Joseph Messervier on Accordion Making

Interviewer: Mr. Messervier, how did you get started making accordions? After all, it’s not a trade you can learn at school.

Marcel Messervier: No, it’s not something you come across at school. That’s for sure! My father taught me the basics.

Interviewer: Your father?

Marcel Messervier: That’s right. He did things the old-fashioned way, even working by lamplight! I remember when I was really young and we didn’t have electricity out our way. He wore out his eyes working on accordions. You know those little strips you find inside an accordion? He made them by hand! People would go see him, my father, with their two-key, three-key, four-key Pine Trees. Those accordions would be in rough shape, with broken reeds. The Marazzas had trouble too. Anyway, Dad couldn’t get the strip he needed. He didn’t have the contacts in the old countries that I have today. Anyway, there was a company that could cut steel to the size he wanted. After that, he finished it by hand, with a file. He made the strip supple, like the one next to it, the two mediums. Eventually, it would sound right and he carried on from there.

Interviewer: In other words, your father repaired accordions?

Marcel Messervier: That’s right. He did nothing but repair them. Even if it was more trouble than making new ones! [Laughter.] The inside of the bellows all beat up! I would see broken strips—four, five of them—hanging off the accordion. He spent nights and nights fixing that sort of thing!

Interviewer: Was that how you learned your trade?

Marcel Messervier: Well, yes! You know, I would stand next to him and take the opportunity to ask him, ask my father: “Why did you do it that way?” To raise or lower the pitch, all that. He answered: “That’s my little secret!” [Laughter.] He told me: “If you can keep it to yourself, I’ll explain everything!” That was fine with me. I listened very carefully!