ACCORDIONS WORLDWIDE

Accordion History



HISTORY OF THE ACCORDION IN FRANCE

In the late 1800's, Italian immigrants brought the accordion with them to France, and the accordion was widely accepted, and soon was played regularly in cafes and cabarets.

Felix Peguri was one of the first Italian immigrants. He was also an accordion maker, and opened up a shop in Paris in 1890. Some of the first accordion makers in France were Carrara, Peguri and Marzella. The diatonic accordion was used at first to accompany cabarets, but was succeeded by the chromatic accordion.

Emile Vacher was born in the early 1880's. He opened a dance hall, where he played solo. Also a composer, he continued playing late into his life, and died in 1969.

During the 1930's, the musette waltz became popular, and people used to follow an accordionist from dance to dance. There were some great pioneers of the musette accordion.

Louis Peguri, one of three accordion playing brothers, was born in 1894. He performed in cabarets and cafes, composed for the accordion, and wrote articles about the accordion for speciality magazines. He died in 1972. One of his brothers, Michel also composed for the accordion. Possible his most famous piece was titled "Bourrasque".


Home | Weekly News | Yellow Pages | Sites Hosted | Services | General Info | Search AWW | Contact

to comment on these pages, e-mail the webmaster