Invented in 1761 by Benjamin Franklin, the Glass Armonica was one of his favorite inventions. The word "Armonica" is the Italian word for "Harmony". It is played on the same principle of rubbing a wet finger around the rim of a wineglass. The glass bowls are individually tuned, so that they do not need to be filled with water, though the players fingers do need to be moistened with water. The glass bowls are 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 pedal. The composer Mozart, being into Oddmusic himself, composed two of his works specifically for the Glass Armonica.
Colin, you was closest to the right answer.
http://www.oddmusic.com/gallery/index.html
9 comments:
I saw this wonderful invention on the
History Channel but had had forgotten about it until I read your blog.
The linked site has a wide range of odd musical instruments and is well worth looking at.
o! i've heard that already!!
on the radio
also we used to have a synthesizer with a "bowed glass" setting... it was just like ... well angels singing through a glass... amazing on Ave Maria (pre-setting...)
yeah I've heard that glassmachine go: it is quite something...
ps don't you think opera singers' voices (esp sopranos) sound just like a finger scraping the edge of a wineglass..??
Drats, here I was thinking it was a hookah, or a sounding rod for a whale penis. Damn you Ben Franklin, damn you!
That was fun :-) you will have to find us some more strange objects to guess :-)
Yes I think I will do just that Cherie :-)
Ah - do you need to dress that way to play it?
Yes , you do.
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