Accordion Speak 101: Breton Music

I pulled this out of the Patrick Lefebvre post because I thought it would stand better on its own. Apologies if I'm wrong. As always, comments, questions, and corrections are welcome.



Bombarde and Biniou Duo:
Piercing and Piercing-er
Breton accordion music is not something I mentioned in my foregoing post, A Brief History of French Accordion, and I've been chided for it. Breton music, the music of Brittany, is a parallel tradition to the musique traditionelle du centre FranceThe two traditions rarely encountered one another. Brittany is the celtic region in northern France, and its music is characterized by small pieces of melody repeated, repeated with slight variation, and trance-making persistence. About a hundred years ago, accordions joined the Breton musical ensemble, along with the bombardes (shawm) and biniou (bagpipe). When I stumbled onto Patrick Lefebvre in 2003 I wasn't even aware that there was such a thing as a Breton accordion tradition. But there is. There is.

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