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[Steve_freereeder]

Accidentals are sometimes placed on two or extra buttons, or a shorter third row of four or more buttons, close to the bellows. The “Club” system developed by Hohner in the 1950s is a well-established example of this approach. Using the accidentals, and with the added modification of a “Gleichton” (unisonoric second-octave tonic in the middle of the middle row), this system allows players to obtain a fully chromatic scale – albeit in one direction only (draw). For an in-depth discussion of the Club system, see (x-ref to http://www.delaguerre.com/delaguerre/pedagogy/club/intro.html).

It looks OK apart from the date of the Club system development. I don't know exactly when this layout came into use, but it must have been before the 1950s; I have a Hohner Club III which dates from the 1930s.

[Stiamh]

Posted! It could be improved, and I hope it will be, but at least I think it's now a more balanced article than it was.

The "Notable players" section could do with more balance - if anyone doesn't do Wikipedia editing, please tell me your suggestions and I'll be happy to add them. Same goes for any other suggestions, assuming I agree with them :)

SteveFR: I changed what I had written in response to your suggestion about organetto/fisarmonic diatonica after perusing http://www.organetto.info/  Obviously they are happy to refer to yer common-or-garden 2-row 4th apart system as an "organetto".

Thanks again to everybody for suggestions and encouragement.
S

[Steve_freereeder]

Excellent! Well done indeed, Steve. You have successfully navigated the stormy waters of our prior suggestions!  

I still strongly disagree with the single-action/double-action thing, and just because another website/publication describes it in one way doesn't mean to say that it is the correct or best definition. Language evolves. However, I have no intention of editing this on the Wikipedia page just because I don't agree with what you have written; I am (I hope) more professional in my approach than to do that.  But as I think there are several of us on melnet who disagree with the definition, perhaps one option would be to remove all references to SA/DA altogether - there is sufficient explanation of how the buttons work anyway without invoking SA/DA.

I have added Brian Peters to the list of notable English players, with a link to his external website; I think many of us here on melnet would be happy with that.

Well done again!

Steve

[mory]

Well done Steve. Takes Wiki 3months to get to an edit according to the radio piece, there was also someone talking about the game they and their friends play with adding nonsense trivia particularly to new articles and deceased famous people, so don't be surprised! Good Job Steve AtB mory

[Chris Brimley]

I'm inclined to agree with Steve_freereeder's comment about SA/DA - I hadn't come across it before, but I immediately imagined it meant the opposite to the definition:  i.e. in DA, each button acts to produces two notes, and in SA only one.  So it's easy to confuse and best dropped, I would suggest.

[Graham Spencer]

Me too- single/double action intuitively means to me exactly the opposite of the definition given.  It's not a term I've ever come across in connection with boxes; steam-engines, yes, but not accordions.........

Incidentally, unless it's changed since I looked at it early this morning, both unisonoric and bisonoric are defined in the Glossary as producing two notes per key.

Graham

[summerstars]

Steve,

Unless I am reading it wrong there is a conflict in the second and third bullet points under the heading "Glossary"

"Glossary

The following definitions will assist understanding of this article.

    DBA: abbreviation for diatonic button accordion
    single-action or bisonoric: refers to an instrument on which each key or button produces two notes; see the section on Action below.
    double-action or unisonoric: refers to an instrument on which each key or button produces two notes
    reversal: on a single-action instrument, a button or key which produces a note available elsewhere on the keyboard, but obtained by using the opposite bellows direction
    accidental: any note of the chromatic scale outside the diatonic scale(s) of a DBA’s “home” key(s)"

[Stiamh]

Steve,

Unless I am reading it wrong there is a conflict in the second and third bullet points under the heading "Glossary"

"Glossary

The following definitions will assist understanding of this article.

    DBA: abbreviation for diatonic button accordion
    single-action or bisonoric: refers to an instrument on which each key or button produces two notes; see the section on Action below.
    double-action or unisonoric: refers to an instrument on which each key or button produces two notes
    reversal: on a single-action instrument, a button or key which produces a note available elsewhere on the keyboard, but obtained by using the opposite bellows direction
    accidental: any note of the chromatic scale outside the diatonic scale(s) of a DBA’s “home” key(s)"

Mega-oops! Thank you _very much_. Have corrected that. Made a bit of a mockery of the whole SA/DA controversy, didn't it?

I appreciate your professionalism Steve. I did consider removing all references to both single or double action and bisonoric and unisonoric as well. One can always work around things, but I thought it would make things awkward. Might have ended having to say "push-pull action" all the time instead. The current effort is an attempt to balance between what does seem to be established terminology and the jargon used in the DBA community.

For those of you who are only familiar with the jargon, I would say, do please bear in mind that language is used in many ways we personally are unfamiliar with and that seem strange, counterintuitive or from outer space. Doesn't mean those ways are "wrong". Learned that _very early on_ in my career as a publisher's editor, in both technical and nontechnical contexts.

Having said that I will try to keep an open mind on the subject, look for more confirmation (or refutations) of the "established terminology" and (in a day or two, need to get other stuff done) return to the article to see if I can't make everybody happy. Mwahahaha!

[Howard Jones]

In many of the references I've seen "single-action" is applied to instruments where the air flow to sound a note is only one way, and "double-action" where it flows both ways.  This is how Neil Wayne, an authority on concertinas, uses the term.  I've seen it applied not only to concertinas, but also to bandoneons, harmoniums (harmonia?) and other free-reed instruments. 

However I've also seen "single-action" used to mean "push-pull", and I must admit that is how I'd always understood the term, which I've known for many years.  I don't think I'd come across "bisonoric" until I started frequenting melnet.

Whichever term may originally have been correct, both meanings now seem to be widely used across the free-reed family of instruments.  I don't think "single/double action" should be ignored just because a particular subset of players (ie those who use melnet) favours the alternative.  However it should be made clear which of the two meanings is meant.

[Chris Brimley]

Whichever term may originally have been correct, both meanings now seem to be widely used across the free-reed family of instruments.  I don't think "single/double action" should be ignored just because a particular subset of players (ie those who use melnet) favours the alternative.  However it should be made clear which of the two meanings is meant.

I don't think this is really to do with a particular groups of players - it's just a question of trying to promote commonsense through the widest (as far as I'm aware) forum there is in this field.  Wikipedia works as some sort of 'paradigm' establisher - if a sizable body of others were to say they disagree, they would have every opportunity to move it on and develop to a new common understanding.  I believe Steve J is quite right (and brave!) to put his head above the parapet, because he has allowed this debate to take place, and hopefully some consensus on a hitherto very grey area to emerge. It is inherent in any such attempt that historical contradictions may be challenged by discussion, I would say.

[pgroff]

In many of the references I've seen "single-action" is applied to instruments where the air flow to sound a note is only one way, and "double-action" where it flows both ways.  This is how Neil Wayne, an authority on concertinas, uses the term.  I've seen it applied not only to concertinas, but also to bandoneons, harmoniums (harmonia?) and other free-reed instruments.  

However I've also seen "single-action" used to mean "push-pull", and I must admit that is how I'd always understood the term, which I've known for many years.  I don't think I'd come across "bisonoric" until I started frequenting melnet.

Whichever term may originally have been correct, both meanings now seem to be widely used across the free-reed family of instruments.  I don't think "single/double action" should be ignored just because a particular subset of players (ie those who use melnet) favours the alternative.  However it should be made clear which of the two meanings is meant.

Hi Howard,

I've seen the first usage you mention also ("single action" to describe e.g. english-system basses that have only one reed for each button), and also seen such instruments described as "half action."  

Although confusing, there's some logic here.

To me, the notion of "double action" implies that the same note sounds in two directions of airflow, thus there might be twice as many reeds (but what about instruments that operate like the sheng etc in which one reed sounds in both directions?).

To me, the notion of "unisonoric" implies that there is only a single note keyed by each button or piano key. ("bisonoric" means that 2 different notes, selected via bellows direction, are played by each button or key).

If I am right (leaving aside misapplications of the term in some cases), the terms "double action" and "unisonoric"  might not really be synonyms.  They overlap a lot, but are really focusing on slightly different aspects of the relationship of notes/keys/bellows.

PG

[Stiamh]

This terminological question seems set to remain contentious. I would like to get to the bottom of it, so keep the opinions coming.  

However please don't allow it to overshadow all other aspects of the article that need improving. The Notable players section clearly needs more players from France, Italy and other countries.

A section outlining, or providing references to, historical development of DBAs would also be a valuable addition.  

I've already noticed a few words omitted and little points needing tidying up, but am saving them up for another edit soon.

Also, let's have more pix of typical or interesting specimens of DBA. If anyone is willing to upload their own photographs to the Wikimedia commons, please do, and let me know so that I can add them to the article. Photos of a club, an organetto, a 4-stop one-row, an 18-bass Handry or similar, and a fully loaded BCC#  would be of interest, I think.

[Chris Brimley]

Can anyone give a source for the reference to the source of 'single-action' being used to mean 'push-pull'?  It does seem at first sight a rather odd use of the words.  I wonder whether it perhaps describes a mechanism, rather than a type of button accordion.

[Stiamh]

Can anyone give a source for the reference to the source of 'single-action' being used to mean 'push-pull'?  It does seem at first sight a rather odd use of the words.  I wonder whether it perhaps describes a mechanism, rather than a type of button accordion.

Here's where I got the term from. This paper used to be available for free download, so I'll just quote a bit here. You can download it for a small fee from Jstor http://www.jstor.org/pss/852759

The single-action diatonic accordion is a child of nineteenth-century capitalism and Western tonality. As such, it was a product of the expanding capitalism and modernization which transformed traditional societies and brought the ascendance of new economic and class relations and massively increased material production. Accordions transformed the musical world of many groups, creating new relations between musicians and audiences, displacing other instruments, and becoming the sound of the new metropolis (Giannatassio 1979, Pella 1985).

The diatonic accordion has a rectangular bellows which links two wooden ends, in each of which are set metal free reeds which can be sounded via valves opened by buttons. As a European-style free reed will only speak when air passes through it in a particular direction, different sets of reeds are required to sound on the press and draw of the bellows. In single-action instruments, these reeds are tuned to different pitches, and so in general each pitch requires a unique combination of button and bellows movement. Double-action instruments, such as the familiar piano accordion and various "continental style" button accordions, have equally-tuned reed pairs so that bellows direction has no influence on the pitch produced.

There are a number of single-action free reed instruments, and these generally preserve the system of arrangement of pitches presented on the "Akkordion" patented by the Austrian instrument maker Cyril Demian in 1829. On present-day single-action accordions, the right-hand end of the instrument has one or more rows of ten or eleven buttons, which produce two and a half octaves of a single major scale, arrayed on the press and draw of the bellows like the pitches in a mouth organ. A row is thus said to be in a particular key, and multi-row accordions may be referred to as B/C, D/ D#, and so on, according to the tuning of the rows. In the single-action system a wide range of pitches can be spanned in any hand position, and diatonic melodies are easily played on a single row, as the ear quickly becomes attuned to the distinction between the press and draw pitches. The left-hand end of the instrument can be either single action or double action. The ten-key melodeon has two single-action bass buttons which play the root and triad of the tonic on the press, and on the draw play those of the dominant. Larger instruments may have a slightly expanded repertoire of chords similarly arranged to coincide with the harmonies which might be demanded by notes chosen from the right-hand end. More sophisticated instruments have a double action left-hand end, with a full chromatic range of chords and roots laid out according to the pattern used in piano accordions.

                                    ETHNOMUSICOLOGY, VOL. 41, NO. 3, FALL 1997

It reads a lot better than my Wikipedia article!   Will add a reference to it in the article, and not just for the single-action bit.

[Chris Ryall]

This terminological question seems set to remain contentious. I would like to get to the bottom of it, so keep the opinions coming.  

Don't impose one. Acknowledge the diversity.  Provide a glossary?

[Stiamh]

Provide a glossary?

Read the article?

[Chris Brimley]

It seems that the Jstor paper (thanks Steve) may be referring to earlier definitions of SA/DA, and certainly I've just found many other references which go along with your definition, Steve.

But not all, it seems!  For example this one seems slightly different:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concertina.

And this one has the directly opposite sense:

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=untabCgOVkgC&pg=PA3&lpg=PA3&dq=single-action+accordion&source=bl&ots=jPq09jBmEs&sig=xocrcjcYO_coaod9edI28qcUpd0&hl=en&sa=X&ei=nr8mT4ySFojx8QPh0NX1AQ&ved=0CCcQ6AEwADgU

[Stiamh]

Chris, I noted in an earlier reply to Paul Groff that I had seen the use of single-action in the Wikipedia concertina article, and decided to ignore it ! Paul and Howard both bring up this use, too, so we are aware of it. 

As for the google books result: if you read the definition of single-action provided, it's pretty clear the author doesn't have a clue, er sorry, good grasp of the technical aspects of accordion sound production ("reeds that make the same tone whether played by pushing or drawing air through them"), so I wouldn't ascribe much authority to that use of "single-action" based on that evidence.

[Chris Brimley]

This looks like being an early reference, by Charles Dickens, in his book 'Household Words', Vol. 8:

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=cZ04AAAAYAAJ&pg=PA402&dq=single-action+accordion&hl=en&sa=X&ei=McgmT-rNJ8bN8QPZmLjKBw&ved=0CGYQ6AEwCDgU#v=onepage&q=single-action%20accordion&f=false

According to Dickens (who may of course have been completely wrong!) the esteemed Professor Wheatstone designed his amazing new concertinas so that each button had either one spring ('single action'), so that you could play a note on the push only, or two springs, so that you could play the sound push or pull ('double action').  (I don't really understand that, but did those buttons have two positions, one for push, one for pull?)  He makes no mention of the sound being different, suggesting that it was not.  That does make some sense of how the terms SA and DA originated, and it seems to match the Wikipedia/concertina reference I mentioned earlier.

So the next question is, how on earth did it come to be adapted to mean 'SA = two notes, DA = one note', by the time the Encyclopaedia Britannica got hold of it?

I'm just speculating, but could this have something to do with the subsequent development of valves?  Perhaps DA 'unisonoric' accordions first became standard, as they would clearly have technical advantages, but then manufacturers invented a more sophisticated system with reeds and valves, so paradoxically had to call it SA to distinguish it?

[Chris Brimley]

Steve, I think the concertina article must somehow have come from this Dickens source.