ThomasBlochHandsGlassharmonica low notes on left and high notes on right

A crystallophone is a

musical instrument A musical instrument is a device created or adapted to make Music, musical sounds. In principle, any object that produces sound can be considered a musical instrument—it is through purpose that the object becomes a musical instrument. A person ...

that produces

sound In physics, sound is a vibration that propagates as an acoustic wave through a transmission medium such as a gas, liquid or solid. In human physiology and psychology, sound is the ''reception'' of such waves and their ''perception'' by the br ...

from

glass Glass is an amorphous (non-crystalline solid, non-crystalline) solid. Because it is often transparency and translucency, transparent and chemically inert, glass has found widespread practical, technological, and decorative use in window pane ...

. One of the best known crystallophones is the

glass harmonica The glass harmonica, also known as the glass armonica, glass harmonium, bowl organ, hydrocrystalophone, or simply the armonica or harmonica (derived from , ''harmonia'', the Greek language, Greek word for harmony), is a type of musical instr ...

, a set of rotating glass bowls which produce eerie, clear tones when rubbed with a wet finger. Musical glasses, the glass harp, were documented in

Persia Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

in the 14th century. Apel, Willi (1969).
Harvard Dictionary of Music
', p.347. Harvard. . The "ethereal" quality of instruments such as the glass harmonica exemplified the ' and for a while, "the instrument was extraordinarily popular... utAbout 1830 the instrument fell into oblivion." The

glasschord The glasschord ( French: fortepiano à cordes de verre) is a struck crystallophone resembling the celesta. History The glasschord was invented circa 1785 by physicist M. Beyer of Paris. It creates sound by using cloth covered wooden hammers to s ...

(or glasscord) resembles the

celesta The celesta () or celeste (), also called a bell-piano, is a struck idiophone operated by a keyboard. It looks similar to an upright piano (four- or five-octave), albeit with smaller keys and a much smaller cabinet, or a large wooden music ...

(a struck plaque

idiophone An idiophone is any musical instrument that creates sound primarily by the vibration of the instrument itself, without the use of air flow (as with aerophones), strings (chordophones), membranes (membranophones) or electricity ( electrophone ...

operated by a keyboard) but uses keyboard-driven hammers to strike glass bars instead of metal bars. The glass marimba is similar to the

marimba The marimba ( ) is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars that are struck by mallets. Below each bar is a resonator pipe that amplifies particular harmonics of its sound. Compared to the xylophone, the mari ...

(a stick percussion instrument with a keyboard layout), but has bars of glass instead of

wood Wood is a structural tissue/material found as xylem in the stems and roots of trees and other woody plants. It is an organic materiala natural composite of cellulosic fibers that are strong in tension and embedded in a matrix of lignin t ...

. The bars, which the performer strikes with padded sticks, are perched on a glass box to provide the necessary resonance. A rare Thai instrument called ' (; literally "glass xylophone") has been used by the Thai music ensemble Fong Naam; it appears on their 1992 CD ''The Sleeping Angel: Thai Classical Music''.

In popular culture

In Lydia Syson's biography, ''Doctor of Love: James Graham and his Celestial Bed'', sexologist James Graham uses the glass harmonica for musical therapy purposes.

Benjamin Franklin Benjamin Franklin (April 17, 1790) was an American polymath: a writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher and Political philosophy, political philosopher.#britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Wood, 2021 Among the m ...

was inspired to create his glass harmonica in 1763 after attending a recital performed on musical glasses in London in 1761.

References

External links

Glass musicOddmusic
- a website dedicated to unique, odd, ethnic, experimental and unusual musical instruments and resources. {{Percussion-instrument-stub

In popular culture

See also

References

External links