hand accordion

Classification: 4 Aerophones / 41 Free aerophones / 412 Interruptive free aerophones / 412.1 Idiophonic interruptive aerophones or reeds / 412.13 Free reeds / 412.132 Sets of free reeds / 412.132-62-8 Sets of free reeds with flexible air reservoir, with keyboard
Maker: Unknown
Date: before 1923
Region: Carpathian area
Country: unknown
Owner: Franciszek Kotula Ethnographic Museum in Rzeszów
Inventory number: MRE 8055
Description: diatonic hand button accordion, two-row keyboard, 12 + 11 melodic keys and 2x4 bass keys; bellows made of 10 folds; 4 resonance holes on the bass side, finished with metal bells; a dozen-or-so identical resonance holes on the side; the instrument produces different sounds depending on whether the bellows stretches or tightens
Decoration: remnants of intarsia on the casing
Materials: wood, leather, mother-of-pearl, metal
Performance practice: after World War I the accordion became a popular component of folk bands (together with the violin and the drum), the hand variety becoming especially popular in Mazovia on the left side of the Vistula river (the areas of Łowicz and Rawa Mazowiecka) and in north Lesser Poland (the areas of Radom and Kielece), sometimes also in Subcarpathia
Catalog card by: Jolanta Pękacz / Zbigniew J. Przerembski


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