Here's a different sort of tango music question, which may not fit the stated purpose of the group. (I posted this in the TIA - Tango Investigation Agency Facebook Group earlier this year...)
A deep dive here - does anyone have any info/sources/ideas for sources/knowledgeable individuals/historians on how the bandoneon actually came to "be" in tango music. Yes we all know the story of it's invention in Germany in 1846, and that it was brought to South America by missionaries - or at least that's one story I've read somewhere. Supposedly it first appeared in BA around 1870, and then started being played in tango in the early 1900's (or perhaps as early as the 1890's), and then became prominent in tango music in the 1910's.
The article linked below has some fairly detailed info and sources, but I thought I would throw this out there.
I'm particularly interested in the periods between 1850 and 1870, when it first "appeared" in Argentina/BA, and then also from 1870-1910 - being used/adopted into tango. How many bandoneons were in BA during those years? How did they get from Germany to BA? By ship obviously, but did a German salesman/ dealer/ distributor bring them? Or were they brought by individuals? Were they brought by individual immigrants making their way to BA from all over Europe? Was there a dealer selling them in BA? Any ideas on cost at the time? Is the missionary story true?
Any and all details/thoughts/ideas/stories you may have heard would be greatly appreciated.
http://escuelatangoba.com/marcelosolis/history-of-tango-part-5/
Arthur Dent
Interesting article, I had never heard about this "Cheng/Sheng" instrument before. But concerning Heinrich Band's shop and living location the linked article is wrong: Heinrich Band - a musical teacher and musical instrument tradesman, was born in Krefeld, Northrhine Westfalia, where he improved the Concertina towards the Bandonion/Bandoneón. He never build the Bandos himself, but let them produce in Saxonia. He also died in Krefeld, actually quite young at the age of 39 years only.
quoting 'todotango':
"Heinrich Band was born in the city of Krefeld, Germany. Music teacher and luthier, one of the 16 siblings of Peter Band, he was as well musician and merchant of musical instruments. He was staff cellist in an orchestra in his town and around 1840 he had known the concertina —created by Carl Friedrich Ufflig— an instrument that can be considered the immediate antecessor of the bandoneon and he included it in the aggregation in which he played. That instrument attracted his interest but because of the limited range it had he wanted to improve it. In 1843 he opened a shop of musical instruments. There around 1846 he might have devised the bandoneon."
http://www.todotango.com/deutsch/geschichte/bericht/149/El-bandoneon-nombre-origen-y-fabricantes/
Arthur Dent
"Christian's Bandoneon Page" seems to be offline, but the way-back-machine / internet-archive has some of it still available:
https://web.archive.org/web/20190411005514/http://www.bandoneonist.ch/band/band_node1.html#bdh:hist
Andreas Kemper
Hi Alex, currently I am on rehab, so I have no access to my pc. But as soon as I am back I will look for the shipping numbers. I want to make two corrections to the article you added. The author delineates too sharply between concertina and bandoneón. Basically it is one and the same machine. The only difference is the button layout which is the allocation of the knobs. Band only invented his own button layout. Uhlig invented another one. Today bandoneón is synonymous with Band's layout, concertina with Uhlig's system. But inside either instrument is identical.
Concerning the missonary's hypothesis: Band ordered the bandoneos for use in church. Small evangelical parishes with miners and workmen were his first clients. A pipe organ was illusionary, a harmonium was too expensive, but the bando-concertina would bring the right sound into these churches. That is the true connection between tango and church. Soon afterwards the bando-concertina entered the world of seafaring. German sailors introduced these instruments all over the world. Later these sailors switched to the accordion and many an instrument found its way to the pawnbroker's. And exactly there the first argentine bandoneonist found his instrument. Perhaps its an legend, but the tango audience did not like the sound. Only the whores used to weep because it reminded them of home.
Arthur Dent
Now - rechecking - "Christian's Bandoneón Page" seems to be reachable again. One of the earliest website devoted to the Bandoneón, with great respect:
http://bandoneonist.ch/
Pierpaolo Pj Sini
From Tango, discusion y clave, por Ernesto Sabato, Buenos Aires, 1963
https://gatopistola.blogspot.com/2011/05/4-bandoneon-de-tango-discusion-y-clave.html
Michael Lavocah
AA had an authorised importer in Buenos Aires, but I don't have the information to hand, and almost certainly it was later than 1870
David Thomas
Pre-1870s it could have been one of many variations of concertina-like arrangement from different manufacturers in different countries including those made in England before Herr Band. My understanding is that the instrument that we now call a bandonéon came DOWN to Bs As through usage in Brazil, Uruguay etc. I don't accept the missionary story as credible. In 1862 a Swiss blacksmith from Sarganz emigrated to Uruguay to buy land - he was a 'bandoneon' player in Switzerland and took his instrument with him. He was not 'the first' but is just an example of many personal journeys of the instrument. My favourite story is the early personal importation by the Englishman 'Thomas' - I thereby claim my tango heritage :)
Julian Rowlands
I don't have a complete answer to this, but according to "Bandonion und Konzertina" by Maria Dunkel, the AA factory was founded in 1911. The ELA factory had been founded in 1864.
I have it in my mind that the mass importation started about 1911 but I don't have a source for that.
I also understand that the 142 voice (71 button) layout that we all know and love was made specifically for the AR market, by adding 6 buttons to the 130 voice (65 button) instrument that was the largest version of the "Rheinische Lage" system in Germany. Those notes included A, Bb and B at the bottom of the right hand (just below middle C) and a few notes that were missing on the push or pull only.
The EInheitsbandonion was developed in Germany after 1920 and from then on the systems in DE and AR diverged, but you never find 142s in Germany except ones that were reimported from AR I believe.
Julian Rowlands
It is correct to say that the bandoneon is technically similar to other species of German concertina, and the various systems only diverged as the keyboards increased in range, so we get the Rheinische, Chemnitzer (Uhlig) and Scheffler'sche layouts, and various others. What is specific to the tango bandoneon is the use of two reeds per note tuned in octaves dry - 8' and 4' reeds.
The long reed plates (multiple reeds per plate which stretch the length of the instrument) is general to most German concertinas, and differs form e.g. UK concertinas (whether English, Anglo or Duet). A simple small bandoneon from 1850 is very similar to an Anglo concertina in pitch arrangement but very different in technical construction (and shape).
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