Books › Ayars, Contributions to the Art of Music in America by the Music Industries of Boston (1937) — the Squier, Farley, Rettberg, Rockwell and Elias Howe matter, 1937 › scan 262
Scan 262
Ayars, Contributions to the Art of Music in America by the Music Industries of Boston (1937) — the Squier, Farley, Rettberg, Rockwell and Elias Howe matter, 1937
6 lines. Read by computer on 27 September 2026. Printed page 236. See the scan on archive.org.
1Phil Claff, Caesare Mazzioli, Bruno of Bruno's Orchestra, Charles Carrado of Keith's Circuit and The Gallarini Four are among the artists whose instruments he keeps in good condition.
3Until about 1890 the largest accordions made had only 16 basses in two rows—consisting of 8 bass buttons and the 8 mate buttons for the major chords. There were no chromatics. Probably 95 per cent of the accordions were double tone with no half steps. This decidedly limited what could be played. As Felice Porcella wanted minor chords and chromatics for his playing he invented and built about 1889 the first bass-coupling mechanism with 42 buttons. This made a 36 bass instrument—12 basses, 12 major chords, 12 minor chords and 6 repeats, three at each end. These accordions sold for $100 each, and were all made to order. This new mechanism enabled the player to shift from a full major chord to a full minor chord by simply pressing one button, and the repeats eliminated the jumping of the player's hand from one end of the row to the other.
5One of F. Porcella's instruments with this bass-coupling mechanism was taken on a trip to Italy in 1893 or 94 by Mr. Frank Pettiti. As it got out of order during the traveling Mr. Pettiti sent it to the firm of Soprani at Ancona, Italy, for repair. The mechanism had not been patented. So this firm copied it and the next year shipped instruments with this improvement to the United States. The firm of Soprani extended this principle of the bass-coupling mechanism still further by adding later the dominant seventh and diminished chords and contra-bass tones. These have been generally adopted so that the modern standard accordion averages 120 bass buttons whether it is a piano, chromatic or semitone instrument.
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