3423  German and Italian influence

Date: Sat, 14 May 2005 09:45:15 -0700
From: Igor Polk <ipolk@VIRTUAR.COM>
Subject: German and Italian influence

How about German and Italian influence?
Isn't bandoneon a German instrument?
I believe that the whole idea of couple dance came from waltz which at times
also was danced very close.
And Italian!
Tango is just soaked in Italian music culture!

What do they do, those poor European immigrants looking for freedom at the
American continent while out of job?
Dancing!

Igor Polk

Date: Sat, 14 May 2005 21:39:58 +0200
From: Christian Lüthen <christian.luethen@GMX.NET>
Subject: The Bandoneon ... Re: German and Italian influence

You're right, Igor! :-)

On 14 May 2005 at 9:45, Igor Polk wrote:

> Isn't bandoneon a German instrument?

Invented by Heinrich Band, a music teacher from Krefeld, Germany, as a
later form of Concertina. Originally writen with an "i", which for the
argentinian market changed to "e" Bandonion vs Bandoneon..

Different forms with different keyboard systems exist, of which the
'Einheits-Bandonion' ["unified Bandonion"] was mostly played in Germany -
a lot in the Ruhr-area were (very) big miner-orchestras existed.

The most masochistic to learn keyboard system, the so called "Rheinische
Lage" [Krefeld lies on the river Rhine, about 70 km north (downstream) of
Cologne], somehow got to Buenos Aires and survived in the Bandoneon
used in tango.

There are also differences in the tuning and the reads: some Bandonions
have 3 reads sounding at the same time, but the (tango) Bandoneon has
only two reads sounding when one button is pushed, and those two are
tuned precisely to an octave giving this unique sound.

The most extensive Bandoneon source on the web is Christian Mensing's
page:
https://www.inorg.chem.ethz.ch/tango/band/bandoneon.html

To get frighted of learning to play bandoneon yourself check out Uwe
Hartenhauers keyboard scheme of the 142 voice / 72 button Rheinische
Lage keyboard:
https://www.bandoneon-hartenhauer.de/Bandoneons/grifftabelleuh14.html

Oh yes, I should not forget to warn you of another detail of the bandoneon
keyboard: pushing the same button opening the bellow gives a different
tone than closing the bellow! :-))


Uwe is one of the producers of NEW bandoneons:
https://www.bandoneon-hartenhauer.de/

One other premier source for new Bandonion is "Bandonionfabrik
Carlsfeld":
https://www.bandonion-carlsfeld.de/
They even hold the brand name rights of the original "Alfred Arnold" ["AA"]
which were considered the best from the golden times of tango.

Modern / new bandonions have reached a very high level of perfection.
Argentinian Bandoneon professional Victor Villena plays on either of the
two above mentioned new bandoneons, and both sound very good as I
can state.


So much ... enjoy tango!
Christian








christian@eTanguero.net
https://www.eTanguero.net/