The Steirische Harmonika () is a type of bisonoric

diatonic button accordion A melodeon or diatonic button accordion is a member of the free-reed aerophone family of musical instruments. It is a type of button accordion on which the melody-side keyboard contains one or more rows of buttons, with each row producing the ...

important to the alpine folk music of

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(

Hrvatsko zagorje Hrvatsko Zagorje (; Croatian Zagorje; ''zagorje'' is Croatian for "backland" or "behind the hills") is a cultural region in northern Croatia, traditionally separated from the country's capital Zagreb by the Medvednica Mountain. It comprises ...

Slovenia Slovenia ( ; sl, Slovenija ), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: , abbr.: ''RS''), is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the southeast, an ...

, the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

, the German state of

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...

, and the Italian

South Tyrol it, Provincia Autonoma di Bolzano – Alto Adige lld, Provinzia Autonoma de Balsan/Bulsan – Südtirol , settlement_type = Autonomous province , image_skyline = , image_alt ...

. The Steirische Harmonika is distinguished from other diatonic button accordions by its typically richer bass notes, and by the presence of one key per scale row that has the same tone on both compression and expansion of the

bellows A bellows or pair of bellows is a device constructed to furnish a strong blast of air. The simplest type consists of a flexible bag comprising a pair of rigid boards with handles joined by flexible leather sides enclosing an approximately airtigh ...

, called a ''Gleichton''. The bass notes earn the distinction '' Helikonbässe'' because they use bigger reeds with

duralumin Duralumin (also called duraluminum, duraluminium, duralum, dural(l)ium, or dural) is a trade name for one of the earliest types of age-hardenable aluminium alloys. The term is a combination of '' Dürener'' and ''aluminium''. Its use as a tra ...

reed frames and a special chamber construction that amplifies its bass tones to give it a loud sound reminiscent of a Helicon tuba. The name "Steirische Harmonika" literally translates from

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

Styria Styria (german: Steiermark ; Serbo-Croatian and sl, ; hu, Stájerország) is a state (''Bundesland'') in the southeast of Austria. With an area of , Styria is the second largest state of Austria, after Lower Austria. Styria is bordered to ...

n accordion; the use of the adjective ''steirische'' stems from the

Viennese Viennese may refer to: * Vienna, the capital of Austria * Viennese people, List of people from Vienna * Viennese German, the German dialect spoken in Vienna * Music of Vienna, musical styles in the city * Viennese Waltz, genre of ballroom dance * V ...

dialect The term dialect (from Latin , , from the Ancient Greek word , 'discourse', from , 'through' and , 'I speak') can refer to either of two distinctly different types of Linguistics, linguistic phenomena: One usage refers to a variety (linguisti ...

. Steirische refers to the state of '' Steiermark'' (Styria), or Štajerska in Slovenian. This type of harmonica originated in Styria in the city of Windischgraz (or Slovenj Gradec in Slovenian), after the invention of the helikon bass reed by Franz Lubas in 1878.

Description

The Steirische Harmonika has melody side on the right, and a bass side on the left. On the melody side, there are three to five rows of buttons where each row has its own

key Key or The Key may refer to: Common meanings * Key (cryptography), a piece of information that controls the operation of a cryptography algorithm * Key (lock), device used to control access to places or facilities restricted by a lock * Key (map ...

. Accordions with five rows are used mostly in Austria. On the compression of the bellows, the buttons of one row play the tones from the key's tonic, and on the expansion of the bellows, the buttons of one row play tones from the key's

dominant seventh In music theory, a dominant seventh chord, or major minor seventh chord, is a seventh chord, usually built on the fifth degree of the major scale, and composed of a root, major third, perfect fifth, and minor seventh. Thus it is a major triad tog ...

. The button which plays the same tone on both the expansion and compression of the bellows is called the ''Gleichton'', ("same-tone" in German). Often

melodies A melody (from Greek language, Greek μελῳδία, ''melōidía'', "singing, chanting"), also tune, voice or line, is a Linearity#Music, linear succession of musical tones that the listener perceives as a single entity. In its most liter ...

require playing buttons from different rows because they cannot be decomposed into tones from the tonic and dominant seventh of a given key. Originally, there were two systems for the diatonic Steirische, the Slovenian System, which had no Gleichton and a flat keyboard, and the German or Austrian System with Gleichton and a stepped keyboard. The Slovenian System is no longer much used; even the Slovenian players today play the German or Austrian System. There is also a chromatic version of the Steirische, with the same treble system as the regular chromatic accordion. This is referred to as a "Semi-chromatic" (polkromatična harmonika), a "Half-chromatic", or a "12-bass chromatic". The treble side therefore sounds the same note in either bellows direction. The bass system does however sound different notes depending on bellows direction, but arranged so that all 12 notes of the scale can be played. This type of chromatic Steirische was popularized in America by Matt Hoyer, Johnny Pecon, and Lou Trebar. For each row on the right hand melody side, there are two associated buttons on the outer row of the bass side: one for the

root In vascular plants, the roots are the organs of a plant that are modified to provide anchorage for the plant and take in water and nutrients into the plant body, which allows plants to grow taller and faster. They are most often below the sur ...

, and one for the

harmony In music, harmony is the process by which individual sounds are joined together or composed into whole units or compositions. Often, the term harmony refers to simultaneously occurring frequencies, pitches ( tones, notes), or chords. However ...

. On compression, they play the tonic, and on expansion, the dominant. The function of the inner row, however, varies by manufacturer. Technical Steirische Accordion playing is very advanced especially in Bavaria, Austria and Slovenia.

Weltmeister awards on Steirische Harmonika

* 1987 Zoran Lupinc * 1996 * 1997 Jakob Bergmann * 1999 * 2007 Markus OberleitnerWeltmeister 2007
* 2009

Nejc Pačnik Nejc Pačnik (born October 28, 1990) is a Slovenian diatonic button accordion A melodeon or diatonic button accordion is a member of the free-reed aerophone family of musical instruments. It is a type of button accordion on which the melody- ...

* 2015 Nejc Pačnik

Other Well-known artists

* Slovenia: Lojze Slak, Franc Mihelič, Tine Lesjak, Ottavio Brajko, Max Kumer, Niko Zajc * Austria: Erwin Aschenwald, Erwin Aschenwald Jr., Erich Moser * USA: Matt Hoyer, Joe Mlakar, Louis Špehek, Joe Kušar, Bobby Zgonc, Al Meixner, Alex Meixner, Joe Smiell. * Chromatic Steirische artists in the USA: Matt Hoyer, Johnny Pecon, Lou Trebar, Benzy Rathbone, Rob Deblander, Darryl Valencic, Fred Kuhar

Notation

Notes on the Steirische Harmonika are laid out to make it easy to play music with the

tonality Tonality is the arrangement of pitches and/or chords of a musical work in a hierarchy of perceived relations, stabilities, attractions and directionality. In this hierarchy, the single pitch or triadic chord with the greatest stability is call ...

characteristic of alpine folk music, but make it difficult to play according to modern musical notation. To help aid playing the Steirische Harmonika, the Verlag Helbling publishers patented in 1916 a

tablature Tablature (or tabulature, or tab for short) is a form of musical notation indicating instrument fingering rather than musical pitches. Tablature is common for fretted stringed instruments such as the guitar, lute or vihuela, as well as many fr ...

, which no longer is in current use. It has come to be replaced by a notation called ''Griffschrift'', which was invented by a music teacher from

Bärnbach Bärnbach is the smallest city of the district of Voitsberg in the Austrian state of Styria . The city is popular for its church (designed by Friedensreich Hundertwasser), manual glass manufacturing and coal mining (surface mining). Today the coal ...

in Styria named Max Rosenzopf. The notation appears similar to modern notation but maps tones to positions on the staff differently. In 1975 Rosenzopf founded the Verlag Preissler publishing company and printed the first book using the Griffschrift to teach reading notes. Now all notes for the Steirische Harmonika are printed using this notation. There is also a related instrument in Czechia and Slovakia called the heligonka harmonika.

References

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External links