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For Pure Sound, a Clear Choice GLASS MUSIC WORLD SUMMER 2008 1 SUMMER 2008 For pure sound, The Glass Harmonica: a clear choice A Return from Obscurity Local firm crafts glass harmonicas By Gerhard Finkenbeiner with Vera Meyer Reprinted from the Glass Music International Journal 1988 I. THE HISTORY OF GLASS MUSIC People have been tapping and strik- ing glass objects as a means of making mu- sic for over 600 years. It was not until the mid-1700’s in Europe, however, that history records the first occurrences of music made by rubbing the rims of glass goblets with moistened fingers to produce various notes. The goblets or wine glasses were affixed firmly to a table, and then each was tuned precisely, with water, to a different pitch. The musician would sit in front of this as- sembly, making the glasses sing by moving Clockwise from left: Tom Hession at work a wet finger steadily and with light pressure at GFI; the exterior of GFI in Waltham, around the rims. This arrangement was MA; Gerhard Finkenbeiner. called the ‘musical glasses,’ and for a time it was quite the rage of high society in Eu- By Matthew Guerrieri, Globe Correspondent | August 26, 2007 rope. © Copyright 2007, Globe Newspaper Company, Republished with permission. When Benjamin Franklin was in WALTHAM -- Bright yellow flames hiss from a half-moon of gas burners as Europe, as Ambassador to the Colonies, he Tom Hession fuses a bowl-shaped glass cap to a Pyrex chromatography column chanced to hear a concert played on a set of for a medical imaging company. As the clear cylinder spins lazily on a lathe, 50 tuned water glasses. Charmed and capti- Hession and fellow glass blower Brendan Coffey name-drop clients. vated by the beautiful sounds being emitted “Jonathan Davis, from Korn, he bought one,” Hession says. “Mark from the glasses, he set out to design a more Mothersbaugh, the guy from Devo.” convenient and practical form of the instru- “Neil Young,” Coffey prompts from the back of the shop. ment. His idea was to start out with already “Yeah, Neil Young has one,” Hession says. perfectly tuned glasses, doing away with They’re not talking about medical instruments, but about one of the the water tuning altogether. He thought to shop’s other products, the glass harmonica. For 25 years, Waltham-based G. remove the stem and base from each glass Finkenbeiner Inc. has been the leading manufacturer of the instrument, once and then slide them one by one, progress- a fashionable ornament of parlor and concert hall. The lanky, laconic Hession, ing from lowest note to highest, on a steel the firm’s head glass blower, proudly continues the tradition started by founder shaft. With a hole through the center of each Gerhard Finkenbeiner, but is amused by the outsize ratio of publicity to produc- glass, they could all be made to nestle quite tion, compared with the shop’s volume of scientific glass blowing. comfortably within each other, close but not “The harmonica has always been really a sidelight,” Hession says, “but touching; the spindle could then be safely set wherever I go in the country, there’s always someone who knows we make into rotation, the glasses spinning securely them.” along with it. Thus one would only need to In 1761, Benjamin Franklin, visiting Europe, heard one Edward Delaval touch the glass rims as they passed under perform on the musical glasses -- 50 crystal wine glasses, mounted in a cabinet, one’s wet fingers, and the instrument could tuned by being filled with varying amounts of water, and played by running be played much more like a piano; chords a moistened finger around the rims, producing an icy, distant falsetto. (The and faster musical passages would be easier British poet Thomas Gray had also heard Delaval, remarking, “I thought it was to achieve, since one would not awkwardly see FINKENBEINER, page 4 see RETURN, page 7 website: http://www.glassmusicintl.org • egroup: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/glassmusic/ 2 SUMMER 2008 GLASS MUSIC WORLD PRESIDENTIAL NOTES The feature article in this issue is one entitled, appreciate it if you would complete the form, include it with “For Pure Sound, A Clear Choice - Local Firm Crafts Glass your dues payment, and mail them to Dean Shostak at the Harmonicas,” which appeared in the Boston Globe on August address shown on the form. 26, 2007. It is an excellent article about G. Finkenbeiner, Also, included in this issue are the latest GMI member Inc. at the present time. We thank Tom and Diane Hession email address and website listings. Please review these listings for making us aware of this article. Along with this, we have and send any additions or changes to me: gmipres@verizon. included a reprint of the article, “The Glass Harmonica: A net or Carlton Davenport, PO Box 228, Princeton, MA 01541. Return from Obscurity,” written by Gerhard Finkenbeiner Please send any articles, or suggestions for articles, with Vera Meyer, which originally appeared in the 1988 GMI to me at the above address and PLEASE send your GMI Journal. Happenings to Liz Mears, [email protected]. The num- All members will find a dues request form for their ber of inputs for this column has been shrinking lately. 2008 dues included with their copy of this issue. We would GMI Member Email Addresses Ralph Archbold [email protected] Darcy Kuronen [email protected] Bernard Baschet [email protected] Steven Lash [email protected] Liselotte Behrendt [email protected] Stephane Leach [email protected] Peter Bennett [email protected] Doug Lee [email protected] Real Berthiaume [email protected] Alexander Lemeshev [email protected] Thomas Bloch [email protected] Robert McKay [email protected] Sherwin Borsuk [email protected] Elizabeth Mears [email protected] Frederic Bousquet [email protected] Paul Meisser [email protected] Cecilia Brauer [email protected] Vera Meyer [email protected] Bob and Mary Bray [email protected] John Moore [email protected] Catherine Brisset [email protected] Alisa Nakashian-Holsberg [email protected] Jean-Claude Chapuis [email protected] Tim Nickerson [email protected] June and Carlton Davenport [email protected] Gaudry and Pauline Normand [email protected] Thomas Degnan [email protected] Sally Prasch [email protected] Michel Deneuve [email protected] Sascha Reckert [email protected] Jim Doble [email protected] Norm Rehme [email protected] Toby and Lynn Drye [email protected] Monica Rogers [email protected] Ingeborg Emge [email protected] Jody Rosen [email protected] Brien Engel [email protected] Nevine Sabet d’Acre [email protected] Robert Esch [email protected] Dean Shostak [email protected] Evelyn Glennie [email protected] Carolinn Skyler [email protected] Roy Goodman [email protected] Doug Smith [email protected] Roger Hall [email protected] Ingeborg Stein [email protected] Thomas Hession [email protected] Peter Sterki [email protected] John Hillier [email protected] Ann Stuart [email protected] Martin Hilmer [email protected] Jonathan Stuart-Moore [email protected] Clemens Hofinger [email protected] Anna and Arkadiusz Szafraniec [email protected] Dennis James [email protected] Yatri Kathryn Taussig [email protected] Shereen Kahn [email protected] Cathy Tardieu [email protected] Bruno Kliegl [email protected] Werner Warmbier [email protected] Mikio Kozuka [email protected] William Wilde Zeitler [email protected] GMI Member Websites Ralph Archbold http://www.ben1776.com Jim Doble http://www.tidewater.net/~xylojim/ Peter Bennett http://www.glassharper.com Lynn Drye http://www.glassvirtuoso.us Real Berthiaume http://www.glass.4mg.com Ingeborg Emge http://www.glasharfe.ch Thomas Bloch http://www.chez.com/thomasbloch Brien Engel http://www.glassharp.org Cecilia Brauer http://www.gigmasters.com/armonica/ G. Finkenbeiner, Inc. http://www.finkenbeiner.com index.asp Glass Orchestra (of Canada) http://www.vex.net/GlassO Jean-Claude Chapuis http://www.glassmusic.org Evelyn Glennie http://www.evelyn.co.uk Michel Deneuve http://www.micheldeneuve.com continued on page 5 GLASS MUSIC WORLD SUMMER 2008 3 GMI Happenings – By Liz Mears – Summer and the rest of 2008 will hopefully include many glass performances by our members. One of our newest members will have an album of his original works out on CD by the end of the year. Eric Harry wrote in April that he had just purchased an Armonica from G. Finkenbeiner. Inc. He is returning to glass music after a career perform- ing in a couple of major Hollywood films and writ- ing music for TV and radio commercials worldwide. Currently he is in the process of rebuilding his musical glass collection and redesigning his low bass glass- rotating table. Keep an eye out for that CD. Alexander Lemeshev of St. Petersburg, Russia Vera Meyer writes, “Here’s an interesting gig I was hired to play for which made the Boston Globe”. “The congregation musters a robust turnout on a has been traveling a lot. He performs most often in Saint spring Sunday, Its members packing the rented room at Petersburg and Moscow and, during the last year, also gave Longy School of Music in Cambridge. Some come outfitted in concerts in Almaty (Kazakhstan), Kiev (Ukraine), and in their Sunday best, while others sport a casual look. Lacking numerous cities in Russia. In May, Alexander performed at an organist, they enjoy lovely music by glass harmonica player the 2nd Tarkovsky International Film Festival in Ivanovo. He Vera Meyer, her instrument a conical invention of Benjamin played the glass harp and his colleague, Timofei, played glass Franklin’s that makes music…” pipes.
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