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Volume I
Issue 4
16 August 1999 |
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Glass Armonica: A Brief History by Michael Nicolella 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."
In 1798 Friedrich Rochlitz wrote in the Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung: "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." The crystal used in the instrument during this time had a lead content of around thirty percent, which may have contributed to the anxiety and nervous breakdowns that some glass armonica performers suffered late in their careers. After illness began to be blamed on the instrument, as well as marital unhappiness, premature birth, and convulsions in cats and dogs, it fell into disrepute. In some German states it was banned by police decree, "on account of injury to one's health and for the sake of public order." Other facts may have led to its demise as well: by the nineteenth century, symphonies were growing, playing with louder eight-octave pianos in ever-larger halls, and quieter instruments like the glass armonica and the harpsichord were declining in popularity as a result. The broadest range for an armonica stands at 57 cups, slightly under 5 octaves, in an instrument built by the late Gerhard Finkenbeiner. If a cup is too large, for low pitch, or too small, it is not capable of "speaking."
The instrument was first developed in the eighteenth century by Colonial American Benjamin Franklin. Of his many inventions, innovations, and accomplishments, Franklin declared he got the most satisfaction from his invention of the glass armonica: "I play some of the softest Tunes on my Armonica, with which Entertainment our People here are quite charmed and conceive the Scottish Tunes to be the finest in the World. And indeed, there is so much simple Beauty in many of them, that in my Opinion they will never die, but in all ages find a Number of Admirers." [Benjamin Franklin, 11 December 1763] Franz Mesmer (1734 - 1815), the Viennese psychiatrist regarded as an early pioneer of hypnotism, used the armonica in conjunction with hypnosis to relax his patients. Mesmer was said to have impressed the Mozart family with his musicianship, and at a meeting in Vienna in 1773, Wolfgang Mozart had the opportunity to play Mesmer's armonica himself. Later, in 1791, Mozart wrote two pieces for the armonica player Marianne Kirchgessner, Adagio in C and Adagio and Rondo for Armonica, Flute, Oboe, Viola, and Cello, and left a third work unfinished at his death. In 1815 Beethoven wrote a brief Melodrama for armonica and narrator, for a play, never produced, called Leonora Prohaska. The mad scene from Donizetti's opera, Lucia de Lammermoor of 1836, was intended to be performed with the armonica. By this time, however, no sufficiently skilled players could be found, and the piece was rewritten for the flute. Before the armonica fell out of favor, at least 300 classical works were created for it. Others who composed for the armonica included Johann Gottlieb Naumann (1741 - 1801), Johann Friedrich Reichardt (1752 - 1814) and Karl Leopold Röllig (c. 1735 - 1804). Resources: More information about the glass armonica can be found at: http://www.gigmasters.com/ar monica/index.asp http://crystalmusic.com/armonica.ht ml Some sites where glass armonica music may be heard include: http://www.gigmasters.com/a rmonica/order.html http://www.crystalmusic.com/playlis t.html http://www.glassmusic.com/albums.ht m
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