Accordion in the Americas Klezmer, Polka, Tango, Zydeco, and More!

"An excellent collection of ethnomusicology scholarship that will be of interest to those who like world music, ethnography, or unusual instruments."--Library Journal "This book should help lift the accordion's reputation to the place it deserves for its role in music history. Highly recommended."--Choice "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."--Times Literary Supplement "The Accordion in the Americas tells of the symbolism of the accordion and the role the instrument and its genres play in a variety of cultures. Few world instruments are as pervasive as the accordion and few are as under-represented in scholarly literature."--Journal of Folklore Research "Ridiculed as the old-world instrument of minority ethnic groups, the accordion has also been largely dismissed as a topic of historical or folkloristic inquiry. This edited volume rights this wrong and traces the accordion from its central European roots to 11 regional forms in the Americas. In this volume, the accordion has received its due recognition and respect as a folk instrument."--Journal of American Folklore "An in-depth introduction to the mechanical, musical, and social workings of free-reed instruments in the New World."--Journal of the Society for American Music "This cultural study of the accordion makes 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