Pierre Monichon (24 October 19251 September 2006)[1] was a French accordionist, musicologist and inventor of the harmoneon (also concert accordion). He published several books on the history of the Accordion, and was a professor at both the CRR93, where he taught a course on the concert accordion and the Conservatoire National de la Région Aubervillers, where he was a professor of the history of music.[2] Monichon was a member of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres for his contributions to music, achieving the rank of "Chevallier" in 1982.

Pierre Monichon
Pierre Monichon at the 'Mainson des boits".
Born24 October 1925
DiedSeptember 1, 2006(2006-09-01) (aged 80)
NationalityFrench
Known forInventor of the Harmoneon, research on Free reed aerophones
AwardsChevallier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres

Biography

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Pierre Monichon was born in Lyon, France on 24 October 1925. He trained at the École César-Franck under Yves Margat, studying the piano, counterpoint and the history of music. From 1945, Monichon tried to promote the accordion among classical musicians,[3] inventing the harmoneon in 1948 to solve some of the problems he saw in traditional accordions - namely the stradella bass system, fixing this by creating his own keyboard layout. He then formed several societies for its promotion, as well as teaching it with his student, Charles Taupin at the Paris Conservatory, in a course that exists to this day.[4]

Research

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Monichon was a pioneering researcher on the history of free reed instruments - his thesis at École César-Franck was the first in France on the subject of the accordion.[5] Pierre wrote several books on the history of accordions:

  • L'accordeon - first published in 1971, 12 editions published in total.[6][7]
  • Petite histoire de l'accordéon - published in 1958 with Guy de Lioncourt[8]
  • Méthode d'harmonéon : accordéon de concert français - published in 1997.
  • L'Accordéon, Van de Velde, Paris und Payot, Lausanne, 1985
  • L'Accordéon, Pierre Monichon/Alexandre, Juan éditions Cyrill Demian, 2012

Teaching

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Monichon was the teacher of several renowned accordionists, such as Alain Abott.[9]

References

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  1. ^ "Pierre Monichon (1925-2006)". data.bnf.fr. Retrieved 2022-10-22.
  2. ^ Pasquier, Marcel. "Biographie de Pierre Monichon" (PDF). Retrieved 22 October 2022.
  3. ^ "Pierre Monichon". Concertina.net Discussion Forums. Retrieved 2022-10-22.
  4. ^ L'Hermet, Vincent. L’ACCORDÉON DANS LES CONSERVATOIRES CLASSÉS EN FRANCE : ÉTAT DES LIEUX ET PERSPECTIVES D’AVENIR (PDF) (2nd ed.). Paris. p. 87.
  5. ^ Caumel, Marie-Julie (18 December 2018). "Regards croisés sur l'accordéon classique : un état des lieux de l'enseignement et du répertoire en France et en Russie" (PDF). Université d'Évry. Archived (PDF) from the original on 22 October 2022. Retrieved 22 October 2022.
  6. ^ Monichon, Pierre (1971). L'accordeon (in French). Presses universitaires de France. OCLC 299786292.
  7. ^ Krümm, Philippe (1986). "Pierre Monichon, L'Accordéon, 1985". Vibrations. Musiques, médias, société. 3 (1): 259–260.
  8. ^ Monichon, Pierre; de Lioncourt, Guy (1958). Petite histoire de l'accordéon (in French). Paris: Entreprise générale de fabrication et de publicité, Paris. OCLC 51959805.
  9. ^ "Le Bayan -". Retrieved 2022-10-22.