I was wondering whether you know anything about musicians using the harmonica outside Smyrneiko and Rebetiko. Surely it must also have been used in the Balkans and Turkey, but I can’t find anything.
In Bulgaria, the accordion is hugely popular and always has been. I don’t know anything specific about other countries; in Turkey, it’s not popular at all.
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I think there is a tradition in Latin American countries. So perhaps also in the Latin music of other countries, including Greece. (Latin in the broader sense, including tango, has existed for quite a long time.)
I think in Irish music as well.
Isn’t the international name for the harmonica „concertina“?
(Possibility of error in all three things I wrote.)
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I don’t know whether you mean just the harmonica or accordion(-type) instruments in general. Anyway, as Nikos says, the accordion is an important instrument in Balkan music.
Saska Velkov and Milan Zavkov from North Macedonia:
And a fine Greek musician!
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what remained as a name amongst us
„Αρμονκνικα“, is the
Diatonic button accordion
the same or similar in Creole music (French tradition) and Argentine tango (Bandoneon)
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Good evening, thank you for the replies!
I have some idea of how widespread the diatonic accordion is in European countries such as Ireland, France and Italy.
I was listening to the concert dedicated to Amiralis that took place in Ikaria last year, and I was wondering which other musicians were around during that period, or what music the musicians who played the harmonica on the songs that are now well known to us might have been listening to. Presumably, the harmonica was also played in the Balkan countries and in Turkey. I searched the internet a little for old recordings, but I couldn’t find anything. Hence my question.
And just to clarify, by ‘harmonica’ I mean the diatonic accordion.
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You also need to know what they call it in each language.
On the other hand, to know what they call it, for example, in Bulgarian, it must have had a name, which means it must have existed in Bulgaria. But did it? Needs investigating… 
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In English, the term melodeon is also used.
The concertina is a different instrument, though of course related.
I’m not sure which of the two is closer to the harmonica.
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Of course, now that I see it, I remember. The concertina is the little one. In one respect, all these are instruments more closely related to the harmonica than to the accordion. (And let’s not confuse the diatonic button accordion, which belongs here, with the plain button accordion, which is a regular accordion with a different keyboard.)
With a little digging, I found that the harmonica is called Triestinka kai armunika in Croatia, and there is still a festival dedicated to this instrument in the town of Roc:
From Slovenia:
In Swedish, it is called durspel, and there are quite a few videos from various events on YouTube:
A video featuring a torader from Norway
A Finnish woman in an old recording:
Sorry for going somewhat off topic! If I find anything about Bulgaria, Turkey, etc., I’ll post it here.
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Probably Andy Cutting
Something I saw on Melodeon.net
In a discussion about the possible “tuning” of the accordions heard in old Greek recordings, the name Anastasios Stathopoulos is mentioned as a musical instrument dealer/manufacturer in Smyrna until 1903.
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A search for the name Stathopoulos will lead you to a wealth of relevant information, from Smyrna to America, Epiphone, etc.
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