Accordions that sound similar to Indian Harmoniums?

[Newbie]

Hello,

I realize this may be a random question, but it was posed to me and since I know nothing of accordions or Indian harmoniums,
I thought maybe some people here might be able to help out.
My friend likes the Indian harmonium for chanting devotional songs, but would like to learn accordion instead if he can find
one that sounds quite similar.
Something about being able to stand up and move around I guess.
And preferably a smaller, more lightweight, cheaper model/type (used or new) if possible.
If you know what Indian harmonium sounds like then great.
If not, maybe you can listen a bit on YouTube and weigh in.

Thanks!

 

[JIM D.]

You can reproduce the sounds a harmonium makes by holding combinations of bass notes will playing single notes on the treble side.

 

[TomBR]

Interesting question as to my ear Indian harmoniums have a distinctive tone quality thats different from an accordion. Seems that they use octave tuning, male=8 female=4 and bass=16 M,H,L respectively in accordion language.

Theres some info on reeds here, talking about brass reeds for Indian harmoniums.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_Jubilate_Harmonium_Reeds
Do brass reeds sound that different? Brass reeded concertinas are all too easy to come by - they tended to be the cheaper models, and are generally said to be relatively quiet but sweet in tone. I did a full refurb of a brass reeded Lachenal English concertina for a friend. It worked fine after a LOT of work to get it speaking freely, though it did sound nice.

Ive never heard of a brass reeded accordion other than steel bronze reeded melodeons that are probably a waste of time for anyone to refurbish.

Harmonium is sometimes used as a name for a LMH coupler, which says something I guess.
My understanding is that you only tend to find Low Medium and High reeds in bigger accordions? If the sound quality is ok it might be just a matter of hunting till you find one that works and is reasonably well in tune, at the right price! I think its unlikely to be small or light, unfortunately.

 

[AccordionUprising]

You might want to try to reach M.B. Prakash, who plays and repairs accordions in Bangalore. Hes got a duo with a harmonium player and a nice CD if you can find it online.

Im sorry I dont have a direct link to him. He seems a most likely person to answer your question.

Do please report back if you reach him and hes able to help.

He might be reachable through the youtube videos someone posted of him:

I discovered him in a flurry of stories about him a while back:
http://www.bangaloremirror.com/colu...ording-to-MB-Prakash/articleshow/40810589.cms
https://www.ryze.com/posttopic.php?topicid=76056&confid=366
http://www.timeoutbengaluru.net/around-town/features/bellow-line

Henry Doktorski communicated with one of his students years ago I see:
http://www.ksanti.net/free-reed/letters/letters00.html