Credited to Austria. Britannica says the origin is debated among researchers. Many credit Friedrich Buschmann, who patented the Handaoline in Berlin in 1822, while others credit Demian, whose 1829 Vienna patent was a modification of it and introduced the name accordion.
How it began
On May 6, 1829, the Vienna instrument maker Cyrill Demian and his sons Karl and Guido presented a new instrument to the authorities for a patent. The patent was granted on May 23, 1829, under the name "accordion," which Demian coined. Britannica describes it as a modification of the Handaoline, with a small manual bellows and five keys.
Before it existed
Mouth harmonicas with reed chambers and diatonic key arrangements had been on sale in Vienna for many years, along with larger instruments driven by hand bellows. In 1822 C. Friedrich L. Buschmann had patented his Handaoline in Berlin, which many regard as the invention of the accordion.
How it works
Demian's instrument was a small box, 7 to 9 inches long, with metal reeds and a bellows worked by one hand. Each key sounded a whole chord of three to five voices, and each gave two different chords, one on the pull of the bellows and one on the push. In a modern accordion, free reeds sit beside valves that admit air when a key or button is pressed. A reed sounds when air flows from one side only, so reeds are fitted in pairs for press and draw.
How it spread
Numerous variations soon followed. Early single-action accordions were developed in Austria and Switzerland by adding a second row of treble buttons. The piano accordion, with a piano-style keyboard for the right hand, appeared in France in the mid-19th century, and Heinrich Band of Krefeld devised the bandonion in the 1840s. In the second half of the century the accordion reached Latin America and the Caribbean. Accordions are played as both concert and folk instruments. The piano accordion and the bandonion are leading solo instruments in Argentine tango orchestras.
