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The Challenging Art of the Bandoneon A hundred blind birds fly in your heart--thus described is the bandoneon, in classic tango lyrics. So distinctive is its sound that even those unfamiliar with tango music would recognize it at once. In the aural landscape of tango, the bandoneon just sharply from the smooth surface of the strings, from the sensual underpinnings of the bass, from the conversational appeal of the piano. It cuts across the music with an urgency and pathos that one comes to associate with the very soul of the genre. Though tango is not the only music for which the bandoneon is suited. Alejandro Muzio is an Uruguayan bandoneonist and composer who lives in the Washington, DC. area. He has just completed his thesis work for a Master of Musicology from the Catholic University of America. His thesis is entitled: "a Selective Catalogue of Twentieth Century Compositions for Bandoneon" --an indication that the bandoneon is a more versatile instrument than its association with the popular tango suggests. In fact, his thesis is a compilation of "some 500 works of some 60 composers from about 20 countries" al of which fall outside the purview of traditional tango. In a recent interview, Mr. Muzio offered some insights about the instruments that has been so beloved to the people of the Rio de la Plata area in South America. According to Mr. Muzio, the bandoneon evolved in Mid-19th Century Germany from the same instrumental class as accordions and concertinas, and was originally an instrument featured in various types of German folk music. The exact path it traveled to end up in South America is still a matter of speculation, he admits, though he conjectures that it arrived and took root within the Rio de la Plata culture though a kind of accident. Apparently, there were three varieties of bandoneon being made in Germany during the 1880s and 1890s, one of which was particularly difficult and awkward to play. Mr. Muzio thinks it plausible that that variety of bandoneon was simply not selling well in Germany, and was eventually exported to other parts of the world, in particular the Rio de la Plata area. It is the type that is still used today by tangeros and other traditional bandoneon players. It is not inconceivable that this bandoneón barely sold in Germany; it is notoriously difficult to play, let alone master. In general, bandoneons descend from the classical concertina, so a portion of the keyboard is the same as that of the concertina. But more keys were added to the bandoneon, Mr. Muzio explains, frequently according to the suggestions of players already familiar with it. Such hodgepodge reinventing renders the instrument rather illogical from the point of view of music theory. But he clarifies this perspective: "More than an invention, [the bandoneón] is a development." He acknowledges, however, that unless one is intimately acqwuanited with the layout of a bandoneón keyboard, it is quite impossible to deduce the pattern of its keys. Mr. Muzio, who has been playing the bandoneón for fourteen years, admits that it took him two years of assiduous daily paractice to finally mater just the keyboard. And that was only the beginning, sine, as he affirms, it takes nearly as long to develop good techinique and musical fluency: "It takes a lifetime to master the instrument." In describing how the keyboard is actually structured, Mr. Muzio elucidates the nature of its legendary difficulty: the bandoneón comprises five octaves, with three full octaves on either side. The left hand lays the two lower octaves, the right hand plays the two higher ones, and they share the remaining octave. But, as Mr. Muzio points out it is an "informal keyboard", in contrast to a piano keyboard, which is visibly formal." |
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