That Ban(e) of Indian Music: Hearing Politics in the Harmonium [pdf]

I may be in the minority but harmonium always felt tonally deficient, as compared to flute, sitar, santoor, jaltarang & the likes. Every note is a bunch of tones in a tight band instead of puretone, probably due to how the airflow goes over the note-producing parts. Its sounds like a medieval autotune. The closest approximation I can imagine are the church organs.

PS. I was trained classically in Hindustani classical & owned a harmonium. I preferred Sitar accompaniment to set the scale in my vocals.

This is the first I've heard of a harmonium, although it's immediately obvious to me that I've listened to it before. I have to admit it doesn't sound at all like an Indian instrument to my Western ears. Perhaps I've been spoiled by the sitar and flute, as played by the likes of Ravi Shankar and Paul Horn, with beautifully fluid transitions between notes, but the harmonium seems oddly rigid and tonally out of place in my concept of Indian classical, unless it were relegated to use as a drone (which it would do wonderfully).

This honestly feels incredulous. Every single music teacher I've had in school (or even otherwise) in India uses a harmonium. It's a staple across instructors and pros alike, as far as I know.

the idea of indian classical music is to find your own personal tonic (the 'Sa') with your guru assisting. everything else in a raga is around that tonic. the problem with a harmonium is the notes are tuned to standard western classical music frequencies and you pick one of these notes as your tonic, the closest comfortable for you. its also comfortable for other accompanists to tune their instruments (independently of you) to. but its a compromise and especially one that works well for the stage. what is lost however is the search for your own personal tonic, thereby a whole different approach to music making. indian classical music is by the individual, for the individual, a kind of meditation but tbh it got compromised long b4 harmoniums came along when played for kings or later the rupee paying public. of course doesnt mean standardistation isnt good or cant produce 'good music' but the core reason is kinda gone deep underground now.

i guess only in dhrupad they get very close to this approach. you would take forever to tune the tanpura to your tonic and 5th (or 4th) above (depending on raga), low tonic. now if your tonic isnt a standard note, you would first tune the tanpura to your tonic (by humming), then you understand the 'relationships' between your tonic and your 5th (or your 4th) better by tuning (ie listening deeply to) the tanpura cos you cant simply dial up a standard note. its a whole different world.

one could argue why not tune the harmoniums notes into your personal tonics and 5ths and 4ths and all other notes but of course its tedious, the other deeper idea is in indian classical music gurus wouldnt quite fix the position of a 'note' in the raga, its fluid, it emerges, its rediscovered (the ahha happens here) etc.

what is happening now is as harmonium is immensely popular they start to rewrite history and say well indian classical music wasnt about finding your own tonic after all...u are no special...u were waiting for our standard notes...u are just like us....but not as good as our beethovens and mozarts ;)

Hatmonium is not at all suitable for Carnatic music because it can not render gamaka (complex blending of notes back and forth at varied speed and levels) which is the crux of that system. Hindustani music has only limited stress on such complex treatment of gamaka. So it is widely used in Hindustani music.

It's funny how one thing can be considered foreign in two different places.

I am from Europe and my mom has so-called "shruti box" which is basically harmonium with fixed chord on it and it's used to play drones. Shruti box is considered exotic and Indian here and it's almost unusable for anything Czech, because our music do not rely on drones too much.

I'm not a player but I attend services at the Sikh Gurdwara when I can and I will admit that I really am not a fan of the harmonium in comparison to other pre-colonial instruments. There are still groups such as Dhadis who don't use harmoniums however theym by design, create extremely intense listening experiences but I would love to hear more Kirtan in other contexts live.

Is this also what is called a portative organ? They're all through art history