|
<< PreviousNext >> WORLD The accordion comeback
30.03.2005 Autor: Marty Lipp Translate: Marty Lipp
If you think of the bellows of an accordion as the 19th century equivalent of a Marshall amp, you can start to imagine why the instrument spread across the world, muscling into the folk music of country after country.  | | photo Arch. |
While the accordion's ancestry can be traced back centuries to China, its name was patented in Paris in 1829 by a Viennese instrument maker, although a German craftsman created an instrument several years earlier that more closely resembled the modern accordion.
By the century's end, factories were mass-producing accordions, so much so that some observers wondered if the instrument would wipe out traditional music. Instead, the accordion took its place alongside other instruments and became the centerpiece of several genres. When immigrants came to the Americas, they brought their squeezeboxes with them - from Argentina to Cape Breton.
During the 20th century, the accordion rose and fell in popularity. Like many of the traditions it was a part of, the accordion came to be considered old-fashioned, or worse, "uncool." What other instrument could have a fan club that calls itself the Closet Accordion Players of America?
With the rediscovery of ethnic and regional music, the accordion is regaining respectability. Several recent releases show that it is artistically, at least, in good hands.
The Motion Trio from Poland is composed of three accordion players who come from a conservatory background but played on the streets while they attended the Kraków Music Academy.
In the liner notes to its' CD, "Pictures From the Street" (Indigo), the group's leader, Janusz Wojtarowicz, said, "Accordion traditionalists have run out of ideas, and it is our goal to extract notes from the accordion that have never been heard before."
Wojtarowicz said the trio wants "to open the gate of concert halls... to make the presence of the accordion in concert halls as natural as the presence of violin or piano."
Despite the talk of experimentalism and classical music, the songs on "Pictures" are strongly rhythmic and fun, a by-product of the trio's street performances.
Wojtarowicz said that playing on the street "was a great adventure.... The street taught us a lot: flair, ability of solving problems, being pushy." Their album, he said, "is a story about the places, people and, first of all, about the emotions we felt playing street music."
Another unexpected arrival to the United States is an album of little-known, accordion-driven music from Argentina called chamamé. Unlike Argentina's tango, chamamé is an upbeat music that is typically played at dances in the country's rural northeast.
As played by Chango Spasiuk on his "Tarefero de Mis Pagos" (Piranha), the ordinarily earthy chamamé can be elegant and ethereal. Spasiuk plays peppy six-eighths-rhythm tunes as he would for dancing couples, but he also plays compositions that change rhythm and dynamics like classical pieces.
He said that while chamamé continues to flourish in Argentina's northeast, it has never been considered as prestigious as tango.
"It is not my goal or my main purpose, but I feel a kind of happiness when this music can be heard in places that up to now were not expected to be places to play chamamé."
Although the accordion has long been a part of Irish traditional music, the accordionist Sharon Shannon helped open the scene to music from other Celtic cultures and beyond. Her eponymous 1991 debut was the highest-selling traditional Irish record, yet it included tunes from Portugal and Cajun country.
Shannon's last two records, on the Nashville-based label Compass, have linked the genres of Irish traditional and American country. Now, Compass has reissued "Spellbound," a retrospective of Shannon's earlier career that showcases her lovely forays outside Irish music and her high-spirited sets of old Irish jigs and reels.
In this century, digital technology threatens to eclipse the electric guitar's pre-eminence in popular music, but the dexterous and emotionally resonant playing of these emerging artists ensures we'll hear a few more verses before the accordion's final coda.
Marty Lipp can be reached
at Martylipp@hotmail.com.
http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/news/ny-ffcol4188322mar27,0,925684.story << PreviousNext >>
|
     
NOWE ZDJĘCIA 02.09.2008 Zobacz nową sesję fotograficzną z udziałem MT. Zdjęcia wykonane przez Izę Degardo.
Motion Trio w Lublinie "Muzyka jest lekarstwem" 14.07.2008 Trzech akordeonistów... ale bez paniki! Prosimy nie opuszczać miejsc! Ci klasycznie wykształceni dżentelmeni nie grają podwórkowych szlagierów, tylko fuzję world music, popu, elektroniki i jazzu...
>>more
"Quebec City Summer Festival" 13.07.2008 Zobacz galerię zdjęć z koncertu
Motion Trio - Live in Cairo 19.05.2008 W dniach 12-15 maja br. stolica Egiptu rozbrzmiewała niecodziennymi dźwiękami akordeonów... >>more
Quebec Summer Festival 04.04.2008 Trzy koncerty MT (m.innymi na ceremonii otwarcia festiwalu) podkreślą siłę akordeonu w Kanadzie !!! Pośród wykonawców także: Charles Aznavour, Yes, Linkin Park.
MT na Nowej Kaledonii 19.03.2008 W dniach 1-8 maja MT wystąpi w Malanezji (zachodnia część Pacyfiku) na wyspie Nowa Kaledonia, w "Centre Culturel Tjibaou"
MT w Carnegie Hall - 13.01.2008 22.01.2008 Wieczor zakończyly dwie owacje na stojaco. Koncert w Nowym Jorku już za nami. Dziękujemy p. Januszowi Sporkowi - /Music Education Center/ za wspaniała organizację i wszystkim tym, którzy wspomagali nas swoją energią - MT Team
Koncert zorganizowany przy pomocy "Akordeonus Records".
Dwie owacje na stojaco konczyly niedzielny koncert Motion Trio 16.01.2008 Stremowani weszli w niedzielny wieczor, o godz. 19.30 tamtejszego czasu, na scene slynnej Carnegie Hall muzycy krakowskiego akordeonowego Motion Tria, po czym dali dwugodzinny koncert prezentujac muzyke Pendereckiego, Goreckiego, Kilara oraz wlasna. Wieczor konczyly dwie owacje na stojaco, jakimi dziekowalo muzykom ponad 600 sluchaczy. >>more
MT ponownie u mistrza Krzysztofa Pendereckiego. 03.01.2008 3.I.2008 Motion Trio ponownie gościło u Krzysztofa Pendereckiego. Celem spotkania była prezentacja utworu "Ciaccona" in memoria Giovanni Paolo II w wersji na trzy akordeony, przed premierowym wykonaniem w Carnegie Hall 13.I.2008
Motion Trio z muzyką Pendereckiego, Góreckiego, Kilara w Carnegie Hall. 04.12.2007 Koncert w jednej z najsłynniejszych sal koncertowych świata Motion Trio oficjalnie zadedykowało pamięci Andrzeja Krzanowskiego - największego polskiego akordeonisty-kompozytora. >>more
Sponsors of Pigini instruments
|
