Since 2005, July 11 is commemorated as the National Bandoneon Day, declared by the National Congress through law 26.035 and sanctioned on May 18 of the same year. The date was not arbitrary: it was chosen because of the birth of Aníbal Troilo, the "Bandoneón Mayor de Buenos Aires", better known as "Pichuco", composer and orchestra conductor and emblem of our tango. This law was promoted by Francisco Torné (Zita Troilo's grandson) and the poet Horacio Ferrer, president of the Academia Nacional del Tango.
Musicologists Eric von Hombostel and Curt Sachs classify the bandoneon as a portable, bellows-operated, button-operated aerophone, with simultaneous playing of both hands, by the action of pressurized air with a system of metal reeds. On the right side are the so-called tuned edges and on the left side, in a lower octave, the basses.
Another categorization is that bandoneons can be chromatic or achromatic. The chromatic ones emit the same note opening or closing the bandoneon, the first ones to be manufactured, and which continued to be used in Europe. In the achromatics, opening emits one note and closing emits a different one, thus being able to obtain dissonance or assonance. The achromatics were adopted by tango performers.
The origins of the instrument
The origins of this instrument date back to 19th century Germany, when it was just a portable church organ. It is an evolution of the accordion (accordion, in German). It is usually attributed to the luthier Heinrich Band, who created a portable instrument inspired by the concertina, to provide music to small churches that could not afford to buy or maintain organs or harmoniums.
Another version states that Cyrill Demian, Armenian inventor, organ and piano maker, patented the bandoneon on May 6, 1829 in Vienna.
Finally, its invention is attributed to Carl Friedrich (or Herman) "Uhlig", who presented it in 1830 at the Liepzig Fair, modifying the English concertina with hexagonal boxes.
Bandoneons of gold
The golden age of bandoneon making dates back to 1864, when Alfred Arnold, from Saxony, started production and manufacture on an industrial scale, launching his brand A-A on the market. In 1911 he founded the Alfred Arnold Bandonion, Konzertina und Piano Accordion Spezlal Fabrik, which manufactured the Premier and America brands until 1949 (with interruptions during the World Wars). At the end of World War II, the original matrices were destroyed and the new ones never achieved the same quality as the originals. They were manufactured until 1970.
In the same year as Arnold, Ernst Louis Arnold founded the Ernest Louis Arnold Babdonion und Konzertina Fabrik, whose models were marketed in our country under the ELA brand.
Rioplatenses
The bandoneon arrived in the Río de la Plata between 1870 and 1880, forming a stable part of the tango orchestras in the early 20th century. It is not clear who introduced it first. Some historians maintain that it was Tomas Moor, an English sailor, others, on the other hand, that it was a Brazilian and there is also the version that it was a German tropero. Others believe that a son of Band came with the instrument that his father had made and gave the first lessons on its use to a native, José Santa Cruz, who then transmitted his knowledge to his followers.
The first instrumentalists in Buenos Aires were, among others, El Pardo Sebastián Ramos Mejía, Antonio Chiappe, Mazzuchelli, Zambrano. They were followed by El Tano Genaro Expósito, Vicente Greco, Juan Maglio Pacho, Eduardo Arolas, Manuel Pizarro and other legendary and famous names in the history of tango, who incorporated it on their knees instead of playing it standing up. The bandoneon gained prominence in the Generation of 1910, in the so-called Orquesta típica criolla by Vicente Greco.
Other fundamental names of tango were De Leone, Minotto, Laurenz. Later, Troilo, Scorticasti, Portier, Ríos, Ahumada. Finally, Piazzolla, Leopoldo Federico, Medero and Rovira.
Alejandro Barletta, creator of the first bandoneon school, incorporated the bandoneon into academic music, performing for the first time in the history of music G.E. Handel's Concerto No. 4 for organ and orchestra accompanied by the Paris orchestra in 1951.
Bandoneon woman
Francisca "Paquita" Bernardo, known as La Flor de Villa Crespo, was the first professional bandoneon player in our country. She founded in 1921 the Paquita Orchestra, a sextet whose pianist was a teenager named Osvaldo Pugliese. Paquita got her recognition, she participated in the Gran Fiesta del Tango organized by the Sociedad de Compositores at the Teatro Coliseo, in which, out of a hundred musicians she was the only woman. Unfortunately there are no recordings of her work. Paquita died before she was twenty-five years old. Other female bandoneonists would follow, such as Fermina Maristany and Celia Maldonado.
SOURCE: www.cultura.gob.ar