Harmonium in Hindustani Vocal Music

Video Transcript

"This instrument is harmonium. What it is, is a little organ that operates with a bellows; it's a reed organ and this is a very popular accompanying instrument for vocal music. In particular light classical and folk and everything because you don't have to tune it. This was actually an instrument brought by the British in the 19th Century by missionaries and it just stayed. Although some classical musicians shunned its use and it was not permitted to be used on the national radio, all India radio when all India radio was first established early in the 20th Century but now it is very popular because of its ease of playing and it is just a little keyboard that you play. Many people get really virtuosic at it. "