It is well known that the instrument that gives the tango its soul is not the concertina, but the bandoneon. So what is the difference between these instruments and how did this name come about?
After Carl Friedrich Uhlig had invented the concertina in 1834, Saxon instrument makers refined this instrument and were instrumental in the construction and design of the bandoneon. (history)
The name of the instrument, however, was given by Heinrich Band (1821 – 1860). He founded a music shop in Krefeld in 1843 and took over the business from his father, who had given up his profession as a weaver.
In 1944 Heinrich Band imported 40-key and also three-row 56-key concertinas from Saxony and thus responded to the needs of the music market and further developments by marketing them himself.
An advertisement in the Crefeld Kreis- und Intelligenzblatt of 6 September 1844 reads: “Herewith the humble announcement that we have again received the popular 40 and 56-tone accordions (harmonicas) with which one can play in different keys…”. (Source: Janine Krüger: “Heinrich Band. Bandoneon.“ Krefeld, 2020.)
In order to achieve a fuller sound, the Saxon instrument makers changed the concertina according to Heinrich Band’s suggestions from one choir to two choirs, which were tuned octave to each other and extended in pitch range. This increased the number of button rows. Further semitones were arranged around the “old key position”, which in the original instruments, i.e. the alternating-tone concertina by Uhlig, Lange and Zimmermann, still followed a key-based (diatonic) logic.
A new name was needed to distinguish it from the accordion and concertina. The name “bandonion” first appeared in sources in 1855. A metal plate with the lettering “Bandonion” was attached to large instruments with 88 notes or more. Today, two spellings exist side by side: the word “bandonion” was added to the German dictionary (Duden) in 1929, while the Spanish spelling “bandoneon” (without the acute) was not added until 1934.
Heinrich Band never mass-produced his instruments himself. There is no evidence of such a production facility in Krefeld. Instead, he sourced his instruments from Saxony, presumably from Carlsfeld and Waldheim.