You can see that for yourself in the video above, in which guitarist Rob Scallon visits musician-preservationist Dennis James. The playing, however, is easier written about than done. Essentially a series of differently sized bowls arranged from large to small, all rotating on a shaft, the glass armonica allows its player to make polyphonic music of a downright celestial nature. As we’ve previously noted here on Open Culture, the musically inclined Franklin invented an instrument called the glass armonica (alternatively “glass harmonica”) - or rather he re-invented it, having seen and heard an early example played in London. But to unite the two required the truly American combination of genius, wherewithal, and penchant for folly found in one historical figure above all: Benjamin Franklin. Many of us have also heard (or indeed made) music, of a kind, with the rims of wine glasses. We’re all familiar with keyboard instruments.
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