the.com/melodeon
A button accordion that gives you a different note depending on which way you breathe.
means A small free-reed instrument, especially a diatonic button accordion that sounds different notes on the push and pull of the bellows (and, in American usage, a small reed organ powered by foot pedals).
from From the Greek 'melos,' meaning song or melody — the same root that sings inside 'melody' and 'melodic.' The '-eon' ending echoes earlier instrument names like 'accordion' and 'orpheon,' giving the word a musical, machine-age ring. It surfaced in the 19th century as free-reed instruments spread, and tellingly the name was applied to two rather different machines: the button accordion in Britain and Ireland, and the pump-organ 'melodeon' in America — both, in the end, just devices for coaxing melody out of vibrating reeds.
- bisonoric
- Push and pull each button sound different pitches
- irish staple
- Backbone of céilí bands and pub sessions
- reed-powered
- Free reeds vibrate as bellows force air
- diatonic
- Usually tuned to just one or two keys
- name twist
- Americans once called pump organs melodeons too
paolo soprani melodeon — italian manufacturer established 1870, most famous melodeon maker producing thousands of instruments
button melodeon — cajun and zydeco staple in louisiana, particularly prominent in marc savoy's recordings since 1960s