The above text comes from an exhibit on the history of Breton music at the Chateau Kerjean.

The Chromatic button accordion used in Brittany is the ‘C system’ accordion commonly used in western Europe, typically with four or five rows of buttons on the right (melody) side. The buttons on the melody side are distinctive in that if the next button to the right is played the sounded note will be a minor third higher, and moving to the right diagonally inward the note played will be a half-step higher, and diagonally right outward will play a note a whole step higher. 

This style of accordion is one of two commonly used in Breton music, the other being the extremely popular Diatonic Button Accordion.  The piano accordion is not generally used in Breton music and can be considered a novelty instrument in this context. One difference between the C system and piano instruments is the powerful immediacy of the response to individual melody notes in the C system, which makes a quite noticeable difference in playing strong melody lines with trills and various other articulations.

The most traditional  setup for Breton chromatic accordion is a ‘wet’ tuned instrument, where the paired metal reeds that play with every melody note are tuned a few cents off from each other (as opposed to ‘dry’ tuning in which they are tuned as closely as possible to each other) resulting in a complex, perhaps more diffuse or even dissonant tonality.  The majority of Breton players brace their right thumb against the side of the keyboard rather than using it to play, as a classical musician would. The typical Breton style places an emphasis on playing towards the higher range of the instrument, although there is no ‘rule’ to do so.

Yves Menez known as "Pier Min" (1905-1983) and his protegés such as Jean Coateval typify the instrument’s sound and repertoire in the early and mid twentieth century. Menez, for example, as perhaps the most famous player of the era, had a genius for interesting melodies coupled with fairly simple chordal accompaniment with the left hand. The traditional repertoire featured a very strong emphasis on gavottes, particularly the ‘gavottes montagne’ as Menez was associated with the Monts d'Arrée, or Menezioù Are area. Menez was known as the creator and king of the « accordéon gavotte » and played countless wedding gigs in central Brittany before and after the second world war. In the 1930s and 1940s he exercised his talents as a solo performer,  or as part of a duo, or accordion trio, or within his ballroom orchestra l’Idéal Jazz. If his most famous compositions were perpetuated by his students (Jean Coatéval and Yves Le Gac in particular), others would have fallen into oblivion without their notation in the 1940s by Polig Monjarret. 

In 2020 Dastum released Idéal Jazz – Yves Menez, a large-ensemble recording that faithfully recreated the Menez sound.  Four noted chromatic accordionists, accompanied by brass, violin, banjo and drums, created a sound reconstruction of 22 titles, supported by numerous documents (recordings, scores, and notes) presented in an attached PDF booklet.

Although  musicians such as Patrick Lefebvre (Swing Noz, Lemou & Lefebvre) and Yann Le Corre (Karma, n’diaz) have certainly left their mark, perhaps no other musician really signifies the high-point of chromatic accordion in Breton music today better than Régis Huiban. Huiban, as a player and composer, has produced gorgeous, groundbreaking music with Kof A Kof with Roland Becker, several classic recordings with the group Wipidoup, and then went on to revitalize the aging  but iconic group Skolvan. All the while he released several jazz outings and the traditional Danses Du Pays Pourlet and Mille boutons, featuring an approach completely faithful to the original style but performed at a vastly higher level of technical proficiency.  The description of Mille boutons from the Bemol VPC record company website: “Solo on the chromatic accordion or accordina, here are some dances from Lower Brittany, from the traditional repertoire. With the exception of laridés, all these tunes were once played by accordionists who marked the history of Breton music such as Yves Menez, Jean Coatéval, Yves Richard, André Le Maguet and Yves Gac…”. More recently, the group Birinig Express, perhaps building on the earlier group Joa, has an extremely intriguing lineup and seems poised to deliver some inspired material.

Besides Huiban, the best-known Breton chromatic accordionists today are probably Jean Le Floc’h, Yann Le Corre, Patrick Lefebvre, and Alain  Pennec. The bands Wipidoup, n’diaz, Kafe Koefet,  and Imperial Gavotte Club are just a few that feature the akordeoñ kromatek. 

The Imperial Gavotte Club