The glass harmonica, also called the glass armonica, glass harmonium, bowl organ, hydrocrystalophone, armonica, or harmonica, is a musical instrument that uses glass bowls or goblets of different sizes to create musical notes. It produces sound through friction, a method used by instruments known as friction idiophones. Benjamin Franklin invented the instrument in 1761. Its sound is similar to that of the glockenspiel.

Nomenclature

The name "glass harmonica" (also called "glass armonica," "glassharmonica," "harmonica de verre," "harmonica de Franklin," "armonica de verre," or simply "harmonica" in French; "Glasharmonika" in German; and "harmonica" in Dutch) describes any instrument played by rubbing glass or crystal goblets or bowls. The word "harmonica" comes from the Greek word "harmonia," which means "harmony." Another similar instrument made with a set of tuned wine glasses (usually filled with water) is often called "musical glasses" or the "glass harp" in English.

In 1761, Benjamin Franklin created a machine-made version of this instrument. He named it the "armonica," using the Italian word "armonia," which also means "harmony." A different instrument called the "aeolina," now known as the "harmonica," was not invented until 1821, sixty years after Franklin's creation.

The word "hydrodaktulopsychicharmonica" is also recorded. It is made from Greek words and means something like "a harmonica that produces music for the soul by using fingers dipped in water" ("hydro-" for "water," "daktul-" for "finger," and "psych-" for "soul"). The Oxford Companion to Music notes that this is "the longest Greek word ever attached to a musical instrument." A reader of The Times newspaper wrote in 1932 that he had heard the instrument called "hydrodaktulopsychicharmonica" during a performance. The Museum of Music in Paris displays an example of this instrument.

Forerunners

The glass harmonica is a type of musical instrument called a crystallophone because its sound-producing part is made of glass. The idea of rubbing a wet finger around the edge of a glass to create music was known as early as the Renaissance. Scientists such as Galileo and Athanasius Kircher studied this phenomenon in their writings.

The Irish musician Richard Pockrich is usually credited as the first person to play an instrument made of glass vessels (called a glass harp) by rubbing his fingers around the rims. Beginning in the 1740s, he performed in London using a set of upright goblets filled with different amounts of water. His career ended when a fire destroyed his room and killed him.

Edward Delaval, a friend of Benjamin Franklin and a member of the Royal Society, improved upon Pockrich’s experiments by creating a set of glasses that were more accurately tuned and easier to play. Around the same time, Christoph Willibald Gluck also gained attention for performing on a similar instrument in England. In April 1760, the poet Thomas Gray wrote to James Brown, Master of Pembroke College, Cambridge, describing a performance by Delaval: "No instrument I know has so heavenly a tone. It was like a cherubim in a box."

Franklin's armonica

In 1761, Benjamin Franklin created a completely new way to arrange glasses after seeing water-filled wine glasses played by Edward Delaval in Cambridge, England. Franklin worked with a London glassblower named Charles James to build the instrument. It had its first public performance in early 1762, played by Marianne Davies.

In a letter to his friend Giambattista Beccaria, an Italian priest, physicist, and mathematician in Turin, Franklin described the instrument from London in 1762. He wrote that the instrument’s tones were much sweeter than other instruments, could be changed in loudness by pressing the fingers harder or softer, and could play notes for as long as needed. He also noted that once properly tuned, the instrument never needed retuning. Franklin named the instrument "Armonica" in honor of Beccaria’s musical language.

Franklin’s version used 37 glass bowls mounted horizontally on an iron spindle. A foot pedal turned the spindle. Sound was made by touching the edges of the bowls with wet fingers. The edges were painted different colors to show the pitch of each note: A (dark blue), B (purple), C (red), D (orange), E (yellow), F (green), G (blue), and accidentals in white. Franklin’s design allowed up to ten glasses to be played at once, which was very hard or impossible with upright goblets. He also suggested using a small amount of chalk on the fingers to help create a clear tone under certain water conditions.

Some later attempts to improve the armonica included adding keyboards, placing pads between bowls to reduce vibrations, and using violin bows. Another idea, based on observations of non-playing instruments, was to rotate the glasses into a water trough. However, William Zeitler tested this by spinning a glass into a basin of water and found that the water changed the pitch, causing loud, unpleasant noise. This made it harder to produce clear sounds.

In 1975, the Bakken Museum in Minneapolis acquired an original armonica, though its glass bowls were lost during shipping. The instrument was bought from the descendants of Mme. Brillon de Jouy, a neighbor of Franklin in Paris from 1777 to 1785. Some 18th- and 19th-century armonicas have survived into the 21st century. Franz Mesmer, a famous figure in Mesmerism, also played the armonica.

An original Franklin armonica is kept at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, donated by Franklin’s descendants in 1956. The instrument was broken during family events, and it is only displayed on special occasions, like Franklin’s birthday. The Franklin Institute also houses the Benjamin Franklin National Memorial.

A website has listed publicly known armonicas from Franklin’s time. The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston displays an early 19th-century armonica, which is sometimes used for performances and recordings.

Musical works

Many composers, such as J. G. Naumann, Padre Martini, Johann Adolph Hasse, Baldassare Galuppi, and Niccolò Jommelli, along with more than 100 others, wrote music for the glass harmonica. Some of these pieces are still played today, adapted for other instruments. European royalty enjoyed playing the instrument, and Marie Antoinette took lessons from Franz Anton Mesmer when she was young.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart composed two works for the glass harmonica in 1791, numbered K. 617 and K. 356 (K. 617a). Ludwig van Beethoven included the instrument in his 1814 melodrama Leonore Prohaska. Gaetano Donizetti used the glass harmonica in the accompaniment to Amelia's aria "Par che mi dica ancora" in Il castello di Kenilworth, which premiered in 1829. He also originally planned to use the instrument in Lucia di Lammermoor (1835) for the heroine's "mad scene," but the producers asked him to rewrite the part for two flutes before the premiere. Camille Saint-Saëns included the instrument in his 1886 work The Carnival of the Animals (movements 7 and 14). Richard Strauss used the glass harmonica in his 1917 opera Die Frau ohne Schatten.

For a time, the glass harmonica was very popular because of its "ethereal" sound, which was similar to the nail violin and Aeolian harp. These qualities were linked to the musical style called Empfindsamkeit. However, the instrument was forgotten by about 1830. Since the 1980s, when performances of the armonica were revived, composers have written for it again in solo, chamber music, opera, electronic music, and popular music. These composers include Jan Erik Mikalsen, Regis Campo, Etienne Rolin, Philippe Sarde, Damon Albarn, Tom Waits, Michel Redolfi, Cyril Morin, Stefano Giannotti, Thomas Bloch, Jörg Widmann (Armonica 2006), and Guillaume Connesson.

The 1997 ballet Othello, composed by American musician Elliot Goldenthal, begins and ends with the glass harmonica. The ballet was performed by the San Francisco Ballet, the American Ballet Theatre, the Joffrey Ballet, and on tour in Europe, including at the Opera Garnier, where Dennis James played the music on his historical replica instrument.

Joseph Schwantner's symphonic poem Aftertones of Infinity, which won the 1979 Pulitzer Prize for Music, features individual wine glasses played by orchestra members at key moments in the piece.

George Benjamin's opera Written on Skin, which premiered in 2012 at the Aix-en-Provence Festival, includes a detailed and important part for the glass harmonica.

Non-musical cultural works

Johann August Apel's short story "Der Geisterruf" ("The Ghost Call") from the book Gespensterbuch (volume 3, 1811) focuses on the mysterious and magical sound of a glass harmonica.

Andrei Khrzhanovsky's 1968 animated short film The Glass Harmonica (Russian: Стеклянная гармоника) is named after and includes a "glass harmonica." It is known for being the only Soviet animated film that was banned by censors.

Purported dangers

The instrument's popularity did not last long after the 18th century. This may have been because it could not make its sound loud enough to be heard over other instruments.

Some people say this was because of rumors that using the instrument caused musicians and their listeners to become mentally unwell. It is unclear how widely this belief was shared. Most of the examples of this rumor come from Germany, especially Vienna. One example was shared by German musicologist Johann Friedrich Rochlitz in the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung:

Marianne Davies, who played flute and harpsichord and was related to Benjamin Franklin, became skilled enough at playing the armonica to perform publicly. After touring with her famous singer sister for many years, she was said to have suffered from sadness linked to the instrument's sound. Another player, Marianne Kirchgessner, died at 39 from pneumonia or a similar illness. However, many others, including Franklin, lived long lives.

For a time, the armonica was very popular, but like many trends, its popularity faded. Some say the instrument’s sound mechanism could not produce enough volume to fill large concert halls where modern string, brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments were played. The instrument’s glass construction, which made it easily broken, may also have contributed to its decline. By 1820, the armonica was rarely seen in public performances, possibly because musical styles were changing.

A modern claim suggests that players might have suffered from lead poisoning because the armonica was made of lead glass. However, there is no scientific evidence that simply touching lead glass causes lead poisoning. Lead poisoning was common in the 18th and early 19th centuries for many people, not just armonica players. Doctors often prescribed lead-based medicines, and lead was used in food preservation and household items. Any lead exposure from the armonica would have been much smaller compared to lead from other sources, such as paint used to mark the instrument’s parts.

Today, historical replicas by Eisch use a type of glass called "White Crystal" developed in the 18th century, which replaces lead with higher potash content. Modern versions, like those made by Finkenbeiner, use "Quartz" glass, a type of pure silica glass developed in the early 20th century for scientific use.

Perception of the sound

The confusing nature of the sound is partly because of how people hear and find where sounds come from. When sounds are above 4 kHz, people mainly use how loud the sound is to tell if it is coming from the left or right ear, which helps them find the source. When sounds are below 1 kHz, people use how the sound waves reach each ear to find where the sound is coming from. The main pitch of the armonica is between 1–4 kHz, which matches the range where the brain has trouble, making it hard for listeners to find where the sound is coming from and to understand what is making the sound.

Benjamin Franklin described the armonica’s tones as "incomparably sweet." The full quote, written in a letter to Giambattista Beccaria, says: "The advantages of this instrument are that its tones are incomparably sweet beyond those of any other; that they may be swelled and softened at pleasure by stronger or weaker pressures of the finger, and continued to any length; and that the instrument, once well tuned, never again wants tuning."

A music critic for The Morning Chronicle, writing about a performance by Kirchgessner in 1794, said, "Her taste is chastened and the soft and pleasant notes of the instrument would be delightful indeed, were they more powerful and clearer; but we believe even the best playing cannot make them. In a smaller room and with fewer people listening, the effect would be magical. Though the accompaniment was kept very quiet, it was still occasionally too loud."

Modern revival

From 1820 to the 1930s, music written for the glass harmonica was rare. However, composer Gaetano Donizetti planned for the aria "Il dolce suono" from his 1835 opera Lucia di Lammermoor to be played with a glass harmonica, and composer Richard Strauss included the instrument in his 1919 opera Die Frau ohne Schatten. Interest in the glass harmonica grew again in the 1930s when German musician Bruno Hoffmann began performing on his version of the instrument, which he called the glass harp. Hoffmann used specially made glasses mounted in a case with a special chamber to help the sound resonate. He adapted many pieces written for the mechanized version of the instrument and asked modern composers to create new music for his goblet-shaped version.

In 1984, master glassblower and musician Gerhard B. Finkenbeiner redesigned Franklin’s glass harmonica without giving credit for the patent. After 30 years of testing, Finkenbeiner created a copy of the original design using clear glasses and later added gold bands to match late 18th-century styles. These gold bands helped musicians identify notes similar to the black keys on a piano, replacing Franklin’s colorful painted bowls. Finkenbeiner Inc., based in Waltham, Massachusetts, continues to make versions of these instruments commercially as of 2014, using scientific glass made from fused-silica quartz.

From 1989 to the present, German musician and instrument maker Sascha Reckert restored and recreated glass armonicas based on original designs, using crystal glass that can produce deep bass tones needed for older compositions. Reckert performed Lucia di Lammermoor at the Munich State Opera and Die Frau ohne Schatten in a full scene production. He also invented the Verrophon, an instrument with glass tubes that creates a louder sound. Reckert made glass harmonicas for musicians like Dennis James, the Wiener Glasharmonikaduo, and Martin Hilmer.

In 1952, French artists Bernard and François Baschet created a modern version of the Chladni Euphone, called the "crystal organ" or Cristal di Baschet. This instrument has up to 52 metal rods tuned to play all musical notes, moved by glass rods rubbed with wet fingers. The glass rods are placed horizontally and attached to metal stems with added blocks to improve sound. The instrument uses fiberglass or metal cones and a flame-shaped metal part to amplify sound. Thin metal wires, like cat whiskers, are placed under the instrument to enhance high-pitched sounds.

Dennis James recorded an album titled Cristal: Glass Music Through the Ages, co-produced by Linda Ronstadt and Grammy Award-winning producer John Boylan. On the album, James plays the glass harmonica, Cristal di Baschet, and the Seraphim, performing pieces by composers like Mozart, Scarlatti, Schnaubelt, and Fauré. He also worked with the Emerson String Quartet, soprano Ruth Ann Swenson, and Ronstadt. James used glass instruments in film scores, including Marco Beltrami’s The Minus Man (1999) and The Faculty (1998). He first learned about glass instruments at age 6 when he saw Benjamin Franklin’s original harmonica on display at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia. James played the glass harmonica on the 1999 album Trio II, performed by Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris, and Linda Ronstadt, for their version of "After the Gold Rush."

Composer James Horner used a glass harmonica and pan flute for the theme music of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982). On February 23, 2007, the armonica was used by the nu-metal band Korn during an MTV Unplugged session. The instrument used was said to be based on Benjamin Franklin’s design.

General and cited references

• "An Extensive Bibliography" – a list of resources about the armonica. Retrieved January 16, 2007.
• "Franklin, Benjamin" – letters from Benjamin Franklin about the armonica. Saved from the original on February 10, 2007. Retrieved January 16, 2007.
• "Galileo, Galilei" – a section from Galileo’s book Two New Sciences describing the "wet finger around the wine glass" phenomenon (1638). Saved from the original on February 10, 2007. Retrieved January 16, 2007.
• King, A.H., "The Musical Glasses and Glass Harmonica," Proceedings of the Royal Musical Association, Vol. 72, (1945/1946), pages 97–122.
• Sterki, Peter. Klingende Gläser. Bern, NY, 2000. ISBN 3-906764-60-5 br.
• "History of the Glass Harmonica" – Saved on May 8, 2013, by the Wayback Machine.