How the Instrument is Played
The sound is created by placing moistened fingers on the edges
of the
revolving crystal bowls. The principle is similar to "playing"
wine goblets at the dinner table, with the difference that with this
instrument
up to ten bowls can be played at once. The resulting possible harmonies
and harmonic overtones create an unusual sound effect.
Sometimes 'ghost' notes and complex rhythmic beats, caused by
the combination
of pitches played, give the effect of multi-track layering. In an
acoustical
study of the vibrational modes of wine glasses, Thomas Rossing of
Northern
Illinois University writes, "when we rub a moist finger around the
rim, we produce a sound spectrum which features harmonic
partials...during
a part of the vibration cycle, the rim of the glass at the point of
contact
moves with the moving finger; during the balance of the cycle it loses
contact
and slips back towards its equilibrium position. This results in a
sound
that consists of a fundamental plus a number of harmonic overtones."
 Gerhard Finkenbeiner
who recreated the Armonica
Gerhard Finkenbeiner, a brilliant inventor born in Konstanz,
Germany,
is largely responsible for the contemporary revival of Franklin's
instrument.
His background education in music, electronics, and glassblowing was a
perfect
combination for his destined role in reviving the Franklin Armonica.
This
fascinating master glassblower, whose Massachusetts company's main
industry
lies in making specialty lab equipment and scientific quartz components
for the electronic semi-conductor industry, had such a passion for
music
that he also has developed church carillons made from electronically
amplified
glass tubes.
The significant musical and historical breakthrough in
reproducing the
once-extinct Glass Armonica of Benjamin Franklin began when
Finkenbeiner
first thought of making a glass instrument in 1956. It took many
experiments
until he made his first satisfactory Armonica of one octave in 1982. To
make the bowls he took large tubes of crystal and under tremendous heat
blew the shape of 2 cups which he then cut apart. After blowing
hundreds
of bowls, he selected ones that fit and are near the correct pitch.
Then
he very carefully refined the tuning by grinding and acid cutting.
Finkenbeiner felt that the sound of the pure crystal glasses,
as compared
with the lead and soda-lime glasses of Benjamin Franklin's time, was
superior.
According to Finkenbeiner the lead content of the glass used during
Franklin's
time was around 30%. That, plus the lead paint on the rims of the
Franklin
bowls, may have been responsible for the illness associated with the
nervous
systems of the early performers. The quartz does not contain any lead.
Fused
quartz or "fused silica" is purified to 99.999% SiO2 and quenched
into a homogeneous state. The rims in the Finkenbeiner instruments have
real gold baked onto some of the quartz bowls to identify the pitches.
The
pattern is similar to that of the black keys on the piano.
Others before Finkenbeiner valiantly tried to resurrect the
Armonica.
In 1956 on the occasion of the Mozart/Franklin anniversaries, there was
a great amount of money and time put into reviving the Franklin
instrument
at the instigation of organist E. Power Biggs. The combined input of
the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Franklin Savings Bank, the
Corning
Glass Company, and a team of engineering students from M.I.T. were
unsuccessful
in reproducing what Franklin had invented. Thanks to Finkenbeiner's
ingenuity
and persistence the Franklin idea has been brought back to life.
Tragically,Gerhard Finkenbeiner and his private airplane went
missing
during a flight in New England in the summer of 1999. Intensive search
and
rescue missions were mounted but Finkenbeiner and his plane were never
found.
He is deeply missed by all who knew him.
His company, G. Finkenbeiner Inc. in Waltham MA USA, is
continuing production
and repairs of the Glass Armonica under Thomas Hession, who has worked
with
Gerhard for over 20 years. For more information regarding purchasing a
glass
armonica contact G.Finkenbeiner,
Inc.
 Benjamin
Franklin's original
Glass Armonica
Franklin was inspired for his 1761 invention of the Armonica
when he
heard music being played by an eccentric Irishman Richard Puckeridge on
a set of upright goblets filled with varying amounts of water. Franklin
thought he could eliminate the difficult problems of the water-tuning
by
giving the bowls themselves a fixed tonality based on the size of the
bowls
and the thickness of the glass.
Franklin's Armonica was very popular in his day
The instrument went into production very quickly and the
papers of Franklin
contain references to correspondents in such places as Paris, Prague,
Turin,
Versailles who were having instruments made. It became quite a
fashionable
topic of conversation amongst the well-to-do. Marie Antoinette was
among
those who studied to learn how to play the Armonica. Perhaps it was the
famed hypnotist Mesmer who helped to make it so talked of.
Few Franklin instruments survived
The mortality rate for the fragile Franklin Armonicas was
high. There
are many sad stories: a precious Armonica being dropped following a
successful
concert; one just completed being shattered by a falling painting; and
even
of one being knocked over by an unhappy sow who got loose near a
concert
hall. The few surviving instruments from that period are in private
collections
or museums. Original Franklin Armonicas can be found in The Franklin
Institute
in Philadelphia, The Victoria and Albert Museum in London, The Carnegie
Museum in Pittsburgh, and The Corning Museum of Glass in Corning, New
York.
Franklin's love of music
Benjamin Franklin was keenly interested in music and had an
extensive
musical knowledge. This multi-talented man is said to have played the
violin,
harp, and guitar with some proficiency and perhaps even the
violoncello.
He even composed a rather unusual string quartet. He attended concerts
often,
including one notable performance where "the sublime old man Handel
was led to the organ and conducted the Messiah for the last time eight
days
before his death."
Franklin as Armonica performer
In 1762 Benjamin Franklin wrote to a friend about how he
played on his
Armonica: "This instrument is played upon, by sitting before the middle
of the set of glasses as before the keys of a harpsichord, turning them
with the foot, and wetting them now and then with a sponge and clean
water.
The fingers should be first a little soaked in water, and quite free
from
all greasiness; a little fine chalk upon them is sometimes useful, to
make
them catch the glass and bring out the tone more readily. Both hands
are
used, by which means different parts are played together. Observe, that
the tones are best drawn out when the glasses turn from the ends of the
fingers, not when they turn to them."
On the armonica his preference for tunes was for "Scotch airs"
whose melodies were unadorned by many embellishments. Franklin was much
loved and enjoyed a very lively social life in England and Europe. He
usually
brought his Armonica along to the parties. It seems that word about
this
got back to the colonies much to the chagrin of Thomas Penn who wrote a
complaining report to Governor Hamilton that Benjamin Franklin was
happily
spending his time in "philosophical matters and musical performances
on glasses."
Mrs. Franklin thought she was dead
There is a story printed in an early Irish musical dictionary
of how,
upon his return to America, while Franklin's wife was asleep, he went
up
to the attic of his Philadelphia home and set up his Armonica which she
had not yet heard. Upon completing this, he started to draw forth its
"angelick
strains." Floating down from above, these sounds were apparently so
heavenly, that "his wife awakened with the conviction that she had
died and gone to heaven and was listening to the music of the angels".
Some historical references to the Franklin Armonica
J.C. Bach: "a very beautiful effect (that) cannot
fail to please everyone." J.C. Bach was writing to his brother C.P.E.
Bach in 1767, referring to Marianne Davies who popularized Franklin's
"newly invented instrument with glasses"
Paganini: "Ah, what a celestial voice! That is really
for praying."
Goethe: "...das Herzblut der Welt"
Thomas Jefferson: "...the greatest present offered to
the musical world in this century."
George Washington: His journal entry for April 1765
implies that he took the evening to hear the Armonica played in
Williamsburg: "By my Exps. to hear the Armonica, 3.9"
Oliver Goldsmith: from The Vicar of Wakefield
published in 1761 "They would talk of nothing but high life, and
high-lived company; with other fashionable topics, such as pictures,
taste, Shakespeare and the musical glasses"
Pennsylvania Gazette Philadelphia: Dec 27, 1764
"...in which will be introduced the famous Armonica or musical Glasses
so much admired for the great Sweetness and delicacy of its tone."
Ambassador Seilern: writing in 1767 to Countess
Douariere de Questenberg "un instrument...selon mes foibles lumieres,
il me semble n'avoir jamais entendu des sons plus agreable, doux, et
touchant"
Fithian: from a journal entry in America of Fithian
the tutor at Nomini Hall where Councillor Carter spent the evening of
Dec 22, 1773 "in playing on the Harmonica." ....."The music is
charming! ...the most captivating Instrument I have ever heard. The
sounds very much resemble the human voice, and in my opinion they far
exceed even the swelling Organ."
Johann Christian Muller: wrote in 1788 to the King of
Denmark of the "peaceful, heavenly, sweet joy you derive from the
instrument."
George Sand: in a 1845 reference to the Armonica in
the novel La Comtesse de Rudolstadt "the magical voice of the Armonica,
that recently invented instrument, whose vibrant, piercing quality was
a marvel."
19th century Instrumental Dictionary:"they have a
sweetness, an almost celestial purity"
Classical Music Written for the Franklin Armonica
 There were at least
300 works of classical music
written for the glass armonica. The most famous composers associated
with
the instrument are Mozart, Beethoven and Donizetti.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was first introduced to this
instrument
by concert performer Marianne Davies. He was inspired in 1791, the year
of his death, to write two pieces for the blind performer Marianne
Kirchgessner:
Adagio in C, K 356, and the Adagio and Rondo for Armonica, Flute, Oboe,
Viola, and Cello, K 617.
 Ludwig
van Beethoven
wrote a fragment for the instrument, a little melodramatic piece
written
in 1815, in the opera Leonora Prohaska.
Donizetti's famous mad scene in the opera Lucia de
Lammermoor
was originally written for the Armonica in 1836. Unfortunately by that
time
the instrument's popularity was waning and there was no one capable of
playing
the music the way it was written, so the composer reworked it for
flutes.
Other early composers writing for the Armonica include
Galuppi, Hasse,
Haydn, Jommelli, Martini, Naumann, Reichardt, Rollig, and Richard
Strauss.
Some of these works were written for Rollig's extinct keyboard version
devised
in Hamburg in 1787.
Health concerns fanned by the press
Touring glass armonica performer Marianne Davies, who brought
the Franklin
Armonica to the concert public's attention in the years following its
invention,
and who also taught such luminaries as Marie Antoinette and Mesmer to
play
it, eventually became quite ill. Her health and nerves were "said to
have been ruined by her armonica playing." The blind Armonica concert
artist, Marianne Kirchgessner, who inspired Mozart to write for the
instrument,
died in 1808 at age 39. Her death was attributed to "deterioration
of her nerves caused by the vibrations of the instrument." In 1798
Friedrich Rochlitz wrote in the Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung, "There
may be various reasons for the scarcity of armonica players,
principally
the almost universally shared opinion that playing it is damaging to
the
health, that it excessively stimulates the nerves, plunges the player
into
a nagging depression and hence into a dark and melancholy mood, that it
is an apt method for slow self-annihilation.... Many (physicians with
whom
I have discussed this matter) say the sharp penetrating tone runs like
a
spark through the entire nervous system, forcibly shaking it up and
causing
nervous disorders" He went on to give some warnings:
If you are suffering from any nervous disorder you should
not play it,
If you are not yet ill you should not play it excessively,
If you are feeling melancholy you should not play it or else
play uplifting pieces,
If tired, avoid playing it late at night.
J.C. Muller warned in his instructional manual of 1788: "If
you
have been upset by harmful novels, false friends, or perhaps a
deceiving
girl, then abstain from playing the armonica--it will only upset you
even
more. There are people of this kind--of both sexes--who must be advised
not to study the instrument, in order that their state of mind should
not
be aggravated."
Historical hysterical events
When word began to circulate that there was illness attributed
to the
instrument, people began to panic, blaming the instrument for
everything
from domestic disputes, premature births, and mortal afflictions, to
convulsions
in cats and dogs. In certain German States it was banned by police
decree
"on account of injury to one's health and for the sake of public order."
As J.C. Muller wrote in 1788, "It is true that the armonica
has
extraordinary effects on people, different ones on each person
according
to his temperament. But that these are detrimental to the health has
never
been proven. If playing the armonica were to bring the performer
gradually
closer to death, or at least cause certain illnesses, that would be
truly
terrible. But where is the evidence?"
Early players' symptoms perhaps caused by lead poisoning
Modern theorists feel that any medical symptoms occurring in
the 18th
century players would likely have been caused by the lead in the paint
which
the Glass Armonica manufacturers used in Franklin's day to indicate the
pitches. Another possible explanation is indicated by a remark in
Muller's
instruction book, "treated water from the apothecary over a period
of time may be detrimental to my nerves." He also mentions that "I
had to give up playing the armonica because it seemed to be damaging to
my health" was an excuse people often gave for their own ineptitude
and impatience at learning to play! Thus rumors spread.
Muller listed many players of his acquaintance who remained in
good health.
Luckily Benjamin Franklin, who himself was an avid performer on the
instrument,
suffered no such problems
|
Inventor and
master glassblower Gerhard Finkenbeiner blew the 35 bowls from pure
quartz
crystal taking into account the complex combination of dimension,
thickness,
shape, and pitch. The bowls were fired at 3500°F. As in the
Franklin
invention the bowls are nestled inside each other mounted on a
horizontal
spindle. Whereas Franklin's original instrument used a fly-wheel and
treadle
mechanism to turn the bowls, the spindle for this instrument is turned
by
electricity.
