Pump organ

The pump organ or harmonium is a type of reed organ that generates sound with bellows.

More portable than pipe organs, reed organs were widely used in smaller churches and in private homes in the 19th century, but their volume and tonal range are limited, and they generally had one or sometimes two manuals, with pedal-boards being rare. The finer instruments have a unique tone, and the cabinets of those intended for churches and affluent homes were often excellent pieces of furniture. Several million reed organs and melodeons were made in the U.S. between the 1850s and the 1920s. During this time Estey Organ and Mason & Hamlin were popular manufacturers.

History

Christian Gottlieb Kratzenstein (1723–1795), professor of physiology at Copenhagen, was credited with the first free-reed instrument made in the Western world, after winning the annual prize in 1780 from the Imperial Academy of St. Petersburg. The harmonium's design incorporates free reeds and derives from the earlier regal. A harmonium-like instrument was exhibited by Gabriel Joseph Grenié (1756–1837) in 1810. He called it an orgue expressif (expressive organ), because his instrument was capable of greater expression, as well as of producing a crescendo and diminuendo. Alexandre Debain improved Grenié's instrument and gave it the name harmonium when he patented his version in 1840. There was concurrent development of similar instruments. A mechanic who had worked in the factory of Alexandre in Paris emigrated to the United States and conceived the idea of a suction bellows, instead of the ordinary bellows that forced the air outward through the reeds. The firm of Mason & Hamlin, of Boston, in 1860 made their instruments with the suction bellows, and this method of construction soon superseded all others in America.

Harmonium (band)

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Harmonium was a Quebec progressive rock band formed in 1972 in Montreal.

History

Lead vocalist and guitarist Serge Fiori met Michel Normandeau (vocals and guitar) in a theatre music meeting on November 1972. Later on in 1973 they met bassist Louis Valois and became Harmonium. In November 1973 the group performed their first air play on CHOM-FM. They played 3 tracks: "Pour un instant", "Un musicien parmi tant d'autres", and "Un refrain parmi tant d'autres". The first 2 songs were demos at the time and were later recorded professionally to be put on their first album, Harmonium. The last song was a sequel to "Un musicien parmi tant d'autres", but never made the album cut, staying unreleased. Apart from the album, one single was recorded at the time: "Pour un instant", featuring 2 tracks (one on each side), the title song and "100,000 Raisons", only released on the CD version of the album almost 20 years later.

Harmonium (Adams)

Harmonium is a composition for chorus and orchestra that could be considered a choral symphony in all but name, by the American composer John Adams, written in 1980-1981 for the first season of Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco, California. The work is based on poetry by John Donne and Emily Dickinson. It is regarded as one of the key compositions of Adams' "minimalist" period. The San Francisco Symphony and the San Francisco Symphony Chorus, with conductor Edo de Waart, gave the premiere of the work on 15 April 1981, and subsequently recorded it. The UK premiere was on 13 October 1987 at Birmingham Town Hall, with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (CBSO) conducted by Simon Rattle. Rattle and the CBSO gave the London premiere on 28 July 1990 at The Proms.

Each movement is a setting of an entire poem:

Timothy Johnson has discussed various aspects of the harmonic language of Harmonium in detail. K. Robert Schwarz has noted the influence of the musical techniques of Steve Reich on Harmonium, and also has commented on the less schematic and more "intuitive" manner of Adams' composition in the work.