Harmonium, Tuning! How important is 440?

[snaimpally]

Originally Posted by Mid-East.com

Two Questions
1) do you play traditional Indian Ragas, or do you use the harmonium for more western style music?
2) Based on how you use the Harmonium, how important is the western, concert , pitch?
We have had a few communications with folks inquiring about harmoniums tuned to the 440 Hz (concert A) pitch. In India the harmonium is not tuned to 440Hz because it is not an orchestral instrument. In fact, since the reeds in the harmoniums are handmade, rarely are two harmoniums tuned exactly the same. The reeds for the keys are tuned to sound good together, and the player usually finds a harmonium that suits their vocal pitch. However, if there is a significant need for Concert tuned harmoniums that can play in pitch with other western tuned instruments, then we are willing to put an effort into finding concert tuned reeds.
I would appreciate your opinion; is the 440 Hz pitch important?

I play tabla and accompany both traditional Indian classical music (ICM) and play in different East-West fusion bands. For the ICM folks, 440 is not important. But for ANYONE playing in a fusion band, its a pain when the harmonium is not even close to 440. This makes it difficult for instruments such as saxophone to integrate with the harmonium. Since you are selling Indian instruments in the USA, I think many of your customers would appreciate a 440 harmonium.

[Mid-East.com]

Thanks, that's just the feed back I need.