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Accordions in Mortier Dance Hall Organs
By Dick Leis

As an aid to helping me understand the functioning of a Mortier organ
that I am restoring, I would like to know how the accordion(s) were
tied in with the scale.

Background: In the 1930's, it was common practice to add an accordion
or accordions to an older large Mortier organ.  Something had to go
so that control air was available to operate the air motors on the
rear of the accordion.  I suspect that the Flute 8' was removed from
Countermelody and any Melody rank in the belly of the organ was removed
for that part of the scale.

Question: Is this basically true, and what parts of the accordion were
tied in with the organ scale?  (Arburo had the Countermelody and Melody
on the keyboard, Accompaniment and Bass notes were applied to the button
side.)

In subsequent time, the accordion has been removed from the organ that
I have and were replaced with inappropriate Melotone ranks.  Thanks for
your thoughts.

Dick Leis in Florida



(Message sent Thu, 22 Jul 2004 09:15:30 EDT , from time zone -0400.)

Key Words in Subject:  Accordions, Dance, Hall, Mortier, Organs

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