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The idea of making music with glass was not a new idea when Benjamin Franklin invented the Glass Armonica (Glass Harmonica) in 1761. The American scientist was living in London in 1757 when he heard E.H. Delaval, a colleague in the Royal Society, perform on the musical glasses. Franklin, who had inherited a strong interest in music from his father, set to work applying the principles of wet fingers and glass to a new instrument.
Working with a London glassblower, Franklin assembled a few dozen glass bowls of varying sizes, each with a hole in the bottom. Each bowl was tuned to a different note and painted a different color for identification. He arranged the bowls chromatically on a horizontal spindle according to size. The largest glass was to the left and each smaller glass fit within the next. The center of each bowl was fitted with a cork and an iron rod ran through the centers of the corks. The rod was attached to a wheel that was turned by means of a wheel attached to a foot pedal.
On July 13, 1762, Franklin wrote a letter to Padre Giambatista Beccaria in which he described his instrument and gave detailed instructions for its construction. He wrote: “The advantages of this instrument are that its tones are incomparably sweet beyond those of any other; that they can be swelled and softened at pleasure by stronger or weaker pressures on the fingers, and continued at any length, and that the instrument, being once well tuned, never again wants tuning.” Franklin goes on to say, “In honour of your musical language, I have borrowed from it the name of this instrument, calling it the Armonica.”
The Glass Armonica (Glass Harmonica) quickly became popular in England and on the Continent. The Musikalischer Almanach für Deutschland for the year 1782 said, “Of all the musical inventions the one of Mr. Franklin has created perhaps the greatest excitement.” In 1787, Leopold Röllig, one of the Glass Armonica’s leading admirers and performers, wrote that “the sensation the harmonica produced after its first appearance and the unanimous applause of all who heard it, make the instrument…the most satisfying and most beautiful mankind has ever possessed.”
As the demand for Glass Armonicas increased, there is no doubt that Ben Franklin was a strong influence in having armonicas made. There are many references in his correspondence to colleagues in Paris, Prague, Turn, Versailles, and Passy who were having instruments made or wanted to purchase them and even though instruments were not easy to obtain, over 6,000 Glass Armonicas were manufactured.
Although an American invented the Glass Armonica, it is fair to say that Germany became its adopted home. Most of the literature on the Glass Armonica is in German and the only method book for Glass Armonica was published at Leipzig in 1788 by J.C. Müller. Other composers of Glass Armonica music include Mozart, J.G. Naumann, J.F. Reichardt, K.L. Röllig, Beethoven, Schmittbauer, and J.A. Schultz. |
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Glass Armonica |
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Glass Armonica, Glass Harmonica, Armonica, Harmonica, Glasharmonika, Harmonika, Harmonica de Verre, Glassychord |