Bandoneon

What it means

The bandoneon is a hand-pulled instrument with square casing covers and a bellows between them. As with the accordion, free-swinging metal reeds produce the tone, but the operation is different: on both sides sit rows of buttons whose arrangement does not follow the order of a scale. Many builds are moreover bisonoric, that is, the same button sounds differently on the draw than on the press. The player must therefore master four different fingering patterns — left and right, each on draw and press.

Musical use

The instrument was developed in Germany in the nineteenth century and used at first in club and folk music. It gained greater significance when it reached South America and there became the core instrument of the tango; its sound — dense, breathing, with a rough edge — shapes this music to this day. Characteristic is the joining of sharp rhythmic accents with long, sustained lines, both from the same handling of the bellows. From the accordion it differs not only in the button arrangement but also in sound: it has no standard bass layout with ready-made chords, so that every voice is fingered singly.

Performance practice

Reckon that learning the fingering systems makes up the greater part of the initial work; scales in all four direction combinations therefore belong to the daily practice. The bellows is a means of expression and a substitute for breath at once — plan changes of direction at phrase boundaries and practise them without tone until they succeed noiselessly. With the bisonoric instrument the bellows change additionally determines which notes are reachable at all, which helps to determine the fingerings. Sit so that the instrument rests on the thigh and the bellows can run freely. Keep it stored dry and have the reeds checked regularly, since they react sensitively to moisture.

Remember that the loudness arises from the bellows pressure alone: an accent is produced by a short draw or press impulse, not by pressing the buttons harder. Practise such impulses separately from the fingerings until they succeed reliably. In an ensemble with strings and piano the balance is to be clarified, because the instrument quickly dominates in the low register. Keep spare parts and tools for small adjustments at hand, since historical instruments are sensitive and specialist workshops rare.