Bringing order to chaos #1

Dominant - tonic in bandoneon left keyboard

The keyboards of the bandoneón are a real chaos. However, some logic can still be found.

In this article, we'll put some order out of the chaos. Today we try to simplify the keyboard according to the dominant-tonic cadence.

A "new" layout for 144 bandoneon (?)

As the readers of this blog know, I play bandoneon 144 and actually I play the same scores playable by the 142 system, and furthermore I'm studying at Buenos Aires, the "temple" of the 142 bandoneon. All this demonstrates that 144 system IS playable at least as well as 142, and is just habit that make people prefer the 142.

Hystoric background of 144 Einheits Bandonion

A large family with several internal divisions

Bandoneons are basically divided in 2 categories: the unisonoric models (inappropriately called chromatic) and the bisonoric (inappropriately called diatonic), with several different versions within each category also. For example, in unisonoric versions you find at least 3 different layouts: Peguri (originally spread in France and Belgium and now in all Europe), Kusserow (very rare, with small diffusion in Europe) and Standardbandonion (invented by bandonion virtuoso Heinz Schlegel, and largely unknown), but the list goes on.