Beard of the Week LXIX: Accordion Virtuosi
This week's beard–not to mention the accordion–belong to virtuoso Swiss accordionist Hans Hassler. Mere hours ago I knew nothing about Mr. Hassler, but thanks to the serendipity of free association with google images,* I now know more.
Here is a thumbnail biography (source):
Hans Hassler was born in Switzerland in 1945. He studied accordion with Mogens Ellegaard in Copenhagen, and later learned to play clarinet, piano, and guitar. Hassler has performed musical styles ranging from opera to Dixieland. He used to perform in Zurcher Kammerorchester, and also recorded with the avant-jazz group Habarigani and — most notably — Mathias Ruegg's Vienna Art Orchestra and Swiss Art Orchestra. Hassler played in Ivano Torre Quintetto, Beat Follmi, and with Gebhard Ullmann during the mid- to late '90s
Sources disagree on whether he's from Chur, Switzerland, or Graubunden (Grisons),† but as those two places are within about 10 km of each other (and also of Davos, which has been much in the news lately because of the World Economic Forum held there annually), I'm not going to fret over the detail. They're all in the mountain valleys of eastern Switzerland, looking very romantic from this distance.
It seems there was some excitement last year because Mr. Hassler finally had recorded a solo album, "Sehr Schnee – Sehr Wald, Sehr" ("Very snow – Very Forest, Very"). (Released by Intakt, who provide a very nice biography of Hassler, in German; translated by google here.) The album evidently exhibits the same eclecticism that has characterized Hassler's career:
Hans Hassler is the true Swiss king of accordion. Born 1945 in Graubunden the musician has kept us in suspense for over 30 years with his zigzag through different scenes: Swiss folk music, jazz, film music, free improvisation or classical interpretation.
Elusive in his stylistics yet unmistakably committed to his own way, Hans Hassler inspires us with his terrifically playful musical sense, with profound humour and startling border crossings. His outside appearance, his waggishness, his virtuosity and his outrageous spectrum from Landler to jazz make any performance of his a great experience. [source]
Without really trying very hard I found that he often plays with other artists on their recordings, for instance, Gebhard Ullmann and Andreas Vollenweider. He's apparently well known in some circles, particularly jazz, for his avoidance of pigeon-holing, stylistically speaking, as well as his notable virtuosity–and his notable beard, of course!
On the nature of Hassler's playing, I enjoyed this excerpt by Stuart Broomer from his review of "Sehr Schnee – Sehr Wald, Sehr" (source):
To say that Hans Hassler plays the accordion, even that he freely improvises on it, does not describe precisely or perhaps in any real sense what the words “play” and “accordion” might mean in this context. Yes, he plays the accordion, in the sense that anyone might play the instrument, but he also plays with the listener, with the putative heritage of the accordion and with whatever expectations the listener might have of the instrument, while rekindling his own associations and memories through the instrument. In this sense Hassler is a meta-accordionist, not simply playing the instrument but playing with any identity that we might impose on it or construct around it. At times here the accordion is literally a thing that makes sounds, thus we get the accelerated panting of the bellows or the clicking of the buttons and keys with notes unarticulated. At other times we get the sheer and sudden power of the accordion as a lap-top imitation of a cathedral organ, as in the 1’14” of “Accordplosion.” But it is also the accordion as instrument of sentiment and farce and object of derision.
You may have noticed already in this space that I have a particular fascination for the accordion, and those who play it. I didn't mention in last week's BoW entry that the film "Music from the Inside Out" had a fantastic segment where the Philadelphia Orchestra was on tour and were all called by a colleague to the lobby of a hall to listen to a fabulous accordion player rendering part of Vivaldi's "Four Season", solo, of course. It was a beautiful and telling segment, perhaps reason enough in itself to see the movie.
Then last year, thanks to a pointer by Chris, we enjoyed hearing the Trondheim Akkordion Ensemble playing the Toccata from Widor's Organ Symphony #5. And have I told the story of the recital we went to in Rome when we visited in 2001 that featured a young Albanian accordion virtuoso who was so fabulous? Well, perhaps another time.
———
*You see, I was originally looking for an image of German composer Hans Leo Hassler (1564–1612), just to see if he had a beard. He does, btw. I had thought to write about the eventful recital we played a week ago, for which Isaac performed the lovely "Fantasy on Ut Re Mi Fa Sol La" by Hassler. But accordions rule, so I'll write later about the recital.
†For what it's worth, search engines find 10 to 100 times the instances of "Hassler accordion chur" over "Hassler accordion graubunden", but I have to admit that I'm not even clear on whether "Graubunden" is a town or region name, and it's rather beside my point, which is why it's in this footnote.
7 Responses
Subscribe to comments via RSS
Subscribe to comments via RSS
Leave a Reply
To thwart spam, comments by new people are held for moderation; give me a bit of time and your comment will show up.
I welcome comments -- even dissent -- but I will delete without notice irrelevant, rude, psychotic, or incomprehensible comments, particularly those that I deem homophobic, unless they are amusing. The same goes for commercial comments and trackbacks. Sorry, but it's my blog and my decisions are final.
on Tuesday, 3 February 2009 at 18.17
Permalink
I'm still not convinced that Widor's Toccata by accordion ensemble isn't a harbinger of the end times.
though I was highly amused, on going back to YouTube and watching the clip to read someone's comment pointing out that the *Toccata* is really nothing more than an extended polka. I'd love to see Anna Leonowens and the King of Siam dancing about to that, hoop skirts and all.
on Tuesday, 3 February 2009 at 22.47
Permalink
This is great! I love finding out all these wild facts via your research. I enjoy the accordion and now I have all these links to check out!
on Sunday, 8 February 2009 at 09.18
Permalink
Hassler is a meta-accordionist, not simply playing the instrument but playing with any identity that we might impose on it or construct around it.
The accordion? My few exposures include jokes by Garrison Keillor:
An accordionists realizes he left his accordion uncovered, in plain sight, on the back seat of a locked car along the street. He rushes back to find he is too late. The window is smashed, and now he has TWO accordions in the back seat.
on Monday, 9 February 2009 at 23.33
Permalink
Come to think of it, Chris, I'm not sure anyone has claimed that Widor's Toccata played by accordion ensemble is not a sign of the end times. I surely wouldn't. I saw that Arnold mentioned it recently in his blog, so I know something's going on.
on Monday, 9 February 2009 at 23.37
Permalink
That's a useful contribution, Fred. I can file it next to:
Q: What's the difference between a bagpipe and a lawnmower?
A: The lawnmower is better suited to chamber music.
Best not get me started on the viola jokes.
on Tuesday, 10 February 2009 at 09.16
Permalink
and where did Arnold find out about the Trondheim Akkordion Artistes? from a post that I made in soc.motss last week, after you reminded me here about that video clip. It all gets pretty incestuous and self-referential. or is it a meme?
speaking of bagpipes and lawnmowers… [from the "accordion bashing" thread, soc.motss 1992, where i first met you]
Q what's the difference between an accordion and a trampoline?
A you're supposed to take your shoes off before jumping on a trampoline.
Who knew that the four horsemen would be playing squeezeboxes?
on Tuesday, 10 February 2009 at 13.21
Permalink
Certainly when I saw Arnold mention the TAE I knew there could be only one source: the soc.motss Faaairy of Faaabulosity. Well, that and the fact that he mentioned your name, but still, I knew.
"Accordion bashing" I remember well, but it helped to be reminded of the joke. As for the four horsemen, well, we knew their aspect would be terrifying: dance to the end-time tunes of the Polka Band of the Apocalypse.