Harmonica (Edited from Wikipedia)

SUMMARY

The , also known as the glass armonica, is a type of that uses a series of glass bowls or goblets of different sizes to produce musical tones by means of friction.

HISTORY

The phenomenon of rubbing a wet finger around the rim of a wine goblet to produce tones is documented back to times; Galileo even discussed the phenomenon.

The was created in 1741 by Irishman Richard Pockrich, who is known as the first virtuoso of the musical . Pockrich called his instrument the "angelic organ" and it was played with sticks, rather than by rubbing the glasses with a moistened finger. Beginning in the 1740s, he performed in London on a set of upright goblets filled with varying amounts of water. His successful concert career was brought to a premature end by a fire in which both the inventor and instrument perished in 1759.

Edward Delaval, a friend of and a fellow of the Royal Society, extended the experiments of Pockrich, creating a set of glasses better tuned and easier to play.

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 May 1761. Franklin worked with London glassblower Charles James to build one, and it had its world premiere in early 1762, played by Marianne Davies.

Writing to his friend Giambatista Beccaria in Turin, Italy, Benjamin Franklin wrote from London in 1762 about his musical instrument: "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, being well tuned, never again wants tuning. In honour of your musical language, I have borrowed from it the name of this instrument, calling it the Armonica."

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In Franklin's 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 water-moistened fingers. Rims were painted different colors according to the pitch of the note: A (dark blue), B (purple), C (red), D (orange), E (yellow), F (green), G (blue), and accidentals were marked in white.

With the Franklin design, it is possible to play ten glasses simultaneously if desired, a technique that is very difficult if not impossible to execute using upright goblets. Franklin also advocated the use of a small amount of powdered chalk on the fingers, which under some acidic water conditions helped produce a clear tone.

Some attempted improvements on the glass harmonica included adding keyboards, placing pads between the bowls to reduce vibrations, and using violin bows.

Franz Mesmer also played the armonica and used it as an integral part of his Mesmerism.

An original Franklin armonica is in the archives at the in , having been donated in 1956 by Franklin's descendants after "the children took great delight in breaking the bowls with spoons" during family gatherings. It is only placed on display for special occasions, such as Franklin's birthday. The Franklin Institute is also the home of the Benjamin Franklin National Memorial.

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