How to Use harmonium in a Sentence

harmonium

noun
  • This is where my head was when Birchfield pulled open the harmonium.
    — Jenni Avins, Quartz, 28 Nov. 2019
  • Ornette Coleman told her to play her melodies in the lower registers, so voice and harmonium matched.
    — Brian Dillon, The New Yorker, 8 Apr. 2022
  • These days, the sama nights are Shaidaiyi’s only chance to play the harmonium for an appreciative audience.
    — Maija Liuhto, Longreads, 28 June 2018
  • Springsteen sings, plays a harmonium and banjo and Ron Aniello is in charge of drum loops and electric keyboards on the track.
    — Chris Jordan, USA TODAY, 24 Oct. 2017
  • Since then, Fanoos rose to fame playing the harmonium and singing Ghazal or Afghan epic poetry.
    — Bryan Llenas, Fox News, 28 Nov. 2021
  • On Tuesday, the Wonder singer shared a reflective post with fans on social media, alongside a video of himself freely singing along to a harmonium.
    — Daniela Avila, Peoplemag, 3 Jan. 2024
  • In August, her uncle sent the instrument back to Zohra’s mother in Ghazni, along with a violin, a flute and a harmonium.
    — New York Times, 13 July 2022
  • On Sunday, the pews were crammed for communion and hymns in Urdu, accompanied on a handheld harmonium.
    — Pamela Constable, Washington Post, 16 Mar. 2018
  • The harmonium, a favorite instrument of Wagner’s, is powered by foot pedals.
    — Los Angeles Times, 30 July 2019
  • For most previous Lykanthea performances, Ramgopal has relied on synths and electronic processing to ramp up the scale of her sound, which rests on her voice and the drones of a harmonium.
    — Sasha Geffen, Chicago Reader, 18 Oct. 2017
  • In the short interlude between musical pieces, Tuqeer Ali Khan looks suspiciously at his harmonium.
    — Hasan Ali, The Christian Science Monitor, 2 May 2023
  • The musical accompaniment consists of drums and cymbals — occasionally played by the dancers — flute, voice and sometimes violin or harmonium.
    — Marina Harss, New York Times, 17 Apr. 2018
  • The diversity gives the show richly complex music and dance — the instrumentation includes a rhythm section, strings and keys, as well as harmonium, bansuri flute, sitar, tanpura, tumbi, tabla, dhol, daf and ankle bells.
    — New York Times, 23 Mar. 2022
  • The group's basic toolkit of cornet, harmonium, bass clarinet, and hand bells eventually grew to include guimbri, tampura, drarp, autoharp, karkabas, kalimba, and shakuhachi.
    — Ash Carter, Town & Country, 12 June 2013
  • Cale would let Nico toil at her own speed through vocals and harmonium accompaniment, and then encircle this primitive vessel with a flotilla of glockenspiel, viola, bosun’s pipe, and more.
    — Brian Dillon, The New Yorker, 8 Apr. 2022
  • On the earlier recording, the three of them added overdubs to elaborate tracks Fennelly had already cut using a pedal harmonium, synthesizers, and electronics.
    — Peter Margasak, Chicago Reader, 21 Mar. 2018
  • Waheedullah Barna, a 45-year-old musician and harmonium restorer, was the exception.
    — Los Angeles Times, 24 Sep. 2021
  • Pat Irwin, who primarily handles piano and synths but also dips into slide guitar, harmonium, and autoharp, comes from surf rock and new wave, and played with the Raybeats and the B-52’s.
    — Brian Howe, Pitchfork, 12 May 2026
  • The score, by Volker Bertelmann, follows the current fashion for monumental skronking noises, with the tones of a harmonium amplified to stadium-guitar levels.
    — Alex Ross, The New Yorker, 9 Feb. 2023
  • Over the next century, more musically minded inventors reduced the size of Kratzenstein’s device, calling their various creations a terpodian or harmonium.
    — Steve Knopper, Smithsonian Magazine, 19 Mar. 2021
  • There’s an accordion, violin, harmonium, Armenian duduk, Iranian Tombak and even a handful of homemade instruments that make up the aural texture.
    — Lila Seidman, latimes.com, 9 July 2019
  • Bareilles ran through one version of the In Memoriam song, a plaintive 1960s melody, while playing a small, wooden harmonium, before deciding against using the instrument on Oscar night.
    — Rebecca Keegan, VanityFair.com, 25 Feb. 2017
  • Meanwhile, Ellis handled violin, viola, alto flute, tenor guitar, piano, harmonium, synthesizer, loops, drum machine, glockenspiel, and autoharp, as well as singing backing vocals.
    — Kory Grow, Rolling Stone, 25 Feb. 2021
  • As with Junun, Hebrew, Urdu, and Hindi coalesce, as does Greenwood’s keyboard and bass guitar with the Rajasthan Express’ trumpets, harmonium, and dholaks.
    — Arman Khan, Pitchfork, 1 June 2026

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'harmonium.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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