• Diatonic Button Accordion

    Schwyzerörgeli

    The Schwyzeroergeli is a type of diatonic button accordion used in Swiss folk music. The name derives from the town/canton of Schwyz where it was developed. Oergeli is the diminutive form of the word Orgel (organ). Outside of Switzerland the instrument is not well known and hard to find.

    The accordion was brought to Switzerland in the 1830s, soon after its invention in Vienna. The earliest accordions were the typically one- or two-row diatonic button accordions, which carried on in Switzerland as the Langnauerli, named for Langnau in canton Bern. The Langnauerli usually has one treble row of buttons and two bass/chord buttons on the left hand end, much like the accordion used in Cajun music (minus the stops), but is sometimes seen with 2 or 3 rows on a stepped keyboard. The Schwyzeroergeli was a further development from the 1880s, with changes in the treble fingering and a flat keyboard (not stepped), and unisonoric basses.


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