Accordion

Musical instrument with metal fittings and bellows. From the end of the nineteenth century it was entered in the life of Azerbaijan people and turned to be part of the national musical culture.  Together with other folk instruments it is used in ensembles, including during a performance of national dance music in national celebrations. It is no coincidence that in many cases the modified modern accordion is accepted as an instrument of our folk music.

The technical characteristics  and sound structure of the chromatic performance of the accordion used in Azerbaijan is  completely different from the structure of the Russian  accordion. Accordion has charming sound timbres. Its side made of wood, the middle part is of square box with the leather bellows. Height of accordion is 360 mm, width is 268 mm, and thickness is 195 mm. Small thin metal plates are placed inside the wooden box on the special manner.

The instrument is sounded by opening and closing of bellows with right and left hand. In this case, the right-hand’s forefinger, middle, fourth, little fingers are used for the melody, and left hand fingers for keeping the tone of the melody. By opening and closing of bellows the air compressed by pressure of the fingers passes thru the space opened by metal plates make those plates to vibrate. In this case, depending on the size of the vibrated plates different sound volumes are obtained.

Its diapason is from small octave “do till second octave fa. It is widely used as solo and ensemble instrument.

Handicraft masters engaged in creation of this instrument in Azerbaijan had brought its sound structure in conformity with national sound structure the sound system, easiness in playing had allowed to perform folk music and mughams.