April 24, 2014
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Most Americans have a view of accordions shaped no doubt by Lawrence Welk and average polka bands. Gary Larson captured the attitude perfectly in this cartoon:
I, however, associate the accordion with sweet, melancholy music like Mary Black’s No Frontiers. It adds a perfect touch to this song:
[youtube=http://youtu.be/3ggeZ9YZYbc]
In my childhood, most of the accordion music I heard was vallenatos. Some were very catchy, like El Mochuelo. I translated this on my Xanga blog a couple of years ago. (My wife Alicia used to sing choruses for these guys, but she didn’t on this song).
[youtube=http://youtu.be/iEN4W8ytKuU]
Today on a whim, I looked for Bach on accordion and found this amazing and perfect rendition of Toccata and Fugue in D Minor:
[youtube=http://youtu.be/eDFFUIGoBUc]
And on the other extreme of the sophistication spectrum, guys my age will remember Weird Al and Another One Rides the Bus:
[youtube=http://youtu.be/tZkouut-9RQ]
Comments (9)
I was just thinking about you this morning, wonder how you were fairing. Of course I think about you nearly every time I see a squished animal in the middle of the road.
I’ve been thinking of developing a roadkill-themed eau de cologne.
Personally I enjoy a well played accordion
Another of my favorites of your recent blogs on WP!
And John’s comment made me snort-laugh!
I’ll admit…when I see roadkill, I always think of you, too. And here in the mountains I see it most every time I get on the highway…especially in Summer.
HUGS!!!
I like accordions. I hope they have them in Heaven and not just in the other place. I would only let them have drums that are too loud, and out of tune violins played by people who don’t know how to play.
I boarded with a Wycliffe family my sophomore year of high school. Uncle Ernie had an accordion that he would play (very badly) in the evenings. When he was dying about twelve years ago, I wrote a piece called “Uncle Ernie in Heaven” and sent it to his family. Among other things (such as him meeting Jehu and the two of them joy-riding in Elijah’s chariot of fire), it mentioned the bafflement of theologians when they find that the multitude of worshipers before the Throne now includes an out-of-tune accordion.
My father used to play the accordian.
Emily is fabulous at playing the flute so I can only imagine the fun of the accordian. Sam is a percussionist sooooooooooooooooooo there is a lot of music in the house!
Mom had an accordion when I was a kid. She used it some at church when we lived in the jungle (no piano or guitars among our little congregation at the time).
I can imagine it would be tedious listening to a percussionist practice.