Going far afield for this one, Ida Furusæter playing at a 2010 Estonian Lõõtspillifestivalil festival. I’ve watched this one dozens of times and keep coming back to it. Check out her left hand. Pretty sure her basses are unisonoric. It is to die for. This one is dedicated to friend, Edda Thiele!
Category: lõõtspill
Lõõtspiel Marvel
Accordéonaire friend Astrid Tøndel drew my attention to the below video. I have written briefly before about the lõõtspiel, an utterly charming Estonian member of the free reed family. I’ll let the music speak for itself.
25,000 Visits! Thank you!
Last week, I had a minor celebration as the hits ticker crossed over the 25K line. For a blog like this one, covering an instrument and music genre that could both be described as obscure, that’s pretty danged good. The title of the blog – a French-ish word that doesn’t actually exist – came from an album I put out in 2003. I created this blog just as a space to explore my fascination and to find others interested in doing the same. It worked!
Some facts that you might find interesting:
- My first post, in January 2011, was a tribute to Bernard Loffett.
- The two posts that draw most traffic are A Brief History of French Accordion (1046 hits) and Frédéric Paris and La Chavanée. (1257)
- I’ve done two series that I’m proud of, the first about my trip to Alsace, the second about the “La Bourrée” tunebook from 1929.
- Easily the most exciting thing I’ve done with the blog is interview Frédéric Paris himself. Fan boi? Moi?
- I’ve been averaging about 70 hits a day, though there are spikes when a new piece goes up. There are always a few bots hitting the page, though. At one point, a bot on a friend’s blog took aim at mine and my page a few hundred times over a week. I have no idea why anyone would do that.
- The top referring site, by far, is melodeon.net, followed by concertina.net. Many of the pieces that I’ve written here, have started out as a conversation on one of those boards.
- “Frédéric Paris” is the number one search term that leads here. “Lõõtspill” is number ten.
- Through this whole process, Andy from Vermont, has been a great ally, support, and resource. Thank you, Andy!
This blogging stuff has been a blast, and has inspired me to play more then ever. I appreciate the readers, and will endeavor to continue giving satisfaction. I’m hoping to do an interview with Sylvain Piron, and, fingers crossed, Jean Blanchard. I missed an opportunity when I recently had my Saltarelle worked on and forgot to ask the fettler to take pictures, so I’m hoping to take a pilgrimage to The Button Box and talk extensively with the folks there.
Again. Thanks, everyone.
A Good Question!
In comments, the inimitable Tomb asked the following question:
Alright, Professor Chapin, here’s my latest in what will be a long line of questions from a novice. The history of the bellows that you’ve published so far seems almost entirely centered in England and France. This goes against my (assumingly incorrect) impression that Italian, Greek and Spanish folk music (maybe I should just say Mediterranean music) always seemed to have some sort of bellows wheezing in it somewhere. Are the European southerners the thieves of their northern cousins’ genius?
Thanks for the question! The classic, great names in accordion making are Italian (Castagnari and Salterelle, for example) or German (Weltmeister and the ubiquitous Hohner). This is an almost criminal oversimplification, but it serves for the moment (Andy?). The type of accordion I play has two rows tuned a fifth apart (G/C). This is called a Vienna tuning (more colloquially, “quint tuned”). England, Ireland, and France have great accordion traditions, very visible in the US. But there’s also a great Scandinavian tradition (hello, my Minnesota friends) that I need to learn more about, and an Eastern European tradition. In short, every musical tradition from the Caspians to the Andes, including your Mediterranean faves, has some sort of squeezebox going for it.
 |
| Peeter Joosep on lõõtspill, at the 2008 Lõõtspillifestival. |
Very often, the traditions adopt piano or chromatic accordions for their purposes, or they stay in the diatonic world but modify the instrument to suit their needs. Estonia, for example, has it’s own type of accordion called a Lõõtspill. On this side of the Atlantic, Quebec, Louisiana, and Tex-Mex each have a well-developed characteristic style. And this doesn’t even get into the concertina thing.
So why am I focused on mainly France, and some England? Well, aside from accordions themselves — which are, you must admit, very clever — I am especially fascinated by (enamored with? obsessed on?) the repertoire of Central France, Alsace, Brittany, England, etc. Thus the focus of this page. It’s a small slice of squeeze-world, but it’s where I’m choosing to live.
L'Accordeonaire 