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Handmade Cajun Accordion, Pt. 1: Reed-Mounts Deep in the Louisiana prairie, accordion maker Marc Savoy begins the journey in the construction of a Cajun accordion. From "Handmade Music" episode DHMM-308

"An accordion is just a carrying case for a bunch of reeds." At least that's how Marc Savoy, master accordion-builder, describes it.

But one look at Savoy's handmade musical creations and it becomes immediately obvious that there's a lot more to it than that.

A handmade Cajun accordion. . .

with a marque that reveals its regional heritage.

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Marc Savoy (pronounced "sav-WAH") has been building accordions at the Savoy Music Center in Eunice, Louisiana for 45 years. Eunice is located in the "Louisiana prairie" that many Cajuns call home.

In this five-part Handmade Music series on the accordion, Marc shares his secrets of building an accordion with a Cajun flare. He demonstrates all the steps that go into making the instrument, from the internal reeds and reed-mounts to the keyboard, bass box and the beautiful walnut case.

Master accordion builder Marc Savoy

	Figure A
	Figure B

The Heart of the Accordion

With the Cajun accordion, the "beating heart" of the instrument, as Marc Savoy calls it, is a collection of reeds (figures A and B). The reeds are the key to the intsrument's unmistakable sound, and the accordion that Marc is building holds 46 of them, divided into four sets. Having such a large volume of reeds housed in the relatively small body is what gives the small Cajun accordion its "big" sound.

"Whereas many of the larger accordions only have two reeds per note, these have four," says Savoy, "which is what accounts for its tremendous volume. Of course, that's probably what attracted the Cajuns when the instrument hit here in Louisiana. I'm sure one of the factors that interested the Cajuns was that it has such a tremendous volume--louder than the violin, the instrument they had initially. Here was an instrument that could be heard in the house dances of long ago." More later on the 'competitive' relationship between the accordion and the fiddle.

The reeds of the accordion are arranged in a structure known as a reed-mount. In this first phase of the project, Marc shows how batch-cutting and building wooden assemblies--which then are custom cut to become reed-mounts--sets the foundation for the many steps to come in the creation of the instrument.

Later phases in the process (covered in subsequent installments in this series) include the keyboard and bass box.

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