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"In honour of your musical language, I have borrowed from the name of
this instrument, calling it the Armonica." Benjamin Franklin to Italian
friend, Gimabatista Beccaria, 1762 |
"This evening Mr. Carter spent playing on the glass armonica. The music
is charming. The notes are clear and inexpressibly soft, they swell, and
are inexpressibly grand; and either it is because the sounds are new
therefore please me, or it is the most captivation instrument I have
ever heard." Phillip Fithian, 1773 |
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The
glass armonica, also known as glass harmonica, was invented by Benjamin Franklin in 1761. It consists of
glass bowls tuned by size, mounted one inside each other with cork on a
metal spindle. The glasses are made to spin with a flywheel attached to
a foot treadle. Moistened fingers rub the exposed rims of the glasses to
produce one of the most beautiful sounds ever created by man. Jefferson,
Mozart, Beethoven, and Mesmer are only a few of the famous men
associated with the armonica.
 The
glass armonica is believed to have caused health problems in the 18th
century due to the lead content in the glass and the lead paint used on
the rims of the glasses to identify the notes. Performers complained of
loss of feeling in their hands and some players even suffered nervous
breakdowns at the end of their careers. People became very frightened of
the armonica, and by 1830, it was all but extinct. The glass armonica
was revived in 1984 by master glass blower Gerhard Finkenbeiner of
Boston, MA. Instead of using regular glass, he blows pure quartz into
bowls that are now used. Dean Shostak added the flywheel to the
instrument, and the rest is history.
Click
here to listen to Mozart Adagio for Glass Armonica From Revolutions CD.
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There are a few glass armonicas that have survived
since the early 18th century. Listed below are some examples of
some of the instruments on display around the world.
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