An instrument under the name “accordion” was patented in Vienna in 1829 by Cyrill Demian (with chord buttons only); the modern design with a piano keyboard took shape later. Construction: a leather bellows in the middle that the player pumps for air, a piano keyboard on the right (melody), and a set of preset chord and bass buttons on the left (the Stradella system with 120 buttons).
The accordion became the voice of European folk music: the French musette, Italian tango, Argentine tango (Astor Piazzolla!), Brazilian forró, and the Ukrainian wedding. In the 20th century a Ukrainian variety tradition of accordion playing took shape — from Bohdan Vesolovskyi to the modern band Haydamaky. The accordion is an inseparable part of the contemporary Ukrainian scene, especially in ethno-folk.
