Invention of Harmonium

INVENTION OF HARMONIUM
                                                 


All the music lovers must be curious to know about the invention of Harmonium. We all know that in indian music whether classical, semi classical or individual performances, harmonium plays vital role. It supports the singers to remain in the proper scale and enhances the singing. Well most of you might be thinking since its used in subcontinent countries, as an esstial part of singing, it must have been inveted in India or the neigbouring countries but thats not the case.

Well the first harmonium was invented by  Christian Cottlieb Kratzenstien,  Professor of phsiology at Copenhaigan. The design of the first harmonium resembled the organ called Regal. Later a person called Gabriel Joseph Grenie made little alternations and made the haromonium that looked like harmonium organ in 1810. The harmonium that we see today was made by Alexander Debain in 1840, he was from France. infact he made many alterations to the design that was made by Gabriel. Actually the pedals were used to play the organ like harmonium as now a day hand is used to provide air through reservoir. Ealier the organs and harmonium were abundantly used in churches and chapels at that time, where it was not conveniently possible to bring heavy pipe organs. In 1930 when the electric organs were invented, the use of harmonium became rare and almost dimished in western countries.There was  a company in America name J.Estey and company that stopped the making of primitive organ like harmoniums in 1950 but some Italian companies kept on making such kind of harmonium till 1970. Later on some french people brought it to India, where it gained its popularity being easy to learn. Ealier harmiums were played with the help of pedals by sitting on stool or chair but according to the need of the native people, who preferred to use one hand to pump air to the reservoir and use other hand to play the keys, so the use of cords that could be played on organ by using pedals became unwanted. The final design that we see today was the fully altered design that was presented the very first time in Calcata, India, by a person called Dawarka Ghosh. It became so popular that most of the muscians and singers stated using it in abundance, it became the necessity for the musicians as well as the singers. Later on many kinds of harmonium were introduced like, box harmonium, scale changer harmonium, capler harmonium etc. Harmonium is better than other instruments that have to be tuned each time before use. It is lot easier for the biggners who love to learn classical music.