Journalism / Glass Armonica
The glass harmonica, also known as the glass armonica, hydrocrystalophone, or simply armonica (derived from “armonia”, the Italian word for overtones) is a type of musical instrument that uses a series of glass bowls or goblets graduated in size to produce musical tones by means of friction (instruments of this type are known as friction idiophones).
Because its sounding portion is made of glass, the glass harmonica is a crystallophone. The phenomenon of rubbing a wet finger around the rim of a wine goblet to produce tones is documented back to Renaissance times; Galileo considered the phenomenon (in his Two New Sciences), as did Athanasius Kircher.
The Irish musician Richard Puckeridge is typically credited as the first to play an instrument composed of glass vessels by rubbing his fingers around the rims.[1] Beginning in the 1740s, he performed in London on a set of upright goblets filled with varying amounts of water. During the same decade, Christoph Willibald Gluck also attracted attention playing a similar instrument in England.
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This short piece is interesting because in my 28 years, I’ve never heard of a “Glass Armonica”—until now.
I’d suggest titling the piece, “The Glass Harmonica”. Otherwise consider beginning with, “The glass armonica, also known as the glass harmonica…”—Beginning with the item used in the title is of course a personal preference.
I’d think that giving the exact year would be preferable as opposed to “During the same decade…” Of course there’s the possibility that the exact date isn’t known, in which case it’s understandable that just the era was given.
Weird. I just did an internet search and found this article on Wikipedia. If you are indeed the author of the same article, then many kudos. It was very well written. Thanks for sharing and be well.
-Curt
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