Glass Armonica Project

"
Of all my inventions, the Glass Armonica has given me the greatest personal satisfaction."  - Benjamin Franklin

Some said the Glass Armonica was magical, but perhaps the man responsible for it was. Franklin made it possible to create beautiful sounds with the touch of a finger, sounds that his wife Deborah once called,
"the music of the angels."

The Armonica's Renaissance is simply a matter of funding and time -- let's work collectively.
What is the Armonica? Simply put, it's an array of Singing Bowls vertically placed on a spindle to allow for playing in a style similar to a piano
REWARDS:::

to supporters , I offer my instrument- the LotusDrum ----- which you can see at LotusDrum.com

Glass Armonicas will be given to top donors.

Sharers, your support is needed to catapult this initiative, get us there and you too will receive gifts. 
Sharing is the GREATEST donation, it's what makes the wheels turn, so share, regardless of whether you can donate monetarily

Rewards - LotusDrum 
Below as some pictures of my instruments which will be made for qualifying supporters



History of the Glass Armonica: 

In the mid-1700s,
Benjamin Franklin served as a delegate for colonial America and spent a great deal of time traveling to London and Paris. During this period, it was quite popular and entertaining for amateur musicians to perform on sets of "singing" or musical glasses. Franklin attended one of these concerts and was intrigued by the beauty of the sound. Almost immediately, he set to work applying the principles of wet fingers on glass to his own musical creation.

Ben Franklin completed his Glass Armonica in 1761. (Its name is derived from the Italian word for harmony.) He didn't simply refine the idea of musical glasses, which were played much like children at the dinner table play them today, with notes being determined by the amount of water in the glass. Rather, Franklin made chords and lively melodies possible on his new instrumental invention.

Working with a glassblower in London, Franklin made a few dozen glass bowls, tuned to notes by their varying size and fitted one inside the next with cork. Each bowl was made with the correct size and thickness to give the desired pitch without being filled with any water. Franklin also painted them so that each bowl was color-coded to a different note. A hole was put through the center of the glass bowls, and an iron rod ran through the holes. The rod was attached to a wheel, which was turned by a foot pedal. Moistened fingers touched to the edge of the spinning glasses produced the musical sounds.

"Of all my inventions, the Glass Armonica has given me the greatest personal satisfaction." ~ Ben Franklin

The Glass Armonica was one of the most celebrated instruments of the 18th century. Franklin began to take his beloved armonica with him when he traveled and played popular Scottish tunes or original compositions for his audiences. Later, composers such as Beethoven, Mozart, and Donizetti would write music for the armonica. Because of its almost immediate popularity, the Glass Armonica seemed destined for permanence. But by the 1820s, it was nearly a forgotten instrument.
At the time of his death in 1790, when more than 5,000 of them had been built, Ben Franklin had collected no money from his Glass Armonica. He refused to patent any of his inventions, saying:

"As we enjoy great Advantages from the Inventions of others we should be glad of an Opportunity to serve others by any Invention of ours, and this we should do freely and generously."

Ben certainly gave freely and generously, constantly investing time and energy to make his ideas a useful or entertaining reality. Some said the Glass Armonica was magical, but perhaps the man responsible for it was. Franklin made it possible to create beautiful sounds with the touch of a finger, sounds that his wife Deborah once called,
"the music of the angels."