Talk:Bandoneon

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I think that this page can be a bit more complete. Here are some facts about the Bandoneón.

The Bandoneon (or Band-Union) was invented in Germany by a man called Heinrich Band. He invented the first Bandoneon in the end of the XIX century, to replace the organs in churches. The Bandoneon was meant to be a transportable organ. Alfred Arnold setteld the first Bandoneon factory ever, in Carsfeld, Germany. That factory builded both "Doble-A" (double A) and Premier Bandoneons, which are the Bandoneons used by profesionals today. The factory closed in 1939. Some say that the factory was used to build guns and ammo during World-War II, other say that the factory was destroyed by the allied bombing.

Those Bandoneons were the finest Bandoneons ever build, even today they are still in use. There have been some attempts to build new Bandoneons, but no one has truly succeded. Other Bandoneon brands are Germania, Tango and Ela-Ela. They are all extinguished German factories.

Since the death of Astor Piazzolla (maybe one od the finest Bandoneon players) in 1992 the Bandoneon has started to become a more popular instrument worldwide, musicians from Germany, Italy, Normay, USA, Japan and many other countries travel to Argentina to learn the secrets of the instrument with the finest bandoneon teachers and tango musicians alive, such as Rodolfo Mederos, Néstor Marconi and Julio Pane. The technique used by these maestros is different from the technique used by the German teachers: Argentinian musicians play the instrument with one leg or both, while the German musicians use both legs and hold the instrument with the legs, rather than with their hands (as the Argentinians do).

The list of the best Bandoneon musicians might be a bit ambitious, but some of the most well-known musicians are:

Aníbal Troilo, Pedro Maffia, Pedro Laurenz, Astor Piazzolla, Rodolfo Mederos, Julio Pane, Néstor Marconi, Leopoldo Federico, Roberto Di Filippo, Daniel Binelli, Dino Saluzzi.

Most of them are Tango musicians, although Bandoneon is used also for Argentinian folk music.

-- Please excuse my spelling/grammar mistakes, I don't write much in english. Ignacio Oroná (ignacioorona@arnet.com.ar)

Carlitos Magallanes

I removed the Carlitos Magallanes reference as famous bandoneonists, mainly because I don't consider it famous. I know many don't like google hits, but ["Carlitos Magallanes" "Carlitos Magallanes"] has only 56 hits, while "Carlitos Magallanes" bandoneon has only 9 hits. Mariano(t/c) 12:54, 7 April 2006 (UTC)

Captions

The early bandonion and 1949 AA (my photos of instruments from my own collection) are captioned with the German spelling "Bandonion" because neither is in the Argentine keyboard layout. In fact, the early one has the word "BANDONION" cut right into the metal of the air valve cover. The 1949 AA is also triple-reed so was intended for German/US market.--Theodore Kloba 12:50, 17 March 2007 (UTC)

New bandoneons...

I just heard on the radio that no new bandoneons have been made since WW2, when the factory in Germany was turned into an ammunition factory. Is that true? - 70.71.154.237 01:22, 24 June 2007 (UTC)

Not true! Although the Alfred Arnold factory has not made any since then, there are new builders out there, like Harry Geuns ([1]) and Uwe Hartenhauer ([2]).--Theodore Kloba 12:58, 25 June 2007 (UTC)

Who brought it to Argentina

Piazzolla claims that the bandoneon was taken up by Italian musicians, who liked its somber sound (in contrast to the more joyful-sounding accordion), and that sailors brought it to Argentina. That would mean the text in the article as it currently stands, that German immigrants brought it to Argentina, isn't quite correct. Badagnani (talk) 22:53, 7 December 2007 (UTC)

Famous musicians

Listed are, among others, Juan José Mossalini and Juan José Mosalini. Could it be that the former name is a misspelled variant of the latter? Cheers, Bart 213.84.206.76 (talk) 10:51, 16 June 2009 (UTC)

Very important information left out

Very important information left out of this article: who invented this instrument, when, where, and what was it first called? 173.89.236.187 (talk) 23:57, 1 August 2015 (UTC)

Typo in the note layout

There is a typo in the "Bandoneon Fingering Chart" image. The bottommost note on the right half that says "G2/Eb5" should actually say "G5/Eb5".

Not sure if there are other changes that need to be made.