Favourite Classical Accordion Composers?

[saundersbp]

I was wondering what people's favourite classical accordion composers were? By this I mean music written specifically for the accordion rather than another instrument (i.e. Bach, Mozart etc are out!). My suspicion is this music isn't that well explored .......

 

[Ffingers]

I was wondering what people's favourite classical accordion composers were? By this I mean music written specifically for the accordion rather than another instrument (i.e. Bach, Mozart etc are out!). My suspicion is this music isn't that well explored .......

Depends, dunnit, on what you mean by "classical" - style or period.
Not many composers for accordion in the 'Classical Period', etc.
A lack of instruments to play on, I guess

 

[losthobos]

Walker....

 

[Dingo40]

I was wondering what people's favourite classical accordion composers were?

Three that come to mind are Guido Deiro, his brother Pietro Deiro, and Pietro Frosini.
See here::

guido Deiro - Google Search

Here:

Pietro Deiro accordionist - Google Search

And here :

accordionist frosini - Google Search

 

[Dingo40]

There's this site:

musical composers for accordionists - Google Search

 

[Walker]

Walker....

Thanks pal, you're too kind!



Hey Ben, how about Luciano Berio - Sequenza XIII (for accordion)

 

[KillTheAlarm]

I've played V. Semyonov; F. Angelis has great pieces too. They appear on accordion competitions all the time though.

Kimmo Pohjonen, Pauline Oliveros, Yegor Zabelov are great, really original yet engaging stuff.

Martin Lohse created my favorite piece for accordion, "Passing" from "Mobile - works for solo accordion"

Spotify had an official playlist (seems that it's deleted now), called "Rise of classical accordion", lots of great finds there.

 

[Tom]

I was wondering what people's favourite classical accordion composers were? By this I mean music written specifically for the accordion rather than another instrument (i.e. Bach, Mozart etc are out!). My suspicion is this music isn't that well explored .......

Well, in my current interests, I would probably have to go with the Brazilians, Dominguinhos, Sivuca, Gonzaga. I also don’t know how to define “classical” in today’s world, but the above writers definitely wrote tunes specifically for the accordion, many of which are widely played. Maybe “classical” has to mean “for listening, not for dancing” or “kind of long and serious” though, I don’t know.

 

[Walker]

Martin Lohse created my favorite piece for accordion, "Passing" from "Mobile - works for solo accordion"

Ah yes... Martin Lohse. I first heard his work on a recording of Hanzhi Wang called On The Path to H. C. Andersen - an enchanting CD of original accordion music by Danish composers inspired by fairy tales. From the little I have heard, some of his work has a minimalist edge and almost reminds me a little of Philip Glass and Steve Reich.

 

[saundersbp]

Luciano Berio - Sequenza XIII (for accordion

Never got this sort of music...

Frosini

An Italian!

I've played V. Semyonov; F. Angelis has great pieces too. They appear on accordion competitions all the time though.

Kimmo Pohjonen, Pauline Oliveros, Yegor Zabelov are great, really original yet engaging stuff.

Martin Lohse created my favorite piece for accordion, "Passing" from "Mobile - works for solo accordion"

This is really interesting! I'd never heard of Martin Lohse but I like it - thank you! Have you played any of his pieces? Which Semyonov have you learnt?

would probably have to go with the Brazilians, Dominguinhos, Sivuca, Gonzaga.

I was listening to some of these while I was washing up (big meal took ages!). Very attractive.

Ah yes... Martin Lohse. I first heard his work on a recording of Hanzhi Wang called On The Path to H. C. Andersen - an enchanting CD of original accordion music by Danish composers inspired by fairy tales.

You are such a mine of information. I've just looked up the CD and it's really lovely, immediately recognisable and tuneful music.

Update: music now found as a free download from the composer. Very sensible if you want your music to be played!

 

[saundersbp]

Martin Lohse

Listening to more. Sounds like loads of notes meets Arvo Part and you get a sort of scandi virtuosic Philip Glass sound. (but somehow it feels like I've heard it before, which I havent!). The jury is out for me......

 

[Walker]

)Never got this sort of music...​

Ah, when it comes to Berio's Sequenzas, I can't claim to understand them either. They are highly experimental and push the boundaries of the expressive potentials, texture and techniques of the solo instruments included. I just let them "wash over me" and be glad the accordion received an invitation to the party.

The thing is, I think the Sequenzas probably matter in the bigger scheme of things... Berio started his Sequenzas in 1958 and they came to a conclusion in 2002. The list of guests at the Round Table of classical music is bewilderingly complicated but I've made an attempt to list them.

Included with the Sequenzas are the alternate Sequenzas (at the request of great musicians who really wanted a piece of Berio) and other related solo works too.

I Flute (1958)
II Harp (1963)
III Woman's voice (1965)
IV Piano (1966)
V Trombone (1965)
VI Viola (1967)
VIb Cello (1981)
VII Oboe (1969, revised 2000)
VIIb Soprano Saxophone
VIII Violin (1976)
IXa Clarinet (1980)
IXb Alto Saxophone (1981)
IXc Bass Clarinet (1980)
X Trumpet and Piano resonance (1984)
XI Guitar (1987/88)
XII Bassoon (1995)
XIII Accordion (1995)
XIVa Cello (2002)
XIVb Contrabass

Rounds (Harpsichord)
Gesti (Recorder)
Fa-Si (Organ)
Les mots sont allés… (Cello)
Lied (Clarinet)
Comma (Eb Clarinet)
Psy (Contrabass)
Chanson pour Pierre Boulez (Cello)
Gute Nacht (Trumpet)


Okay, so the flute and harp are there right are the start, it's understandable really - kudos! However, "we" (the accordion) get to sit in seat number 13. I think it's probably quiet an important inclusion for the history of our instrument. We never got the chance of being considered by Bach, Mozart or Handel, but we did get Berio... XIII was premiered by Teodoro Anzellotti and performed by greats like Stefan Hussong, Joseph Petric and the young virtuosos such as Margherita Berlanda, Ksenija Sidorova, Fanny Vicens, Ambre Vuillermoz to name just a few.

I have spoken to other instrumentalists, and know recorder players are "stoked" (pardon my Australian) that they got "Gesti" - it's considered a jewel in their crown.​

I still don't get it though...

 

[Walker]

Listening to more. Sounds like loads of notes meets Arvo Part and you get a sort of scandi virtuosic Philip Glass sound. (but somehow it feels like I've heard it before, which I havent!). The jury is out for me......

I've not listened to much Part... except Fur Alina (as part of the "musical appreciation" element of my Composition studies at Cardiff).

I quite liked it... like drops of water in a well.

 

[saundersbp]

I've not listened to much Part... except Fur Alina (as part of the "musical appreciation" element of my Composition studies at Cardiff).

I quite liked it... like drops of water in a well.

If you'd like to listen to some more......

 

[nou]

I've not listened to much Part... except Fur Alina (as part of the "musical appreciation" element of my Composition studies at Cardiff).

I quite liked it... like drops of water in a well.

If you want to explore Part further, then try his Te Deum and then Tabula Rasa. And then basically everything else. Yes, he’s one of my all time favourites Alina (the album, with Spiegel im spiegel interleaved) is the most replayed album in my life due to huw unobtrusive yet deeply present this music is when played „in the background”.

 

[JKJ]

If you'd like to listen to some more......

Thanks, I could listen to that all day. I found some CDs on Amazon and Ebay (I had to look up how to pronounce “Pärt" but I don’t think my mouth could ever do it right)

JKJ

 

[Jaime_Dergut]

They said Tchaikovsky composed some songs for diatonic accordions. I am working to arrange a version of the sleeping beauty waltz of his on the accordion.

Here is bayanist Dragoslav Vasijevic playing Romance in F minor. I really like this.

 

[Walker]

I guess it's only natural that accordionists-who-compose will want to write music for their instrument. They can tailor their music to the tastes of their accordion loving/accordionist audiences or the style that's favoured for accordion competition music... However, to me there is something quite special when a composer decides to write for the accordion even though they aren't an accordionist. They seem freer and it's the breaking down of boundaries that separates the accordion from the other instruments - that makes me smile.

I would have loved it if renaissance, baroque or romantic music could have been composed for the fully developed concert accordion (free bass), but sadly we weren't around then. The periods of the great modal and tonal music passed us by. We've turned up to the party now and got served "contemporary" fare, that can at times be anything but tuneful - but the serious writers don't seem keen to give us lots of new accordion a la J.S. Bach.

It seems we are on a roller-coaster ride that's taking us on a crazy journey. I think many accordionists may feel like "a fish out of water" in this new world. All they wanted was a jaunty, toe-tappin' tune... sure, we can have that too, but it's now the preserve of folk and popular accordion styles.

I have to say, if I have the chance to listen to an accordionist playing F. Couperin or Ole Schmidt, I'll likely choose the former. However, in the interest of giving some ideas of classical (contemporary) music actually written for accordion it's the work of Berio, Schmidt and a few others that come to mind as interesting (to me).




Another current composer is Roberto Borin. I did not know of him, but it appears that some talented conservatoire students are being given the chance to play music that's been specially written for their instrument, straight out of the oven, freshly baked...

I rather like Wie auf einen Blick, ohne Schatten. It has something of the "light" about it.

 

[Siegmund]

The first two that pop into my mind are Pietro Frosini and Nikolai Chaikin.

A lot of Frosini is "easy listening" rather than "deep", but you can tell that he really understood how to play his instrument, and he composed carefully to get maximum effect with minimum effort. I don't think anyone before or since has equalled him for that. (You see something similar in orchestral music, where people who really understand a given instrument write for it differently -- more efficiently -- than people who just know what's possible and make it the performer's problem to figure out how to do it.)

Chaikin stands out as one of the last to write serious new music for Stradella instead of using the converter 99% of the time, and one who remained more tonal and less avant-garde than a lot of his contemporaries.

As long as your ear can stand a bit more dissonance, Semenov is excellent. Among the young living composers, I have a high opinion of Gorka Hermosa, not just for his composing but his writing on history and musicology too.

 

[Tom]

Just like Gary is my favorite accordionist, Walker is my favorite composer…..just sayin’