Hello from Spain / North Korean accordion

[Crisanto]

Hello,

I’m from Spain and this is my first post here...

I have just returned back home from my second trip to Pyongyang, North Korea, and I bought there an accordion 은방을 [[font=-apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont,]ŭ[/font]nbang[font=-apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont,]ŭ[/font]l] plus a method [North Korean accordion textbook]. If You are interested, I can post photos here...

Warm regards!!

Crisanto

 

[Deleted member 48]

Hi,
Welcome to the accordionists forum !
Did you visit an accordion factory in N Korea?
Are you a PA (piano accordion) or CBA (chromatic button accordion) player?

Grtz,
Stephen

 

[Crisanto]

Hello Stephen,

Thank you very much!!

No: I couldn’t visit the music instruments factory, but I will in my next trip [Summer 2020]. I bought the accordion in the main music instruments shop in Pyongyang, as I did last year during my first trip there [last year I bought a traditional North Korean plucked instrument]

I’m not an accordion player. I’m Professor of History of Music, altough I play Double Bass and Harp...

Please, excuse my mistakes in English language...

Best regards!!

Crisanto

 

[Deleted member 48]

Fascinating, what are your main subjects as a history of music professor?

How and when did you become interested in accordions? Did you buy a PA or CBA (I'm curious the method you bought in N Korea is for PA or for CBA)?

Enjoy your stay here on the forum,
best regards,
Stephen

 

[Crisanto]

Organology, Spanish Musical Theatre from the Golden Age, and Traditional + Popular Music...

I bought a PA, because in North Korea 90% accordion players, schools, University, etc., use PA. In fact, there was only one CBA at the shop against 12-15 PA’s. The method I bought is for PA as well...

Thank you very much!!!

Best regards!!

Crisanto

 

[Eddy Yates]

Welcome! Please post the photos of the accordion method. Are the songs traditional Korean songs? I’m very curious. Thanks for the offer.

 

[Crisanto]

Thank you!!

The fact is that I tried to upload photos yesterday, but I received over and over a message telling that my images are to heavy... ??‍

The songs in the method are the “typical” North Korean repertory: patriotic hymns for the leaders, for the country, for the party... tunes extracted from North Korean movies/drama, etc.

I would be very happy to upload here photos of both the accordion and the method, but I don’t know how to make them lighter...

Regards!!

Crisanto

PS: please excuse my English!!

 

[Stephen Hawkins]

Hi Crisanto,

A warm welcome to the forum, where I hope to read many more of your interesting threads.

My degree is in history, so we at least have that in common.

How would you assess the quality of your Korean made instrument? There has been some debate on the issue of Chinese & Korean accordions, but no real consensus has ever been reached.

One of my three accordions is Chinese, and I quite like it. I would be interested to read your perspective on this matter.

Kind Regards,

Stephen.

 

[Crisanto]

Link to the photos of the accordion + method in my Facebook profile:



Can you watch them?

Please let me know...

Regards!!

Crisanto

---

Hi,
Welcome to the accordionists forum !
Did you visit an accordion factory in N Korea?
Are you a PA (piano accordion) or CBA (chromatic button accordion) player?

Grtz,
Stephen

Hi Crisanto,

A warm welcome to the forum, where I hope to read many more of your interesting threads.

My degree is in history, so we at least have that in common.

How would you assess the quality of your Korean made instrument?   There has been some debate on the issue of Chinese & Korean accordions, but no real consensus has ever been reached.

One of my three accordions is Chinese, and I quite like it.  I would be interested to read your perspective on this matter.

Kind Regards,

Stephen.

Hello Stephen,

Thank you very much!!

Well: Of course, I’m not a specialist [I even cannot play accordion], but I have been told that they are far more better than Chinese ones... Anyway, a colleague of mine, accordion teacher, who owns a good collection of accordions [Italian, Spanish, Argentinian bandoneones and Russian bayans] will open it next month, to have a look at how it is internally built. Of course, I will let you know his coments...

Regards!!

Crisanto

 

[Tom]

Hi Crisanto,

Thanks for this info, very interesting! Yes, I can see your photos on facebook. They are probably too large to post here, I believe they must be less than 300 kb.

Goid luck! Tom

 

[Eddy Yates]

Crisanto,
What device did you use to make the photos? There are a lot of apps that will reduce their size.

 

[Crisanto]

Hello!!

Nice you have finally see my photos on my FB page...

I made the photos with my mobile: iPhone...

Regards!!

Crisanto

 

[Crisanto]

Would it be possible that the administrator downloads my photos off my FB page, and uploads them here?

Thanks in advance and best regards!!!

Crisanto

 

[donn]

Anyone can - perhaps even yourself. The images retrieved from the facebook site are of very modest size. I don't know, Facebook may reduce the size of image hosted there, which would be a good thing in most cases.

Post the video by itself, in a separate post. It may be too big, and I'm not even sure the site can host video formats.

When we view an image as part of a web page, it will usually be presented only a few hundred pixels wide. Images produced by modern digital cameras are much larger, possibly by two orders of magnitude, and since computer displays have finite "pixel" resolution, this means that the reduced image simply discards all the excess information. But that happens on your end, in your web browser, after transferring the image at full resolution over your connection, so the use of full size images from the camera not only wastes some storage space, it slows everyone who might view the page.

If your computer runs Apple MacOS, the application that you use to view the picture is presumably Preview, and it provides an "Adjust Size" feature in "Tools."

 

[Eddy Yates]

There is an iPhone app called “Image Size” that I use to reduce the size of my iPhone pictures for this forum. Very easy to use.

 

[Crisanto]

Thank you very much!!!

Crisanto

 

[Deleted member 48]

Hi Crisanto,

If you have the time, take a look at this website about the history of keyboard layouts on the piano and CBA:
http://www.le-nouveau-clavier.fr/english/

As a Music History Professor with organology as a teaching subject, are you familiar with the works of Juan Caramuel y Lobkowitz ?
The Caramuel manuscript Musica was the subject of some interesting articles by musicologist Patrizio Barbieri about the uniform keyboard layout.

http://www.patriziobarbieri.it/articlespdf.htm

 

[Deleted member 48]

Thanks for the photo of this accordion. The N Korean factory made a wise decision here: the lowest note in the melody side starts with a low G.
Clever in the context of the C key on a PA keyboard. 

Many PAs start with the low B or central C note, so you have to transpose tunes.

With this layout you can play the tunes in the key of C.
Ideal range of 2,5 octaves. 


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