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HARMONICA

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Originally appearing in Volume V12, Page 956 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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HARMONICA , a generic See also:

term applied to musical See also:instruments in which See also:sound is produced by See also:friction upon See also:glass bells. The word is also used to designate instruments of percussion of the See also:Glockenspiel type, made of See also:steel and struck by hammers (Ger. Stahlharmonika). The origin of the glass-harmonica tribe is to be found in the fashionable 18th See also:century See also:instrument known as musical glasses (Fr. verrillon), the principle of which was known already in the 17th century.' The invention of musical glasses is generally ascribed to an Irishman, See also:Richard Pockrich, who first played the instrument in public in See also:Dublin in 1743 and the next See also:year in See also:England, but Eise12 described the verrillon and gave an See also:illustration of it in 1738. The verrillon or Glassspiel consisted of 18 See also:beer glasses arranged on a See also:board covered with See also:cloth, See also:water being poured in when necessary to alter the See also:pitch. The glasses were struck on both sides gently with two See also:long wooden sticks in the shape of a See also:spoon, the bowl being covered with See also:silk or cloth. Eisel states that the instrument was used for See also:church and other See also:solemn See also:music. See also:Gluck gave a See also:concert at the " little See also:theatre in the Haymarket " (See also:London) in See also:April 1746, at which he performed on musical glasses a See also:concerto of his See also:composition with full orchestral See also:accompaniment. E. H. Delaval is also credited with the invention. When See also:Benjamin See also:Franklin visited London in 17J7, he was so much struck by the beauty of See also:tone elicited by Delaval and Pockrich, and with the possibilities of the glasses as musical instruments, that he set to See also:work on a See also:mechanical application of the principle involved, the eminently successful result being the glass harmonica finished in 1762.

In this the glass See also:

bowls were mounted on a rotating spindle, the largest to the See also:left, and their under-edges passed during each revolution through a water-trough. By applying the fingers to the moistened edges, sound was produced varying in intensity with the pressure, so that a certain amount of expression was at the command of a See also:good player. It is said that the timbre was extremely enervating, and, together with the vibration caused by the friction on the See also:finger-tips, exercised a highly deleterious effect on the See also:nervous See also:system. The instrument was for many years in See also:great See also:vogue, not only in England but on the See also:Continent of See also:Europe, and more especially in See also:Saxony, where it was accorded a See also:place in the See also:court See also:orchestra. See also:Mozart, See also:Beethoven, See also:Naumann and See also:Hasse composed music for it. Marianne See also:Davies and Marianna Kirchgessner were celebrated virtuosi on it. The curious vogue of the instrument, as sudden as it was ephemeral, produced emulation in a See also:generation unsurpassed for zeal in the invention of musical instruments. The most notable of its offspring were Carl See also:Leopold Rollig's improved harmonica with a See also:keyboard in 1786, Chladni's euphon in 1791 and clavicylinder in 1799, Ruffelsen's melodicon in 'Soo and 1803, See also:Franz Leppich's panmelodicon 181o, Buschmann's uranion in the same year, &c. Of most of these nothing now remains but the name and a description in the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung, but there are numerous. specimens of the Franklin type in the museums for musical 'instruments of Europe. One specimen by Emanuel Pohl, a Bohemian maker, is preserved in the See also:Victoria and See also:Albert Museum, London. For the steel harmonica see GLOCKENSPIEL. (K.

S.) ' See G. P. Harsdorfer, Math. and philos. Erquickstunden (See also:

Nuremberg, 1677), ii. 147. 2 Masscus abrobibairos (See also:Erfurt, 1738), p. 70.

End of Article: HARMONICA

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