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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(

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, the

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, the German state of

Bavaria Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a States of Germany, state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the list of German states by area, largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total l ...

, and the Italian

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. 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 airtig ...

, 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 hardening, age-hardenable aluminium–copper alloys. The term is a combination of ''Düren'' and ''aluminium'' ...

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

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Styria Styria ( ; ; ; ) is an Austrian Federal states of Austria, state in the southeast of the country. With an area of approximately , Styria is Austria's second largest state, after Lower Austria. It is bordered to the south by Slovenia, and cloc ...

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

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. Steirische refers to the state of ''

Steiermark Styria ( ; ; ; ) is an Austrian state in the southeast of the country. With an area of approximately , Styria is Austria's second largest state, after Lower Austria. It is bordered to the south by Slovenia, and clockwise, from the southwest, ...

'' (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. 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 Domination or dominant may refer to: Society * World domination, structure where one dominant power governs the planet * Colonialism in which one group (usually a nation) invades another region for material gain or to eliminate competition * Ch ...

. 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 (), also tune, voice, or line, is a linear succession of musical tones that the listener perceives as a single entity. In its most literal sense, a melody is a combination of pitch and rhythm, while more figuratively, the term ca ...

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 plant organ, 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 bel ...

, and one for the

harmony In music, harmony is the concept of combining different sounds in order to create new, distinct musical ideas. Theories of harmony seek to describe or explain the effects created by distinct pitches or tones coinciding with one another; harm ...

. 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 * 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, Claudia Hinker * 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 pitch (music), pitches and / or chord (music), chords of a musical work in a hierarchy of perceived ''relations'', ''stabilities'', ''attractions'', and ''directionality''. In this hierarchy, the single pitch or ...

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 tab for short) is a form of musical notation indicating instrument fingering or the location of the played notes rather than musical pitches. Tablature is common for fretted stringed instruments such as the guitar, lute or vihuel ...

, 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 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