Global Accordion: Early Recordings/ Various - Global Accordion: Early Recordings

The accordion is the ultimate global instrument. As a catalyst of popular music it spread around the world in the 19th century like wildfire. 26 rare 78rpm recordings from Africa, Latin America, the US, the Caribbean and Europe display the enormous variety of early accordion styles. You will glimpse a wild folk music that hardly exists today. The invention of the "accordion", as it was named in the patent granted to Viennese organ and piano builder Cyrill Demian in 1829 was a musical explosion, which triggered a chain reaction of global dimension. The accordion was louder than any string instrument, and it was portable. It also had fixed tuning. But it's biggest advantage was it's format as a one-man-band. Even when pressing the wrong notes within a melody it still sounded pleasant. Therefore the accordion was seen as a "miracle box" which immediately allowed everybody without any formal musical training to participate actively in music making. It may truly be claimed that the accordion gave birth to popular music.