Laureen Schultz, age 13, of Champaign, Ill., for her question:
WHEN WAS THE ACCORDION INVENTED?
We don't know exactly when the accordion was invented, but we do know that the principle had been known centuries ago in ancient China. But getting the official credit for the invention in 1829 is a musician from Vienna, Austria, named Cyrillys Damian.
The accordion is a reed type musical instrument that is worn on straps around the shoulders. The player stretches and compresses bellows, forcing air through metal tongues and making them vibrate.
Below the player's right hand on the accordion is a set of keys arranged in the order of a scale, much like a piano. The left hand presses buttons that make single tones and chords.
Multi shift accordions have as many as 22 different shifts that open and close the desired number of reeds.
An accordion patent was issued in 1822 in Berlin, Germany, before Damian's model. The earlier model was the work of a musician named Friedrich Buschmann, although many authorities say his instrument didn't work too well.
The first accordions only had buttons. The piano keyboard didn't come along until the 1850s and even then it wasn't a feature commonly used on accordions until about 1920. The pianolike keyboard, which replaced the melody buttons, was developed in France.
The accordion was a very popular musical instrument in Europe right from the time it was invented. It didn't become popular in the United States, however, until after Lt was introduced and featured on the vaudeville stage in the early 1900s.
Only 10 melody buttons and two bass buttons were used on the first accordions. Each melody tone had one reed and each melody button controlled two tones. The reeds were mounted in opposite directions so that one, such as the C, sounded on the draw of the bellows that is, by suction and the other, such as the D, sounded on the push, that is, by pressure.
On the first accordions, one bass button controlled the tonic note that is, the keynote and the other controlled the three notes of the tonic chord on the push. They sounded the dominant note and chord on the draw.
The single action accordion, as time went on, was given many improvements including the additional melody and bass buttons.
Today the accordion is especially popular in Austria and Switzerland.
In 1829 a smaller instrument was invented, using the accordion as a model. Called the concertina, the instrument was the invention of a man named Sir Charles Wheatstone. It is a small hexagonal, accordionlike instrument that is made in single action and double action versions.
In the 1930s registers were developed for the piano accordion. These were additional sets of reeds that provide varied tone colors.