fame) in 1981 or so, I sent him an early design of mine for an ergonomic accordion. Palmer was enthusiastic, but told me that, with all his influence, he had not been able to get anything done in redesigning the accordion. One thing that was important to Palmer was getting the reeds out of the box. Acoustically, the accordion is more terrible than it has to be. Palmer envisioned the reeds right behind the grille in both hands. The patent in this link seems to address the problem of how to open and close the valves, which are now inside the box, via the keys.
