Accordion in the Americas

Helena Simonett is an assistant professor of Latin American studies, associate director of the Center for Latin American Studies, and adjunct assistant professor in the Blair School of Music at Vanderbilt University. She is the author of Banda: Mexican Musical Life Across Borders.

"An excellent collection of ethnomusicology scholarship that will be of interest to those who like world music, ethnography, or unusual instruments."--Library Journal "This book should help lift the accordion's reputation to the place it deserves for its role in music history. Highly recommended."--Choice "The Accordion in the Americas offers a history rich in insights drawn from the complex intertwining of society, race and culture in American music-making."--Times Literary Supplement "The Accordion in the Americas tells of the symbolism of the accordion and the role the instrument and its genres play in a variety of cultures. Few world instruments are as pervasive as the accordion and few are as under-represented in scholarly literature."--Journal of Folklore Research "Ridiculed as the old-world instrument of minority ethnic groups, the accordion has also been largely dismissed as a topic of historical or folkloristic inquiry. This edited volume rights this wrong and traces the accordion from its central European roots to 11 regional forms in the Americas. In this volume, the accordion has received its due recognition and respect as a folk instrument."--Journal of American Folklore "An in-depth introduction to the mechanical, musical, and social workings of free-reed instruments in the New World."--Journal of the Society for American Music "This cultural study of the accordion makes a major contribution to understanding the instrument's important social function within different ethnic cultures. The impressive group of contributors illuminates the importance of studying mass culture and indicates the accordion's enduring significance to many cultural and personal identities."--Victor R. Greene, author of A Singing Ambivalence: American Immigrants between Old World and New, 1830–1930

• Introduction   1HELENA SIMONETTChapter 1   From Old World to New Shores   19HELENA SIMONETTChapter 2   Accordion Jokes: A Folklorist's View   39RICHARD MARCHChapter 3   From Chanky-Chank to Yankee Chanks: The Cajun Accordion as Identity Symbol   44MARK F. DeWITTChapter 4   'Garde ici et 'garde la-bas: Creole Accordion in Louisiana   66JARED SNYDERChapter 5   "Tejano and Proud": Regional Accordion Traditions of South Texas and the Border Region   87CATHY RAGLANDChapter 6   Preserving Territory: The Changing Language of the Accordion in Tohono O'odham Waila Music   112JANET L. STURMANChapter 7   Accordions and Working-Class Culture along Lake Superior's South Shore   136JAMES P. LEARYChapter 8   Play Me a Tarantella, a Polka, or Jazz: Italian Americans and the Currency of Piano-Accordion Music   156CHRISTINE F. ZINNIChapter 9   The Klezmer Accordion: An Outsider among Outsiders   178JOSHUA HOROWITZChapter 10 Beyond Vallenato: The Accordion Traditions in Colombia   199EGBERTO BERMUDEZChapter 11 "A Hellish Instrument": The Story of the Tango Bandoneon   233MARIA SUSANA AZZIChapter 12 No ma'se oye el fuinfuan: The Noisy Accordion in the Dominican Republic   249SYDNEY HUTCHINSONChapter 13 Between the Folds of Luiz Gonzaga's Sanfona: Forro Music in Brazil   268MEGWEN LOVELESSChapter 14 The Accordion in New Scores: Paradigms of Authorship and Identity in William Schimmel's Musical "Realities"   295MARION S. JACOBSONGlossary   315Contributors   319Index   323