Harmonica (Glass)

As with glass itself, the early history of making musical sounds by rubbing (or striking) glass drinking vessels is marked by Middle Eastern influences. The "musical glasses" became widely known in the early eighteenth century, and Gluck occasionally gave concerts on the instrument. The glass harmonica known to Mozart, however, was the invention of Benjamin Franklin and came Mozart's way with only one degree of separation, through an English player, Marianne Davies, whose instrument was probably built by Franklin himself. Franklin standardized the instrument and devised a frame-and-crank water-dish apparatus that held the glass rims. He called his creation the "armonica," giving rise to the term "glass harmonica" although the instrument is unrelated to the mouth-blown harmonica. Among the glass harmonica's later devotees was the hypnotist Mesmer, who used it to induce a trance state. Although the classical literature for the glass harmonica is not large, the instrument has attracted occasional specialists, of whom the Austrian Bruno Hoffmann is the most recent.

Percussion Instruments