Table of Contents

Introduction   1
HELENA SIMONETT

Chapter 1   From Old World to New Shores   19
                  HELENA SIMONETT
Chapter 2   Accordion Jokes: A Folklorist's View   39
                  RICHARD MARCH
Chapter 3   From Chanky-Chank to Yankee Chanks: The Cajun Accordion as Identity Symbol   44
                  MARK F. DeWITT
Chapter 4   'Garde ici et 'garde la-bas: Creole Accordion in Louisiana   66
                  JARED SNYDER
Chapter 5   "Tejano and Proud": Regional Accordion Traditions of South Texas and the Border Region   87
                  CATHY RAGLAND
Chapter 6   Preserving Territory: The Changing Language of the Accordion in Tohono O'odham Waila Music   112
                  JANET L. STURMAN
Chapter 7   Accordions and Working-Class Culture along Lake Superior's South Shore   136
                  JAMES P. LEARY
Chapter 8   Play Me a Tarantella, a Polka, or Jazz: Italian Americans and the Currency of Piano-Accordion Music   156
                  CHRISTINE F. ZINNI
Chapter 9   The Klezmer Accordion: An Outsider among Outsiders   178
                  JOSHUA HOROWITZ
Chapter 10 Beyond Vallenato: The Accordion Traditions in Colombia   199
                  EGBERTO BERMUDEZ
Chapter 11 "A Hellish Instrument": The Story of the Tango Bandoneon   233
                  MARIA SUSANA AZZI
Chapter 12 No ma'se oye el fuinfuan: The Noisy Accordion in the Dominican Republic   249
                  SYDNEY HUTCHINSON
Chapter 13 Between the Folds of Luiz Gonzaga's Sanfona: Forro Music in Brazil   268
                  MEGWEN LOVELESS
Chapter 14 The Accordion in New Scores: Paradigms of Authorship and Identity in William Schimmel's Musical "Realities"   295
                  MARION S. JACOBSON

                  Glossary   315
                  Contributors   319
                  Index   323
 

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The accordion in the new world

About the Author

Helena Simonett is an assistant professor of Latin American studies, associate director of the Center for Latin American Studies, and adjunct assistant professor in the Blair School of Music at Vanderbilt University. She is the author of Banda: Mexican Musical Life Across Borders.

Reviews

"As we as the traditions mentioned in her subtitle, Helena Simonett's welcome addition to the meagre academic literature on the accordion includes detailed essays on Cajun music, conjunto and meringue among others... The Accordion in the Americas offers a history rich in insights drawn from the complex intertwining of society, race and culture in American music-making." - Frank Bruce, Times Literary Supplement, June 28th 2013 "...an excellent collection of ethnomusicology scholarship that will be of interest to those who like world music, ethnography, or unusual instruments." Library Journal "A major contribution to understanding the instrument's important social function within different ethnic cultures. The impressive group of contributors illuminates the importance of studying mass culture and indicates the accordion's enduring significance to many cultural and personal identities." Victor R. Greene, author of A Singing Ambivalence: American Immigrants between Old World and New, 1830-1930