The Stradella Accordion: From Stage to Stream

Once the darling of the vaudeville stage, the stradella accordion is largely neglected in contemporary art music circles. One reason for this neglect is the design of its bass system, which is limited by two rows of single notes ranging over a single octave, together with corresponding major, minor, seventh and diminished chord buttons in fixed voicings. In contrast, the free-bass accordion, or classical accordion, features a bass system where each button produces a single pitch ranging over multiple octaves. This system is inherently more flexible, and consequently is featured in most contemporary composition. In this article I present a brief history of the stradella accordion, together with a new work by Alexander Voltz, commissioned by ABC Classic, which seeks to break the instrument’s stereotypes and reconceptualise what is considered idiomatic accordion music.

The stradella accordion deserves its renaissance.

The period from 1900 until approximately 1950 in America has become known as the Golden Age of the Accordion. Marion Jacobson, in the 2007 article “Searching for Rockordion”, comments that “it was truly an era worthy not only of the name Golden Age of the Accordion, but Golden Age of Music making among middle-class American families”. During this time, the design of the stradella piano accordion reached maturity and the accordion rose to prominence as one of the foremost popular concert instruments of the day. It has been suggested that one might date the birth of the “accordion movement” to 1938, for that year, says Jacobson:

witnessed three important events in the life of the accordion: the completed transition to the manufacture of the accordion in plastics; the founding of the American Accordionists Association (AAA); and the introduction of Pietro Deiro’s “advice column” for accordionists in The Etude, a magazine devoted mainly to teachers of piano and stringed instruments.

Certainly, the popularity of the instrument at this time is difficult to dispute, and it was during this period that, through the efforts of professional artists, the repertoire, playing techniques, and core repertoire were firmly established. In the foreword to The Golden Age of the Accordion (1992), Willard Palmer writes of the pioneers who explored the possibilities of the new instrument and set early standards and traditions in performance. One such pioneer was the Italian Count Guido Pietro Deiro (1886–1950), a solo vaudeville artist, who began his career in June 1910:

Deiro became a celebrity on the vaudeville circuit, making up to $600 per week; a phenomenal income in those days. He was “America’s Premiere Accordionist”, for none could surpass his virtuosity, musicianship, stage presence and sex appeal … for two decades he was the greatest and most popular accordionist on stage, on record, on radio, even in the movies.

Deiro teamed with the publisher Biaggio Quattrociocche in 1916, providing the first work specifically published for accordion, Polka Variata. This work exemplifies the folk style that is the foundation of repertoire for the instrument, with a tuneful and decorative melody accompanied by a ragtime-derived stride bass that is well suited to the stradella instrument. Sharpshooter’s March, probably recorded by Deiro in January 1911, is one of the most famous marches for accordion, and provides an example of the first extended bass solo. Authorship of this work is uncertain; the 1911 Columbia recording lists Viennese composer Richard Eilenberg, however a recording made by Deiro for the Edison Company later that year titled Italian Army March does not credit a composer on the cylinder case. Whilst polkas and march styles are readily identified as accordionistic, Deiro, in the waltz My Florence, demonstrates the kind of grand operatic opening that has come to form the introduction of much concert repertoire for the instrument.

The Italian-born American Pietro Frosini (1885–1951) has been credited with perfecting the accordion’s bellows shake technique—the rapid, rhythmic alternation of the bellows. His 1941 recording of his Rhapsody No. 3 in A minor demonstrates this technique. Frosini believed in balancing the melodic and bass parts, in carefully shaped dynamics, and in clean, well-articulated passage-playing. He contributed a number of original contributions to the repertoire; for instance, Highlights for the Accordion was published in 1953. These works are still performed by accordionists today. Frosini was inspired by the bellows “shake” of accordionist Salvatore Porto, and later developed and popularised this technique. Frosini’s compositional style extends the work of Deiro through the use of a more expressive harmonic vocabulary and, typically, highly decorative right-hand parts.

Magnante’s arrangement of Beer Barrel Polka is a prime example of the kinds of technical demands required of accordionists.

Amongst the accordion fraternity, the American Charles Magnante (1905–1986) is arguably the best-known performer, writer and arranger for the stradella instrument. In common with Frosini, he described accordion technique as “being able to play rapidly, without errors, and at the same time to play clean”. He is also possibly the single player to acknowledge the importance of bellows technique:

Just what “proper” manipulation means cannot be explained in a few words. It is a subject for long, careful study. But I do want to call attention to its importance—for it plays a big part in effective syncopation.

Unfortunately, it seems that there are no documented “long, careful” studies of bellows technique by accordionists of the era, despite the existence of tutors for developing the specific technique of bellows shake. As far as syncopation using the bellows is concerned, in a broader sense Magnante is referring to phrasing. Just as a wind player using the diaphragm will restrict or stop the flow of air, accordion bellows may be manipulated similarly. In the final book of the accordion course by Willard Palmer and Bill Hughes, the technique of completely stopping the bellows is explained as being necessary in order to “terminate the sound of the treble and bass exactly together”. Magnante’s own accordion method devotes less than half a page to a discussion of the bellows, despite asserting, “the bellows are the heart of the accordion and require the constant attention of the beginner”. This lack of detail may be explained by Magnante’s comments that “the manipulation of the bellows should become an involuntary habit”, and “after bellows control is fairly well established, the student will realise that no fixed rule can be applied to its manipulation”.

Magnante adds weight to the notion that the right-hand technique used by accordionists is developed much in the same way as pianists develop facility and finger independence, commenting that “about an hour and a half would [then] be devoted to scales, arpeggios, chords, broken chords, thirds, sixths, etc”. Magnante’s arrangement of Beer Barrel Polka is a prime example of the kinds of technical demands required of accordionists. It includes passages harmonised in thirds, decorative passage-playing, arpeggiation, the bass solo pioneered by Deiro, and Frosini’s bellows shake.

Period recordings by prominent artists best reveal the manner in which to play the stradella accordion. Deiro’s 1920 Columbia recording of Kismet Foxtrot displays the clarity of articulation and phrasing that was to become the hallmark of expert playing. This style of crisp finger staccato is well demonstrated in an even earlier 1913 recording by Pietro Frosini of the waltz Amoureuse. An arrangement of Andalucia by Ernesto Lecuona performed by the Charles Magnante Trio in a short 1946 studio film directed and produced by William Forest Crouch demonstrates the degree of detail in performance for which accordionists strive.

During the first half of the twentieth century in America the burgeoning interest in playing the accordion and the proliferation of accordion schools led to the establishment of accordion bands and orchestras. Bands, together with solo, duet, and other small group performances featured in concerts devoted solely to the accordion. Repertoire typically involved simplifying solo repertoire into multiple parts rather than exploiting the creative potential of multiple accordionists with new ensemble music.

Sadly, little has changed in terms of new music for the stradella accordion. The instrument is a critically underrepresented musical voice, stereotyped as “light” and “stylised”, and considered of no interest to serious composers of the twenty-first century.

Stradella Suite is a new, thirty-minute work for stradella accordion trio by Alexander Voltz. Commissioned in 2022 by ABC Classic as part of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s Composer Commissioning Fund, the premiere recording of the work, performed by Nerida Farmer, John Cave and myself, is scheduled for release, both on disc and all major streaming platforms, as well as for radio broadcast, later this year.

Stradella Suite seeks to celebrate what has, for no good reason, been largely forgotten.

Stradella Suite comprises six movements: an introduction; “Grande Valse”; a tango, entitled “Vacanza Cubana”; a polka, “Toorak Trot”; “Poema”; and an epilogue. Whilst each movement expands upon preconceived notions of what is idiomatic for stradella accordion, Stradella Suite does not ultimately reject these notions. For example, the “Grande Valse” movement is principally a waltz, but it is a waltz constructed from both a fresh harmonic language and a fresh approach to stradella accordion writing. Careful attention is paid to the selection of registrations, compensating for the limited range of the piano keyboard and facilitating melodic writing in the tenor register. Many sections of the suite are organ-like, exploiting the ability of multiple players to stagger and layer sustained sounds. While idiomatic polka, tango and tarantella forms are present, these are interspersed with explorations of pitch, texture, and counterpoint to create a work which is accessible for traditional and curious audiences alike.

By breaking down stereotypes, Stradella Suite seeks to celebrate what has, for no good reason, been largely forgotten. The stradella accordion deserves its renaissance, and my hope is that Stradella Suite encourages more serious contemporary art music composers to turn their creativity towards writing for the instrument.

Bradley Voltz is an Australian accordionist, living in Brisbane.

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