Harmonium
One hand pumps the bellows, the other plays the keys. Pump to fill the inner bellows, then play: each key plays a recording of one real harmonium, and when the stored air runs low the sound fades and stops.
Press a key to playtap a part to look insidedrag the bellows to pump
Drawing modelled on photos (credits below). The keys, knobs and bellows move as you play.
Air gauge: an illustration of the page's model of the inner bellows, not a measurement. The fade is the page lowering the volume of a real recording; we found no openly licensed recording of a harmonium running out of air.
Drone knobs
Each holds one fixed note on its own reed, with no key held. This harmonium's three drones are C#, D# and G#.
Air full. Hold a key to play.
Mouse, finger or computer keys: A W S E D F T G Y H U J K play 'Sa' to upper 'Sa'; Z and X change octave; hold Space to pump. On a harmonium tuned like a piano, any key can be 'Sa'; the names on the keys follow.Hold a key to play, slide to the next; hold several at once. Lower and Higher move the octave. The top three keys are pitch-shifted from D5, and say so when played.
Try these
- Play 'Sa' without pumping. The stored air keeps it going for a while, then it fades.
- Hold three keys at once and watch the air drain faster.
- Hold a key and pump hard, then gently. Louder and softer; the pitch barely moves.
- Pull the drone knob for your 'Sa' and play 'Sa Re Ga' over it.
- Switch on the coupler and play one key: one finger, two notes an octave apart.
- Make D your 'Sa' and play the same tune from there.
Look inside · Reeds
Harmonium: inside the sound
Every note on a harmonium comes from a thin brass tongue swinging through a slot in a brass frame. Watch one swing, see the overtones of a real note, and hear why two reeds slightly out of tune beat.
Where this reed sits
Tap the harmonium to look inside
Overtones
60 Hz to 8 kHz, log scaleMeasured live in your browser from the sound you are hearing. Each tick is a whole-number multiple of the note's measured pitch. Free reeds are rich in high harmonics.
Tap a key to hear it 'Sa' on C#4
70 of 100
A reed stays silent until the pressure passes a threshold, then swings at nearly full size. More air makes it louder, but the pitch barely moves. (Illustration: the page sets the recording's volume from this slider.)
Air pushes the tongue into its slot, its springiness swings it back, and each pass chops the air into a puff. The puffs, many each second, set the note; the rapid chopping gives the reedy tone its many overtones.
A clarinet's reed beats against an opening smaller than itself. A free reed swings right through its frame, like a swinging door.
Sources: Ananda, tour of the harmonium · Pykett, physics of free reeds · Cottingham, Physics Today · Wikipedia, Free reed aerophone · Wikipedia, Indian harmonium · Wikipedia, German Jubilate reeds · Britannica 1911 · Cottingham et al., Coe College · Wikipedia, Harmonium · Ananda, how to play
Beat strip
loudness of one narrow band, last 6 sMeasured live in your browser: the loudness of the narrow band where the two reeds meet. Each swell is one beat.
Play one key until you press it again
In these three recordings both reeds of the key can be heard; the figures are measured from them.
Tune a second reed apart
0 cents
0 beats a second on the fundamental: the two copies agree.
Two copies of one recorded key, one played sharp by the page, to imitate a second reed set tuned apart. Accordions tune a second set a fraction of a semitone sharp, usually no more than 25 cents, to get this wavering tone, and some European harmoniums had stops built this way. None of our sources says Indian harmoniums do.
On a two-set harmonium each key sits over a pair of reeds an octave apart. An octave up is twice the frequency, the same as the lower reed's second harmonic. When the two miss by a few cents, they beat: the loudness swells and fades at a rate equal to the difference in frequency.
Sources: ipassio · Wikipedia, German Jubilate reeds · Ananda, tour of the harmonium · Wikipedia, Beat (acoustics) · Wikipedia, Accordion reed ranks · Britannica 1911
Beat strip
band near 697 Hz, last 6 sMeasured live in your browser: the loudness of the narrow band where 5 × 'Sa' and 2 × 'Ga' meet. It slows almost to a stop near 386 cents.
Tune 'Ga'drag the handle, or use the arrow keys
386.3equal-tempered
(piano) 400this harmonium's
F4 key, as recorded
'Sa': this harmonium's own C# drone reed (recording). 'Ga': the F4 key, pitch-shifted by the page to the cents shown (up 2.1 cents for equal temperament, down 11.6 cents for 5:4). Worked out from the measured pitches: the recorded F4 key sits 397.9 cents above 'Sa' (counting from the drone's note an octave up), so its second harmonic meets the drone's fifth near 697 Hz.
A harmonium tuned like a piano (equal temperament) puts 'Ga' 400 cents above 'Sa'. A 'Ga' tuned to the pure 5:4 ratio sits 386.31 cents above, 13.69 cents lower, about a seventh of a semitone. Against a held 'Sa', the piano 'Ga' makes a shared overtone beat about five and a half times a second here; the pure 'Ga' lets it settle. Drag 'Ga' until the beating stops.
Hermann von Helmholtz used the harmonium to compare tuning systems, writing that its 'uniformly sustained tone' helps make it 'particularly sensitive to inaccuracies of intonation'.
Critics say a fixed key cannot give the slightly different shade a note takes in different ragas, and some musicians say most singers try to keep a lower 'Ga' than the piano's. A study of sung Hindustani music found its intervals leaning toward equal temperament, and suggests the harmonium has influenced how singers tune.
One answer: Vidyadhar Oke's 22-shruti harmonium keeps 'Sa' and 'Pa' fixed and gives each of the other ten notes two pitches, chosen by knobs below the keys.
Sources: Wikipedia, Major third · Serrà et al., ISMIR 2011 · 22shruti.com · Wikipedia, Indian harmonium · Puranik and Scavone, DAFx23 · Wikipedia, Beat (acoustics) · Wikipedia, Accordion reed ranks · Britannica 1911 · Wikipedia, Harmonium · Scroll.in
Harmonium: practice partner
Hindustani musicians practise paltas (also called alankars): short patterns of notes moved step by step up and down a scale. Pick your 'Sa', start the drone, and the harmonium plays each pattern, then waits while you sing it back.
On a harmonium tuned like a piano, any key can be 'Sa'. reed: this harmonium has its own drone reed on that note. key: the page holds that key down as the drone.
'Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Dha Ni Sa', up and back down.
'Sa Re Ga', 'Re Ga Ma', 'Ga Ma Pa' and on: one pattern moved a step at a time (1 2 3, 2 3 4, 3 4 5), then back down.
'Sa Ni Sa', 'Re Sa Re', 'Ga Re Ga' and on up to upper 'Sa', after sung examples by Warren Senders.
In a plain scale. Within a raga the rules change.
Questions about the harmonium
How does a harmonium make its sound?
Pumping the bellows fills a reservoir inside the box with air under pressure. Pressing a key opens a valve, and the air rushes past that note's brass reeds: thin tongues fixed at one end that swing through their slots and chop the air into rapid puffs. Let go of the key and the sound stops at once.
Sources: Ananda, "A Brief Tour of the Harmonium" (summarized from The Harmonium Handbook by Satyaki Kraig Brockschmidt) · Ananda, "How to Play the Harmonium, Part 1: Mechanics" · James P. Cottingham, "Acoustics of free-reed instruments," Physics Today 64(3):44 to 48 (2011) · Colin Pykett, "The physics of free reeds" (2023)
What do the knobs on a harmonium do?
On many instruments the larger knobs are air stops: each opens a chamber of reeds, so you choose which reed sets (bass, male or female) sound. The smaller knobs are usually drones, each holding one fixed note on its own reed with no key pressed. Some instruments add a tremolo knob that makes the air pulse, and a coupler, a lever or knob that adds the note an octave away.
Sources: Ananda, "A Brief Tour of the Harmonium" (summarized from The Harmonium Handbook by Satyaki Kraig Brockschmidt) · ipassio, "Harmonium: History, Mechanism and Famous Players" · Koizumi Fumio Memorial Archives, Tokyo University of the Arts, catalogue I, no. 352 harmonium · Wikipedia, "Indian harmonium"
Is the harmonium an Indian instrument?
It began in Europe: Alexandre Debain patented the harmonium in Paris in 1840. Indian makers reshaped it in the late 1800s into a small box played sitting on the floor, pumped by hand at the back, with drone knobs added. Dwarkanath Ghose of Kolkata is often credited, and 1875 is the date most often given.
Sources: Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th edition (1911), "Harmonium," by A. J. Hipkins and K. Schlesinger (Wikisource) · Wikipedia, "Harmonium" (pump organ) · Vishwas R. Gaitonde, "The harmonium was born in Europe, so how did it become synonymous with Indian music?" Scroll.in · Wikipedia, "Indian harmonium" · Wikipedia, "Dwarkin" · The National, "How the harmonium travelled from France to become a part of Indian music" (2023)
Why was the harmonium banned on All India Radio?
All India Radio kept the harmonium off the air for about 30 years, usually given as 1940 to 1971. British and Indian critics called it foreign, and argued that its fixed pitches could not make the slides and fine shades of pitch that ragas need. The 1971 change allowed it as an accompaniment; some accounts say solo recitals stayed barred.
Sources: Matt Rahaim, "That Ban(e) of Indian Music: Hearing Politics in the Harmonium," Journal of Asian Studies 70(3):657 (2011), abstract · Wikipedia, "Indian harmonium" · Vishwas R. Gaitonde, "The harmonium was born in Europe, so how did it become synonymous with Indian music?" Scroll.in · The National, "How the harmonium travelled from France to become a part of Indian music" (2023) · Outlook India, "Harmonium In Indian Classical & Notes From A 3-Decade AIR Ban" (2018)
How many keys does a harmonium have?
Full-size Indian harmoniums usually have 42 keys, about three and a half octaves. Smaller models have 39 keys or as few as 32. A smaller box also holds less air, so it sustains a note less easily.
Sources: Wikipedia, "Indian harmonium" · Music Folk (St. Louis), "Banjira Coupler Harmonium 11-Knob HMMC-11D" · Ananda, "Choosing and Buying a Harmonium" · Koizumi Fumio Memorial Archives, Tokyo University of the Arts, catalogue I, no. 352 harmonium
Why do some classical musicians object to the harmonium?
Each key gives one fixed pitch, usually tuned in equal temperament like a piano, and a key cannot slide (meend) or sway (andolan) the way a voice or sitar can. Critics also say a fixed key cannot give the slightly different shade a note takes in different ragas. Some musicians say most singers try to keep a lower 'Ga' than the piano's: a 'Ga' tuned to the pure 5:4 ratio with 'Sa' sits about 14 cents (roughly a seventh of a semitone) below the equal-tempered one. Even so, it is arguably the most popular accompaniment for Hindustani singers today.
Sources: Wikipedia, "Indian harmonium" · Joan Serrà, Gopala K. Koduri, Marius Miron and Xavier Serra, "Assessing the tuning of sung Indian classical music," ISMIR 2011 · Wikipedia, "Major third" · 22shruti.com (Vidyadhar Oke), "Topic 9: The Meaning and Criticism of the Tempered Scale" · Ninad Puranik and Gary Scavone, "Physically inspired signal model for harmonium sound synthesis," DAFx23 (2023)
At a glance
- Other names
- Also called peti ("box"), vaja or baja (among Sikhs), and hand harmonium. Samvadini is sometimes used too, though it is also the name Manohar Chimote gave his harmonium with a small zither on top.
- Where you hear it
- Hindustani (North Indian) vocal accompaniment, and devotional music across South Asia (qawwali, bhajan, kirtan, Sikh shabad); rare in Carnatic (South Indian) classical concerts.
Sound and drawing
Recording: "Harmonium Samples - All Keys and Drones" by donyaquick, Freesound, CC0 1.0. Recorded at Yale University. Cut into its 39 single keys (C2 to D5) and its three drones (C#3, D#3, G#3), mixed to mono and loudness evened (the drones also filtered below 70 Hz to remove rumble); held notes loop part of the recording; the top three keys (D#5, E5, F5) are pitch-shifted from D5 when played. Nothing on this page is synthesized, and nothing is slowed.
Drawing modelled on photos by Niranjan Arminius (also 2, 3; CC BY-SA 4.0 and CC BY-SA 2.0), Ishaan Gupta555505 (CC BY-SA 4.0), X-Javier (CC BY-SA 4.0), David Estes (also 2, 3, 4; CC BY-SA 3.0), gurmatsangeetorg (CC BY 2.0), Kritzolina (CC BY-SA 4.0) and Iqbal7282 (CC BY-SA 3.0), all on Wikimedia Commons. Cutaways and the scale-changer view in the parts pop-up: illustration, not a measured drawing. The knob layout follows a nine-knob example; which drone sits on which knob is our illustration, not a claim about real instruments.
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Recording: "Harmonium (C Major).wav" by ShortStat, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0. Trimmed; loudness evened.
Sources
- Wikipedia, "Indian harmonium"
- Vishwas R. Gaitonde, "The harmonium was born in Europe, so how did it become synonymous with Indian music?" Scroll.in
- Horniman Museum and Gardens, harmonium, object 2007.1
- Ananda, "A Brief Tour of the Harmonium" (summarized from The Harmonium Handbook by Satyaki Kraig Brockschmidt)
- Ananda, "How to Play the Harmonium, Part 1: Mechanics"
- Music Folk (St. Louis), "Banjira Coupler Harmonium 11-Knob HMMC-11D"
- Ananda, "Choosing and Buying a Harmonium"
- Wikipedia, "German Jubilate Harmonium Reeds"
- Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th edition (1911), "Harmonium," by A. J. Hipkins and K. Schlesinger (Wikisource)
- ipassio, "Harmonium: History, Mechanism and Famous Players"
- Colin Pykett, "The physics of free reeds" (2023)
- James P. Cottingham, "Acoustics of free-reed instruments," Physics Today 64(3):44 to 48 (2011)
- Wikipedia, "Free reed aerophone"
- Koizumi Fumio Memorial Archives, Tokyo University of the Arts, catalogue I, no. 352 harmonium
- Spardha School of Music, "Harmonium Instrument: A Complete Guide for Beginners"
- Wikipedia, "Harmonium" (pump organ)
- Wikipedia, "Dwarkin"
- The National, "How the harmonium travelled from France to become a part of Indian music" (2023)
- Matt Rahaim, "That Ban(e) of Indian Music: Hearing Politics in the Harmonium," Journal of Asian Studies 70(3):657 (2011), abstract
- Outlook India, "Harmonium In Indian Classical & Notes From A 3-Decade AIR Ban" (2018)
- Joan Serrà, Gopala K. Koduri, Marius Miron and Xavier Serra, "Assessing the tuning of sung Indian classical music," ISMIR 2011
- Wikipedia, "Major third"
- 22shruti.com (Vidyadhar Oke), "Topic 9: The Meaning and Criticism of the Tempered Scale"
- Ninad Puranik and Gary Scavone, "Physically inspired signal model for harmonium sound synthesis," DAFx23 (2023)
- J. P. Cottingham, C. J. Lilly and C. H. Reed, "The motion of air-driven free reeds" (Coe College conference paper)
- Wikipedia, "Svara"
- Wikipedia, "Beat (acoustics)"
- Wikipedia, "Accordion reed ranks and switches"
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Hand-pumped bellows push air through metal reeds, one per key.
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