History And Types Of Harmonium Musical Instrument In English

History And Types Of Harmonium Musical Instrument

• Harmonium is a stringed instrument made of wood, metal, brass and cloth. A type of portable wooden box, it originated in West Bengal.
• Harmonium has thus become an integral part of Indian music. It is widely used with folk, classical, Sufi and ghazal compositions for both music and dance.
• The keys are played and the bellows are pressed simultaneously. When the bellows is pressed, air passes through the reed, causing it to vibrate. This produces sound.
• The reed controls the pitch while the bellows produce and control air and volume. Harmonium can produce 12 notes and 22 shrutis.

History

• The harmonium was first designed in the 1700s by Christian Gottlieb Kratzenstein, professor of physiology at the University of Copenhagen.

• His harmonium was made like a small sized organ. It produced sound with a foot-operated bellows, which allowed air to pass through a pressure-equalizing air reservoir, allowing the metal reeds to vibrate. The instrument’s volume was controlled by knee-operated valves, the knob located above the keyboard allowing the air supply to bypass the reservoir and the power used to pump the bellows.
• As Europeans migrated to the United States, they introduced the harmonium to Americans. Eventually the instrument found its way into the colonies of Asia, Africa and the Caribbean.
• In the early 20th century, the use of the harmonium declined in the western world due to changing tastes in music. Thus, the European harmonium lost its aura and was found only in museums.
• This dying machine got a second life in India. In 1875, Dwarkanath Ghosh designed his own version of the Indian hand-held harmonium in Calcutta. Traditionally, it was used to accompany Indian classical musicians as they sat on the floor during performances.
• In the Indian version of the harmonium, the foot-operated bellows below the keyboard in the European harmonium were replaced by hand-operated bellows at the back.
• The new avatar of the harmonium was more durable, less expensive to manufacture and easier to maintain and repair.
• The internal mechanism of the instrument was simplified by Ghosh. Drone knobs were added to the instrument to produce harmony in Indian classical music. A scale changing technique was also added to the Indian version of the harmonium. By 1915, India became the leading producer of harmoniums.

Special Types

• It was first invented in France in 1840 by Alexandre Deben, who patented his harmonium in Paris on August 9, 1840.
• Harmonium with a swaramandal was produced by Bhishmadeva Vedi. Since the voice box was too large for the harmonium, his disciple Manohar Chimote named the strings ‘samvadini’ within the width of the instrument.
• This instrument allows the hand on the bellows to play the strings and the other hand to play the keys. Chimote provided a new natural ‘Gandhara’ tuning in this harmonium.
• Although this tuning was limited to 22 versus 12 tones required in Hindustani classical music, it certainly gave an Indian flavor to the European tuning of the harmonium.
• 22-Shruti-Harmonium was made by Vidyadhar OK. To achieve this, he first clarified the essential difference between ‘Nada’ and ‘Shruti’ and indicated the conditions for playing 22 microtones (Shruti) on any musical instrument.
• He documented the distinct difference between the 22 Shruti versus the 12-tone Equal Temperament Scale.
• His 22-Shruti-Harmonium provides special knobs under each key to regulate the tala, thereby providing 22 Shruti within 12 keys.
• Since it is a modified hand held harmonium, it does not require any special skill to play.
• 22-Shruti-Harmonium enables creation of any raga in which all the swaras are perfectly matched with a tanpura.
• Additionally, by keeping all the knobs in the central position, the 22-Shruti-Harmonium can produce the

Use

• The harmonium is a portable wooden box about two feet long and ten inches high, the rear part of which is called the bellows. The outer cover of the bellows is made of wood.
• It has about 10 holes which allow air to pass through the bellows. The top part is like a keyboard with 12 keys in all three octaves: mandara, madhya and tara. Nine knots are present below the keys to control the reeds to produce sur (music).
• Harmonium has thus become an integral part of Indian music. It is widely used with folk, classical, Sufi and ghazal compositions for both music and dance.

Material-

• Wood, Metal, Brass, Fabric

Harmonium Questions And Answers-