CONSOLATION PRIZE
Long ago, when I was just a child, I desperately wanted to learn to play the piano. But because we didn’t have one, and couldn’t afford one, and somehow nobody in my family had the imagination to arrange for practice time in a church basement, I was offered a consolation prize. Accordion lessons from the teenager who lived a couple of doors down. I was not overly thrilled. Back then, in my part of the world, accordion music epitomized old bald Ukrainian guys at three-day drunken weddings, German oom-pah bands playing polkas, and other things that were not cool in 1970. However, I agreed to give it a try (not as though I was given any alternatives). And I was good, really I was. But the humiliation was just too great to bear, and I couldn’t relate to the music, so I soon gave it up.
Ironically, many years later, an older cousin’s husband passed away and bequeathed to me a beautiful old Italian accordion that had been in his family forever. Although it needs a part or two and a tune up, I still have it. (Seriously, what would you do?) It was also in my mid-20’s when I was at university that I was introduced by a roomy to the music of Stefan Grapelli and Django Reinhardt, and I’ve adored every kind of French cafe music ever since.
REBIRTH OF THE ACCORDION
Thursday night we went to see the Sostenuto Duo, made up of Anna Lumiere on piano/accordion and Serena Eades on violin at the Denman Island Front Hall, in an intimate piano lounge setting.
They played a range of music from traditional French Bal-Musette to Brazilian Tango to Jazz to Morrocan music to several songs that they had written themselves. It was a great evening of music provided by two very talented young women.
My favourite songs were the ones with the accordion.
Here is a definition of Bal-Musette for those who, like me, didn’t know the term. Though I’m sure you’ll recognize the music when you hear it. Here is the sexy Alexandra Paris in her sparkly black lycra cat suit playing a medley of traditional Bal-musette music on her shiny white accordion. I love it. Just think, this could have been me!
Here is a link to one of my favourite mid-century French cafe singers, George Brassens, singing one of his most popular songs, a tribute to the Auvergnat (see Wiki definition above):
And here is a Youtube video of Brazilian composer Astor Piazzola playing Libertango, and you’ll see YoYo Ma there jammin’ with him.
Who knew accordion music was so cool? Certainly not me, though one could have wished that the serendipitous appearance in my life of accordion lessons might have also coincided with a cultural context more favourable to my sustained interest. But, though I suppose the option is still open to me, it’s a little late now. So tell me, did you learn to play an instrument when you were a kid, hate it and give it up? Do you wish you hadn’t? Or if you play now, are you glad? And has your taste in music changed over the years?
I played the clarinet in 5th grade. All the other girls were playing the flute, and I didn’t want to be like them. Hence, the clarinet.
I do not have a musical bone in my body, and I abandoned the clarinet for ice skating, which was in turn abandoned for reasons primarily economic. I have wished more than once that I stuck with it. I wish I had stuck with something that didn’t come easily.