quatertone accordions?

Hi,

hope this is on topic for this list, I am looking for sources of
quarter toned (arabic / near east) tuned accordions. Any assistence
either in finding a source, or a more appropriate list would be
helpful.

thanks,

Evan Stuckless

> hope this is on topic for this list, I am looking for sources of
> quarter toned (arabic / near east) tuned accordions. Any assistence
> either in finding a source, or a more appropriate list would be
> helpful.

I guess you are referring to the "quartertone tuned" accordions used
in some middle eastern and east european styles. They are really just
regular 12-tone accordions where some notes have been retuned by
filing the reeds, lowering them by a quartertone.

Basically any accordion tuner could do this, as long as you know which
notes to change. I am not sure myself which notes they detune, so i
can not specify exactly. Also, they might only retune some of the
registers, keeping some in "straight" 12-tet for use in different tunes.

As for accordions especially made for microtonal tunings, there aren't
any that i know of. Which is a shame, cause the button accordion
concept has great potential for being expanded to a full microtonal
system-with a truly generalized keyboard. It would be possible to
construct one with the right resources, which is also what i am
planning to do some day.

> Evan Stuckless

/Mats Öljare

New site coming soon!

--- In tuning@y..., "oljare" <oljare@h...> wrote:
> ... As for accordions especially made for microtonal tunings, there
aren't
> any that i know of. Which is a shame, cause the button accordion
> concept has great potential for being expanded to a full microtonal
> system-with a truly generalized keyboard. It would be possible to
> construct one with the right resources, which is also what i am
> planning to do some day.
>
> /Mats Öljare

I guess it's time to let the cat out of the bag -- I play the
accordion, and I play it very well -- it's my #1 instrument, which
I've played for over 50 years.

The type that I now (since 1962) play does not have a conventional
left hand bass system -- each bass button sounds a single note (or
octaves of a single note, depending on how many reeds are selected to
play) -- no chord buttons; this is called a "free bass" system. This
is not the "bassetti" (a type of generalized) free bass system that
is found in both the U.S. and Europe (vertical rows in minor thirds),
nor is it the "converter" (non-generalized) free bass system that has
octaves two rows apart (along a diagonal direction). Rather it is a
very rare (less than 100 instruments in existence) free bass system
(generalized, with vertical rows in *major* thirds) invented by Mario
Moschino (now deceased) in Chicago in the 1960's. The arrangement of
buttons is far, far superior (it's really no contest) for fingering
facility to that of either the bassetti or converter systems, but it
just didn't have the money behind it to get the marketing push that
the other two systems had back then (all three systems appeared on
the market in the early 1960's). When switching to this system, I
abandoned the old Stradella (bass & chord button) system and have
never desired to go back.

It has often occurred to me that the accordion (with free bass left
hand, of course) would be an ideal microtonal keyboard instrument --
it's very portable, stable in pitch, and has a timbre rich in
(harmonic) partials that would easily define intervals beyond the 5
limit.

Unfortunately, the accordion has also been the butt of many jokes. I
recall a two-panel cartoon depicting the recently deceased going to
different destinations in the afterlife: 1) Welcome to heaven;
here's your harp. 2) Welcome to hell; here's your accordion.

There are several reasons why this instrument is often made fun of:

1) Less expensive instruments have machine-made reeds, which are
inferior in quality to hand-made reeds and have a less desirable
sound;

2) Less expensive instruments lack resonating chambers, which amplify
the lower partials of some of the reeds, which gives a mellower
sound;

3) Accordion players often don't have a great deal of musicianship.
In particular, care must be taken to control the bellows so as to
maintain a steady flow of air to avoid a "heaving" sound
or "choppiness";

4) The prefabricated chords of the standard Stradella bass system
give a characteristic "cheap" sound that many musicians find
offensive.

Now to get to the bottom line: I have a design for a generalized
microtonal free-bass system, an adaptation of the Bosanquet keyboard
that could be played fluently by the left hand without requiring the
use of the thumb. Systems of up to 31 tones/octave would be possible
using it. As with the Moschino system, an interval of a tenth would
be an easy reach, and even a double octave would be possible.

To go along with this, I also have dimensions for a treble (i.e.,
right-hand) keyboard utilizing the Bosanquet geometry (only size and
shape of keys being different from previous designs or
implementations).

Here's the challenge: If you're going to implement a tonal system on
an accordion, you can't use more than one tuning on a given
instrument, and it should probably not be any more than about 22
tones per octave (considering space limitations). I would like to
have an instrument that would:

1) Permit playing most conventional diatonic music (i.e., without a
comma problem);

2) Offer a circle of more than 12 fifths around which I could freely
modulate; and

3) Allow me to play 15-limit otonalities in at least 3 different keys
(temperament is okay, but not so much as to lose the identities of
ratios of 11 and 13);

4) Offer *all* of the above with uniform fingering patterns in *all*
available keys (utilizing some duplicate keys, of course). (Left and
right hand patterns are allowed to differ somewhat from each other.)

Does this sound impossible? I have a solution for the above which
will map onto a Bosanquet generalized keyboard. (One of the variable
tuning banks of my Scalatron is currently tuned this way.) Would
anyone venture a guess as to how it could be done (at least on the
Scalatron)?

--George

> Here's the challenge: If you're going to implement a tonal system on
> an accordion, you can't use more than one tuning on a given
> instrument, and it should probably not be any more than about 22
> tones per octave (considering space limitations). I would like to
> have an instrument that would:
>
> 1) Permit playing most conventional diatonic music (i.e., without a
> comma problem);
>
> 2) Offer a circle of more than 12 fifths around which I could freely
> modulate; and
>
> 3) Allow me to play 15-limit otonalities in at least 3 different keys
> (temperament is okay, but not so much as to lose the identities of
> ratios of 11 and 13);

Well, what you are requesting here is paradoxal to start with, tuning
wise. 31-tet fulfills most of what you mention here, but it might be
too many notes. My interest is in 19 and 24-tet. I don't know what
kind of buttons you're after, but i consider the regular right hand
chromatic button type to work well enough, coupled with a matching
system in the left hand.

/Mats Öljare

--- In tuning@y..., "oljare" <oljare@h...> wrote:
>
[gs:]
> > Here's the challenge: ...
> > ... I would like to have an instrument that would:
> >
> > 1) Permit playing most conventional diatonic music (i.e., without
a
> > comma problem);
> >
> > 2) Offer a circle of more than 12 fifths around which I could
freely
> > modulate; and
> >
> > 3) Allow me to play 15-limit otonalities in at least 3 different
keys
> > (temperament is okay, but not so much as to lose the identities
of
> > ratios of 11 and 13);
>
> Well, what you are requesting here is paradoxal to start with,
tuning
> wise.

Yes, coming up with a tuning is essence of the challenge -- it looks
impossible, but it can be done! (I don't imagine there will be any
takers -- it took me several years to figure out how to do it. I'll
post the solution in a few days.)

> 31-tet fulfills most of what you mention here, but it might be
> too many notes.

Yes; it's significantly more than 22.

> My interest is in 19 and 24-tet.

Then I know that my solution will definitely interest you.

> I don't know what
> kind of buttons you're after, but i consider the regular right hand
> chromatic button type to work well enough,

This wasn't part of the challenge, but yes, I would consider the size
and shape of the conventional buttons (both right and left hand)
suitable. However, I would slant the rows in order to keep all
buttons an octave apart the same distance from the edge.

> coupled with a matching system in the left hand.

Implementation of the generalized Bosanquet geometry for the left
hand button-board requires some modification in light of the fact
that the left thumb cannot be used, which has at least two
consequences:

1) The cross-over-the-thumb scale technique used for the right hand
is not available for the left, so unless some modification were made,
unnatural twisting would occur in the fingering technique. (This
problem is encountered with the bassetti free bass system, but
elegantly solved with the Moschino system.)

2) The physical distance the fingers can reach is less, so without
any modification the interval reach would be restricted.

My microtonal bass-system modification takes both of these factors
into account. (Diagrams will be put on-line soon.)

To add to my prior posting, I have another very good reason why the
accordion is often made fun of:

5) The many harmonics in the timbre of the instrument make the
considerable error of the 12-tone equal temperament all too evident,
if not positively horrendous.

And I have another reason why it would be an excellent microtonal
instrument: It has a naturally "straight" sound, lacking the sort of
devices intended to enhance or liven up electronic sounds (vibrato,
phase shifting, etc.) that tend to obscure the differences between 12-
ET and alternate tunings. Of course, this assumes that in a
microtonal instrument unisons will not be intentionally off-tuned to
produce the characteristic beating of what is called a "wet" tuning.

--George