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Unique Bell Accordion Repaired and on Display on World Accordion Day - USAby Rob Howard |
A World of Accordions Museum (AWAM) will feature their unique Bell Accordion during the World Accordion Day and Dr Willard A. Palmer festival on May 4th and 5th, 2019. The instrument was discovered by Stanley Darrow, who offered it to AWAM for purchase in the 1990s. At that time it was not functional and was merely set up as a museum display. In 2013-15, Bob Ward was called to the museum to assess their electronic keyboards. He saw the instrument and volunteered to restore it in a series of processes that took ingenuity and uncounted work hours. The instrument’s piano keyboard controls five octaves of bells through individual electronic wires fed through an umbilical from the accordion. The accordion itself contains three treble and five bass reed sets which sound in conjunction with the bells when stimulated by bellows movements. The bells sound pure and clean, adding marvelous effects to special pieces such as “Carol of the Bells”. For further information email: aworldofaccordions@gmail.com |