Tango- this is desire, melancholy and passion. Wich musical instrument can express this better than the bandoneon?
The origins of this famous instrument take us back to Saxony. In 1834, Carl Friedrich Uhlig, a famous Chemnitz musician, presented an " Accordeon of an novel type", the German Concertina. From this instrument, heinrich Band, a Krefeld music dealer, developed the bandoneon named after him.
Saxony became the main location in Germany where concertinas and bandoneons were made. Instruments from Chemnitz, Klingenthal and Carlsfeld acquired great popularity as "the piano of the man in street". The instrument could be played without even knowing how to read notes using a very simple numerical system. Musical societies were founded, the sound of the "squeeze-box" could be heard in bowes and family celebrations.
From as early as 1850, bandoneons and concertinas were also produced for export to other countries. Railway and improved shipping traffic provided new and better transport facilities and markets. And also emigrants seeking their fortune in the New World carried the instruments of their homeland in their luggage. This is the way, these Saxonean folk instruments got overseas.
It was in the sailorīs pubs of Buenos Aires where the advance of the bandoneon as the voice of tango started. Here, around 1900, the " sad mood that can be danced" was born.
The bandoneon with ist very special sound became a symbol for this music. Musicians ( to this very day ) swear by the instruments made in Alfred Arnoldīs factory in Carlsfeld in the Ore Mountains.
In Germany, after 1945, the interest in these traditional instruments was not the same before anymore. Production was reduced and discontinued altogether in the early 60ies. In recent years, however, the revival of the tango inspired great interest in the concertina and bandoneon again.
The exhibition shows the history of the instruments from their beginning to the present day. It was conceived in close cooperation with varios museums and archives. Many private collectors and museums both at home and abroad ( e.g. from Holland and Switzerland) have contributed by valuable loans. The programm accompanying the exhibition will present artists from home and abroad playing the concertina and bandoneon conveying to their audiences the unique spell of these instruments.