1296 Bandoneon keyboard layout
Date: Tue, 20 May 2003 19:46:56 -0700
From: Rick FromPortland <pruneshrub04@YAHOO.COM>
Subject: Bandoneon keyboard layout
or how in the heck do you play the thing? I was monkeying around with Alex's that other day. Pete & I were scoping out the wiring/conduit for his new awning. He hinted at, that playing the thing is kinda a proprietary, trade secret or something? The buttons didn't have any markings, numbers, notes on them. I nosed around the net & found various stabs at standardizing the layout, etc. I played alto & baritone sax in Franklin High's band in the mid 70s, & the layout, keying, scales were quite straightforward. If anyone has a simple explanation of how they play this beautiful instrument, I'd love to hear it. Looks like there is a ton of keys, a lever of somekind & many combinations of keystrokes?
Thanks...R
Date: Tue, 20 May 2003 23:25:44 -0700
From: Rick FromPortland <pruneshrub04@YAHOO.COM>
Subject: Re: Bandoneon keyboard layout
Spoke too soon. I received a tip on a good website, that explains the whole thing. This is such a beautiful sounding instrument. I could just imagine 10 musicians playing them, wow...too cool...
R
Date: Wed, 21 May 2003 02:48:39 -0400
From: Dirk J Bakker <dbakker@MINDSPRING.COM>
Subject: Re: Bandoneon keyboard layout
Rick,
In case you have not seen these, you may want to:
https://laue.ethz.ch/cm/band/node13.html
https://laue.ethz.ch/cm/band/bandoneon.html
I recently acquired an ELA 71-key bisonoric (142 voices) bandoneon along
with the Ambros 'Metodo Completo para Bandoneon' from Agustin Raffo in
Argentina. The seemingly 'chaotic' button layout allows for chords of
very broad range, so don't let it intimidate you. There is also a tango
book with accompanying CD for practice, which you might want to
consider. I've seen it as well as other methods for sale on eBay
occassionally.
https://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item%29451241&category7
There are markings that may have worn off indicating the notes. You
don't say what type Alex's is, so I am attaching (separately to your
mail address) three pdf files one for a 142 bisonoric (71 buttons with
different sound depending on opening or closing of the bellows), another
for a 144 bisonoric both used in Tango, and another for the Rademacher
(unisonoric) chromatic version, derived for people more familiar with
the piano. Fortunately, the key layouts are built on the simpler earlier
versions so they aren't totally different. The lever allows air in the
bellows to escape or aspirate without making a sound through the reeds.
Generally the right hand has treble range and the left bass with
overlap. There are voices that are repeated so this is normal. Vibrato
is accomplished by vibrating the instrument as you open or close it.
HTH,
Dirk
Rick FromPortland wrote:
>or how in the heck do you play the thing? I was monkeying around with Alex's that other day. Pete & I were scoping out the wiring/conduit for his new awning. He hinted at, that playing the thing is kinda a proprietary, trade secret or something? The buttons didn't have any markings, numbers, notes on them. I nosed around the net & found various stabs at standardizing the layout, etc. I played alto & baritone sax in Franklin High's band in the mid 70s, & the layout, keying, scales were quite straightforward. If anyone has a simple explanation of how they play this beautiful instrument, I'd love to hear it. Looks like there is a ton of keys, a lever of somekind & many combinations of keystrokes?
>
>Thanks...R
>
>
>
>
>
>
Date: Wed, 21 May 2003 07:31:37 -0400
From: Ba Tango <rhink2@NETSCAPE.NET>
Subject: Bandoneon keyboard layout
I was told by Dale Meyer, bandoneonist and the former leader of S.F.'s Strictly Tango, who wrote a masters dissertation on the instrument, that the bandoneon was Johann Band's solution for rural churches that could not afford a pipe organ. The bandoneon was a "volk" (as in people's) instrument. As such, there were no bandoneon-makers who felt they must conform to any standards, because there were none. When someone requested a new tone, they would drill a hole wherever there was room and put in a new reed. This practice met the needs of isolated rural communities. Standarization of the keyboard layout came later when a global market for the bandoneon developed.
Bob Hink
Try AOL and get 1045 hours FREE for 45 days!
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Date: Wed, 21 May 2003 20:39:10 +0900
From: astrid <astrid@RUBY.PLALA.OR.JP>
Subject: Re: Bandoneon keyboard layout
I once heard, that the principle of the bandoneon keyboardb layout is not
the same as the piano (all the notes in a row), but rather one comparable to
a typewriter...
Date: Wed, 21 May 2003 14:48:43 +0200
From: Christian Lüthen <christian.luethen@GMX.NET>
Subject: Re: Bandoneon keyboard layout
Bob Hink said:
> I was told by Dale Meyer, bandoneonist and the former leader of S.F.'s
> Strictly Tango, who wrote a masters dissertation on the instrument,
that's interesting! where to get a copy of that dissertation? or perhaps,
even simple, a .pdf-version. would be very grateful.
> that the
> bandoneon was Johann Band's solution for rural churches that could not
> afford a pipe organ.
excuse me for correcting but his given name was "Heinrich".
the instrument was "invented" in my home town of Krefeld, germany, a town
that lies about 50 km north of Cologne on the river rhine.
> The bandoneon was a "volk" (as in people's) instrument.
it later turned to be one: mine workers of the Ruhr area ["Ruhrgebiet"] had
big big Bandonion-orchestra (they still use the old spelling with an 'i':
BandonIon instead of BandonEon.) originally it was meant, as you stated, as a
replacement for an organ. that's why you can perfectly play ie. "tocatta &
fuge" by Bach on a bandoneon.
> As such, there were no bandoneon-makers who felt they must conform to any
> standards, because there were none. When someone requested a new tone,
they
> would drill a hole wherever there was room and put in a new reed. This
> practice met the needs of isolated rural communities. Standarization of
the
> keyboard layout came later when a global market for the bandoneon
developed.
and then there were several: the 'old' so called "rheinische Lage" [142
tone, 71 keys, bisonoric] which was used for tango in Argentina was continiously
produced for the argentinian market even when in europe other versions had
become popular [as ie. the "Einheitsbandoneon"]. If you want to play tango you
should get one of those.
Astrid said:
> I once heard, that the principle of the bandoneon keyboardb layout is not
> the same as the piano (all the notes in a row), but rather one comparable
> to a typewriter...
Well ... learning typewriting is much more simple! :-)
As someone once told me when starting to learn playing Bandoneon you'd feel
like a motoric-legasthenic. And actually this does not at all represents the
real difficulty! :-)) In other words: trying to play this instrument has a
sort of masochism side! :-))
Christian
--
christian@eTanguero.net
https://www.eTanguero.net
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Date: Thu, 29 May 2003 18:59:24 -0700
From: Rick FromPortland <pruneshrub04@YAHOO.COM>
Subject: Re: Bandoneon keyboard layout
ok, so we're forming electrical conduit (snooty way of saying "bending"!) for the new awning. I looked at the Bandoneon & it has 38 keys on the Right & 34 Keys on the Left. Its a Model AA, circa 1921. I have no idea what AA stands for. There's some hieroglphyic markings near some of the buttons: 4/4, 3/0, ?/?
sparky
"Sometimes the very thing you're looking for Is the one thing you can't see
And now we're standing face to face Isn't this world a crazy place?
Just when I thought our chance had passed You go and save the best for last" Save The Best For Last - Vanessa Williams
Date: Fri, 30 May 2003 02:28:10 -0400
From: Dirk J Bakker <dbakker@MINDSPRING.COM>
Subject: Re: Bandoneon keyboard layout
Sounds like you have a 144 tone Einheitsbandoneon
<https://laue.ethz.ch/cm/pic/pdf/Ein_144.pdf> made by Alfred Arnold. You
can verify my guess, if you compare the notes to those in the pdf. Those
markings designate the button, see:
https://laue.ethz.ch/cm/band/node14.html . On my 142 ELA the layers of
varnish have nearly obscured the 'hieroglyphics'.
That 144 layout is said to be used less for Tango than the 142. Exactly
why, I would like to know myself, other than that the arrangement of
positions is not the same as the 142 'Argentinian' model.
Dirk
Rick FromPortland wrote:
>ok, so we're forming electrical conduit (snooty way of saying "bending"!) for the new awning. I looked at the Bandoneon & it has 38 keys on the Right & 34 Keys on the Left. Its a Model AA, circa 1921. I have no idea what AA stands for. There's some hieroglphyic markings near some of the buttons: 4/4, 3/0, ?/?
>
>sparky
>
>
>"Sometimes the very thing you're looking for Is the one thing you can't see
>And now we're standing face to face Isn't this world a crazy place?
>Just when I thought our chance had passed You go and save the best for last" Save The Best For Last - Vanessa Williams
>
>
>
>
>
>
