Glass Harmonica

By Miss Cellania in Gadgets, Hacks & Mods, Music on Oct 5, 2009 at 11:31 am

Listen to French artist Thomas Bloch demonstrating a glass harmonica, or armonica, at the Paris Music Museum. From Wikipedia:

Benjamin Franklin invented a radically new arrangement of the glasses in 1761 after seeing water-filled wine glasses played by Edmund Delaval at Cambridge in England in 1758.[6] 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 early 1762, played by Marianne Davies.

In Franklin’s treadle operated version 37 bowls were mounted horizontally on an iron spindle. The whole spindle turned by means of a foot pedal. The sound was produced by touching the rims of the bowls with moistened fingers.

Link

Tags: armonica, Benjamin Franklin, glass, harmonica, musical instrument

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Tom
Oct 5th, 2009 at 12:06 pm
An armonica is nothing like a harmonica. The names are similar, and they both produce music, but the similarity ends there.
Miss Cellania
Oct 5th, 2009 at 12:08 pm
You should edit Wikipedia to reflect that.
Briannana
Oct 5th, 2009 at 4:16 pm
Ah, yes. A truly beautiful instrument and sound. For a uniquely similar sound, listen to “God Music” from George Crumb’s Black Angels for amplified string quartet. It’s all done on amplified violins, viola, and cello. A truly gorgeous and haunting section of a truly groundbreaking piece. If you listen to the opening of the piece, be careful. Very loud.

If you want to hear another interesting use of pitched wine glasses, check out Joseph Schwantner’s “And the Mountains Rising Nowhere”. Dr. Schwantner taught my composition instructor, Dr. Roger Briggs, also an awesome composer (you can find him on Facebook), at Eastman music conservatory.
Tom
Oct 5th, 2009 at 4:38 pm
Wow, I don’t know who came up with that, but it’s awful. Ben Franklin invented it and called it the armonica. Why on Earth would someone change the name to that? They might as well have called it the glass guitar.
Tim Giachetti
Oct 6th, 2009 at 7:23 am
There is an antique musical museum in Bath Maine I think is the location. Think also Miss C. had a submission about it here.
These thigs are a delight to look at. And when they played it, my god what a wonderful sound.
ted
Oct 6th, 2009 at 8:34 am
It’s an interesting instrument, but the recording was muddy. I suspect it sounds much nicer in person.
Christophe
Oct 6th, 2009 at 1:56 pm
Theu still manufacture them in Waltham, MA.
http://www.finkenbeiner.com/GLASSHARMONICA.htm
Ed Hird
Oct 25th, 2009 at 7:53 pm
Benjamin Franklin had a remarkable impact in so many ways, including musical instruments like the glass harmonica. A Benjamin Franklin article just received the â€˜Top 100 Electricity Blogsâ€™ Award http://bit.ly/z8Ckp

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