General patterns of existence of the accordion in the 20th century

Abstract

Statement of the problem. Today the process of integrating the accordion into various types of musical practice continues to be in almost all countries of the world. The general course of the evolution of accordion performance, despite all attempts to limit it to pop music or house hold music, undoubtedly indicates a gradual but natural “ascension” of the accordion to the heights of academic music. According to this thesis, the purpose of the article is an attempt to offer a generalized description of the socio-cultural situation that led to the formation of the academic field of accordion performance. The results and conclusions. The keyboard accordion appeared en masse in all European countries almost at the same time – in the 20s and early 30s of the 20th century. The instrument quickly attracted attention of performers who switch from piano or various types of the hand harmonicas to the new instrument. A specific point in the development of accordion performance, in our opinion, is the fact that the instrument does not become a house hold immediately, as it happened with its predecessors – hand harmonicas, but only after a period of stage being in the hands of professional performers (variety shows, music in restaurants and dance halls). The recognition of the accordion as a “serious” instrument is evidenced by a number of certain phenomena: the appearance of this instrument in special secondary and higher educational institutions, a significant number of concert accordionists whose program includes mainly classical transcriptions and original works, and also the appearance of a number of records. The development of original repertoire for the accordion was the most rapid in Germany, not only because of its wide spread use in this country, but also because it was here that professional composers first turned to the creation of special literature. After the Second World War, the accordion gradually secured the dual status of a pop and academic instrument, and its pop component seemed to split, as one part of the repertoire passed into the stratum of house hold music, and the other, more high quality, acquired the features of academicism. Overtime, the instrument demonstrated the tendency to leave the concert stage. On the other hand, the undeniable growth of the performers’ professionalism, the further improvement of technical and constructive characteristics, the active development of the repertoire, the constantly increasing level of technique, the appearance of the accordion in modern chamber music, etc., speak of the reverse process – the process of active integration of the accordion into the sphere of professional classical instruments. Thus, in our opinion, the development trends that are clearly evident today in the repertoire of accordionists indicate that the keyboard accordion, even if it is not as large-scale as the button one, is still quite firmly established on the academic scene.