Western New York Accordion Club

 Said to be several thousand years old, the Sheng or Sheng is one of the oldest musical insturments and is the ancestor of the accordion. The Sheng consists of 17 to 36 bamboo pipes mounted on a goard shaped wind chamber. each pipe is affixed to a reed. Blowing or inhailing air (like a harmonica) through a metal tub conntecting the base while covering one or more air holes on the bamboo pipes produces notes or chords.

Legend has it that the mythological Yellow Emperor, Huangdi, discpatched Ling Lun to estalbish a central pitch to which the nation's music would be tuned. Traveling to a valley in the Tibetan Himalayas, Ling Lun selected a bambook stalk of 3.9 inches and the pitch blrow through the stalk because the standard pitch.  Ling Lun then observed six male and six female phoenxis (also a mythological bird which symbolized harmony) and hcose eleven other bamboo pipes of varying lengths to reflect the birds' beautiful voices. this division of the octive into twelve parts repesented cosmic harmony (yang and yin). Ling Lun affixed these bamboo pipes into a gourd, arrenging them in the shape of a phoenix and presented the sheng ("sublime voice") to the Emperor.

The Sheng continues to be sued in modern China, uppdated with brass reeds and a metal wind chamber.                                 

The introduction of the Sheng to the West is also steeped in legend. By some accounts, Marco Polo returned to Europe with a Sheng. The Sheng was also known to the Court society of St. Petersburg, Russia in the 1740's. French sources claim that the first sheng was sent from China to Paris in1770 by a Jesuit missionary.

In the 18th centruy, a wave of free reed instruments developed including the mouth blown harmonica, later to be manufactured by Matthias Honor by mass production in Trossingen, Germanuy in the 1850's. 

In 1821 Christian Buschman of Berlin patended a " Handaoline" which operated wtih levers. In 18929 Cyrillus Demina of Vienna patented the " akkordeon" wwith accompanying chord buttoms. M. Button of Paris introduced an accordion with piano keys (but without any chord buttons.

 Sir Charles Wheatstone patented the concertina in 1829 and In 1829. Sir Charles Wheatstone, an Englishman, patented the concertina.  In the 1850's, Heinrich Band of Germany developed a square accordion, known as a "bandoneon," which became popular in South America.    

Italy became a center of accordion manufacturing in the late 1880's.  Tession Javani developed an accordion with preset registers including violina, flute, organ and tremelo. Mariano Dallape developed a system of bass buttons arranged in the Circle of Fifths (see Accordion Anatomy) with a bass and counterbass rows, and four rows of chords. This became known as the "stradella system."

In the early 1900's, the Hohner Company of Trossingen, Germany, expanded its harmonica factory to the production of accordions and in the 1920's introduced an accordion orchestera which played classical pieces from sheet music and toured Europe.

Guido Diero introduced the Piano Accordion to the United States and became one of the most popular (and highly paid) accordion players in the early 20th century.  He was, for a time, married to Mae West.

As America became obsessed with Vaudeville, Vaudville became obsessed with the accordion.

By the 1930's accordion schools flourished.

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