A Marginalized Musical Instrument

Since its introduction into China in the 1920s, accordion has become popular for its graceful and unique sound. Especially from the period of anti-Japanese and national salvation movement until the 1960s, it became the main musical instrument in theatrical publicity and a convenient tool to encourage the people thanks to its unique way of playing. After 1949, accordion training courses mushroomed all over the country, and the accordion school teaching also saw such a substantial progress that many colleges and universities opened accordion major. During the 1980s, China witnessed tremendous economical and cultural development, as well as the prosperous development of accordion, the accordion education in music colleges showed a professional and international trend, and the accordion teaching in domestic universities also tended to be scientific and standardized. Meanwhile, the popularization of accordion was also in full swing. At the music classes of primary and middle schools, the teachers mostly taught students to sing with accordion, and it was also common that people sang and danced while playing accordion in the parks.However, over the past decade, the development of accordion was not optimistic. The accordion student source of general and normal universities was increasingly declining, and this phenomenon is even more prominent in the author's hometown -Zhengzhou City, Henan Province. At the music classes of primary and middle schools, accordion was replaced by piano, and in parks and public entertainment activities, it was also substituted by various musical instruments including electro-acoustic instruments, and even social training agencies also didn't provide accordion training courses any longer. What on earth happened to accordion?Based on investigation, statistics and analysis on the accordion development situation in Zhengzhou and with reference to existing research results, this paper carries out investigations, interviews and statistics on the educational institutions and music training organizations through statistics and ethnomusicology field research methods, makes in-depth analysis on and has an insight into the current situation and underlying causes through case study from phenomenon to essence, and puts forward constructive suggestions for more scientific and balanced development of accordion. Zhengzhou is located in the heart of China and is a national railway traffic hub, where various cultures are interacting. The investigation and research on the accordion development in Zhengzhou is representative for the accordion development in middle inland cities of China.