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The bandoneón is a free-reed instrument instrument particularly popular in Argentina. It plays an essential role in the orquesta tipica, the tango orchestra.
Early bandonion, ca. 1905. The bandoneón, called bandonion by its German inventor, Heinrich Band was originally intended as an instrument for religious music and the popular music of the day, in contrast to its closest cousin, the German Concertina (or Konzertina), considered to be a folk instrument. German immigrants to Argentina brought the instrument with them in the early twentieth century, where it was incorporated into the local music.
Alfred Arnold bandoneón, ca. 1949. Like accordions and concertinas, the bandoneón is played by holding the instrument between both hands and either pushing in or pulling out the instrument while simultaneously pressing one or more buttons with the fingers.
Unlike the accordion, the bandoneón does not have keyboards per se, but has buttons on both sides; and also unlike the accordion, most buttons on the bandoneón produce a different note when played closing than when played opening. This means that each keyboard has actually two layouts - one for the opening notes, and one for the closing notes. Since the right and left hand keyboards are also different, this adds up to four different keyboard layouts that must be learned in order to play the instrument.
Additionally, none of these keyboard layouts presents a scalar sequence of notes. Many of the adjacent buttons form triads, for example the buttons under three adjacent fingers might sound Ab, C, and Eb when the instrument is pushed in, and G, Bb, and Db when it is pulled out. This makes it easy to play simple music with I-V harmony, but quite challenging to play elaborate scalar passages and runs.
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