Glass harmonica
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A glass harmonica. |
The
glass harmonica, also known as
glass armonica or simply
armonica (derived from "armonia," the
Italian word for harmony) is a type of
musical instrument that uses a series of
glass bowls or goblets graduated in size to produce
musical
tones by means of
friction (instruments of this type are known as friction
idiophones).
Early history
Because its sounding portion is made of glass, the glass harmonica is a
crystallophone. Sets of glasses struck with sticks as a percussion instrument have existed since ancient times. The phenomenon of rubbing a wet finger around the rim of a wine goblet to produce tones is documented back to
Renaissance times;
Galileo considered the phenomenon (in his
Two New Sciences), as did
Athanasius Kircher.
The Irish musician Richard Puckeridge is typically credited as the first to play a set of such glasses by rubbing his fingers around the rims; although it is not entirely certain he was the first, he certainly popularized it. Beginning in the 1740s, he performed in London on a set of upright goblets filled with varying amounts of water. During the same decade,
Christoph Willibald Gluck also attracted attention performing in England on a similar instrument.
Benjamin Franklin's armonica
Benjamin Franklin invented a radically new arrangement of the glasses in
1761 after seeing water-filled wine glasses played by William Deleval. (By this time, both Puckeridge and his instrument had perished in a fire.) Franklin, who called his invention the "armonica" after the Italian word for harmony, worked with
London glassblower
Charles James to build one, and it had its world premiere in January of
1762, played by
Marianne Davies.
In Franklin's version, the bowls were mounted nested on a horizontal spindle and the whole spindle turned by means of a foot-operated treadle. The sound was produced by rubbing the rims of the bowls with moistened fingers. With the Franklin design it is possible to play ten glasses simultaneously if desired, a technique that is very difficult if not impossible to execute using upright goblets. Franklin also advocated the use of a small amount of powdered chalk on the fingers which helped produce a clear tone in the same way rosin is applied to the bows of string instruments.
Some 18th and 19th century specimens of the armonica have survived into the 21st century.
Franz Mesmer also played the armonica and used it as an integral part of his
Mesmerism.
Mozart,
Beethoven,
Donizetti,
Richard Strauss and
Camille Saint-Saëns all composed works for the glass harmonica. European monarchs indulged in it, and even
Marie Antoinette had taken lessons on it.
The instrument's popularity did not last far beyond the 18th century, partially because of a strange rumor that using the instrument caused both musicians and their listeners to go insane.
One example of fear from playing the glass armonica was noted by a
German musicologist Friedrich Rochlitz in
Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung where it is stated that "the armonica excessively stimulates the nerves, plunges the player into a nagging depression and hence into a dark and melancholy mood that is apt method for slow self-annihilation. If you are suffering from any nervous disorder, you should not play it; if you are not yet ill you should not play it; if you are feeling melancholy you should not play it."
While one armonica player,
Marianne Kirchgessner, is known to have died at the age of 39 (of pneumonia or an illness much like it. See her obituary, written by her manager
Heinrich Bossler in the
Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung May 10, 1809), others (including Franklin himself) lived long and full lives. By
1820 the glass armonica had disappeared from public performance, perhaps because musical fashions were changing â€" music was moving out of the relatively small aristocratic halls of Mozart's day into larger and larger concert halls of Beethoven and his successors, and the delicate sound of the armonica simply could not be heard. The
harpsichord disappeared at about the same time â€" perhaps for the same reason.
A modern version of the "purported dangers" claims that players suffered lead poisoning because armonicas were (and some still are) made of lead glass. However, there is no known scientific basis for the theory that merely touching lead glass can cause lead poisoning. Objects made of lead (such as fishing or tire weights) may be safely handled although one should avoid touching food after handling lead, and also avoid inhaling its dust. Meanwhile, it is known that lead poisoning was common in the 18th and early 19th centuries for both armonica players and non-players alike: doctors prescribed lead compounds for a long list of ailments, lead oxide was used as a preservative in food and beverages, food was cooked in tin/lead pots, and acidic beverages were commonly drunk from lead pewter vessels. Even if armonica players of Franklin's day somehow received trace amounts of lead from their instruments, that would likely have been dwarfed by the lead they were receiving from other sources.
Bernard Baschet invented a variation of the glass harmonica in
1952, the
crystal organ, which consists of 52 chromatically-tuned glass rods that are rubbed with wet fingers. The main difference to the glass harmonica is that the rods, set horizontally, are attached to a heavy metal block to which the vibration is passed through a metal stem. The crystal organ is a fully acoustic instrument, and amplification is obtained using fiberglass cones fixed on wood and by a tall cut out metal part in the shape of a flame. Metallic rods resembling cat whiskers are placed under the instrument to increase the sound power of high-pitched sounds to the right.
The glass armonica was re-invented by a German glassblower and musician,
Gerhard B. Finkenbeiner (1930â€"1999) in
1984. After thirty years of experimentation, Finkenbeiner's prototype consisted of clear glasses and glasses with gold bands. Those with gold bands indicate the equivalent of the black keys on the piano. G. Finkenbeiner Inc., of
Waltham, Massachusetts, continues to produce these prototypes.
When Benjamin Franklin invented the instrument, he called it the "armonica," based on the Italian word "armonia," which means "harmony." The free reed wind instrument called
harmonica was not invented until
1821, sixty years later. Over the years Franklin's name for the instrument has been commonly corrupted to "glass harmonica."
* Perhaps the most famous pop culture reference to glass harmonicas is by
Mitch Hedberg. In his 1999 album
Strategic Grill Locations he jokes, "Sometimes the hotel I stay at has a minibar. A minibar is a machine that makes everything… expensive. And when I take something out of the minibar, I always fathom that I'm gonna replace it before they can check me off and charge me. But they make that shit impossible to replace. I go to the store, 'Do you have Coke in a glass harmonica? Do you have individually wrapped cashews?'"
* The instrument has been used in several film soundtracks, including
Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles and
March of the Penguins (performed by Thomas Bloch).
* In his novel
Mason & Dixon Thomas Pynchon fictionally describes Franklin's armonica: "If Chimes could whisper, if Melodies could pass away, and their souls wander the Earth… if Ghosts danced at Ghost Ridottoes, 'twould require such Musick, Sentiment ever held back, ever at the edge of breaking forth, in Fragments, as Glass breaks."
* King, A.H., "The Musical Glasses and Glass Harmonica",
Royal Musical Association, Proceedings, Vol.72, (1945/1946), pp.97-122.
Instruction books
*Bartl.
About the Keyed Armonica.
*Ford, Anne (1841).
Instructions for playing on the music glasses (Method). England.
*Franklin, J. E. Introduction to the Knowledge of the Seraphim or Musical Glasses
.
*Hopkinson-Smith, Francis (1825). Tutor for the Grand Harmonicon. Baltimore, Maryland.
*Ironmonger, David.
Instructions for the Double and Single Harmonicon Glasses.
*Muller, Johann Christian (aka John Christopher Moller).
Anleitung zum Selbstunterricht auf der Harmonika.
*Roellig, Leopold.
Uber die Harmonika / Uber die Orphika.
*Smith, James.
Tutor for the Musical Glasses.
*Wunsch, J. D.
Practische - Schule fur die lange Harmonika.
*
Display of Glass Armonica at The Bakken Library and Museum*
Hear the Glass Armonica (by Alisa Nakashian-Holsberg. History, articles, www.crystalisa.com)
*
Articles (with citations) about the Armonica (by William Zeitler, www.glassarmonica.com)
*
'The Glass Harmonica' (a history by Thomas Bloch)
*
Play the armonica Interactive version of playing the armonica.
*
Ben Franklin and the Armonica*
Glass harmonica page from G. Finkenbeiner Inc. site
*
Hear excerpt from Weeps and Ghosts for Glass Harmonica and String Quartet by Jan Erik Mikalsen. New piece didicated to and performed by Thomas Bloch.
*
Dennis James interview
