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Summary
Summary
"With spirited charm, Mead weaves history, music, science, and medicine into the story...Fascinating, insightful, and, best of all, great fun." -- The Washington Post
A jewel of musical history--the story of Ben Franklin's favorite invention, the glass armonica--including the composers who wrote for it (Mozart, Beethoven, Handel, among others); Dr. Mesmer who used it to hypnotize; Marie Antoinette and the women who popularized it; its decline and recent comeback.
Benjamin Franklin is renowned for his landmark inventions, including bifocals, the Franklin stove, and the lightning rod. Yet his own favorite invention--the one he said gave him the "greatest personal satisfaction"--is unknown to the general public. The glass armonica, the first musical instrument invented by an American, was constructed of stacked glass bowls and played by rubbing one's fingers on the rims. It was so popular in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries that Mozart, Beethoven, Handel, and Strauss composed for it; Marie Antoinette and numerous monarchs played it; Goethe and Thomas Jefferson praised it; Dr. Franz Mesmer used it for his hypnotizing Mesmerism sessions. Franklin himself played it for George Washington and Thomas Jefferson.
In Angelic Music , Corey Mead describes how Franklin's instrument fell out of popular favor, partly due to claims that its haunting sounds could drive musicians out of their minds. Some players fell ill, complaining of nervousness, muscle spasms, and cramps. Audiences were susceptible; a child died during a performance in Germany. Some thought its ethereal tones summoned spirits or had magical powers. It was banned in some places. Yet in recent years, the armonica has enjoyed a revival. Composers are writing pieces for it in genres ranging from chamber music and opera to electronic and pop music. Now Mead brings this instrument back to the public eye, telling the compelling, fascinating story of its origins.
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
In this charming and fascinating book, part musicology and part cultural history, Mead (War Play) looks at how Benjamin Franklin developed his most cherished invention, the armonica-a mechanized instrument based on "musical glasses" and consisting of glasses of various sizes arranged on a spindle that could be turned by a foot pedal, allowing the musician to play it with both hands, much like a harpsichord. Franklin's armonica produced such a heavenly sound that he and others believed it had healing powers. The instrument gained enormous popularity in the 18th century in America and Europe. Marianne Kirchgessner proved such a virtuoso on the armonica that Mozart wrote two pieces for the instrument for her; novels by George Sand and E.T.A. Hoffmann feature the instrument and its effects on listeners; Franz Mesmer, the father of hypnotism, used it as part of his séances because he believed its music promoted the animal magnetism necessary for healing. By the 19th century, as Mead wonderfully explains, detractors blamed the armonica and its haunting sounds for illness, insanity, and even death, and the instrument fell into obscurity until 1960, when the German glassblower Gerhard Finkenbeiner encountered the armonica in a museum. Mead's lively storytelling opens a window into a (as it were) mesmerizing chapter of music history. Agent: Melanie Jackson, Melanie Jackson Agency. (Oct.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Booklist Review
Intrigued by earlier techniques and contraptions that use glass to make music, all-around achiever Benjamin Franklin mounted a set of glass bowls, sized to produce a couple of chromatic scales when set vibrating, on a spindle turned by a treadle. Revolved and rhythmically touched by wet fingers, the bowls emitted tones universally dubbed ethereal. Perhaps surprisingly, Franklin's handsome contraption became a craze for which Handel, Mozart, and Beethoven composed. That it became the means for female virtuosos to pursue careers (at least until marriage; see Anna Beers, Sounds and Sweet Airs, 2016) and the ideal accompanist to group treatments of physical ills by enterprising physician Franz Mesmer are more than surprising; they're highly and pleasantly interesting, thanks to Mead's clear, friendly prose. The limited volume of the glass armonica (no h; that was added later) led to its eclipse as orchestral concerts replaced chamber recitals in public favor; meanwhile, Mesmer's jealous professional peers smeared it as a cause of, not a cure for, ill health. Lately, however, it's been enjoying a renaissance. Marvelously ingratiating music history.--Olson, Ray Copyright 2016 Booklist
Kirkus Review
The genesis, rise, fall, and rise again of Benjamin Franklins mid-18th-century rub-the-glasses device, whose enormous popularity led to wild claims about both its salutary and detrimental effects on listeners.Mead (English/Baruch Coll.; War Play: Video Games and the Future of Armed Conflict, 2013) returns with a highly readable and informative account of the research and tinkering by Franklin, whose refinements for the playing of musical glasses (a technique known long before) resulted in an instrument whose popularity soared in his day. Mead leads us through the history of music via glass-rubbing, the history of glass itself, and then, about a quarter of the way through his text, the story of Franklin, his fascination with the sound, and his determined efforts to create a more practical instrument, the armonica. He became fairly adept with the resulting device and with it, frequently entertained his guests. Mead introduces us to the early virtuosos on the device (principally women), and from the very beginning, it seemed to have what the author calls magical effects. Enter Franz Anton Mesmeryes, the mesmerism guywho employed it in his sances, propelling him to an enormous popularity of his own. Soon after, as Mead demonstrates, claims about a dark side of the sound overwhelmed Mesmer (as did Franklins research showing there is no magnetic fluid in us), and the instrument virtually disappeared. The author also shows us how and why it has returnedhe owns one himselftells us about the U.S. facility that produces them (they start at more than $7,000), and interviews todays acknowledged master of the instrument, Dennis James. Despite a couple of odd errors in the textwe were not yet the United States in late 1762the author is a genial historical guide. Mead keeps the current swift, removing rough rocks that might disrupt our pleasant, engaging trip downstream with him. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Library Journal Review
Mead (War Play) examines the history of the glass armonica, a musical instrument invented by Benjamin Franklin, which consists of a series of glasses on an iron spindle (rotated by a foot pedal) mounted in a flat wooden case and is played by the fingers slightly touching the rotating glasses. The resulting ethereal tones fascinated listeners in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, and major composers, including Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, wrote music for the instrument. Mead traces the antecedents of the glass armonica, highlights some of its finest exponents, and describes its eventual neglect and recent reemergence as a viable instrument. An interesting chapter chronicles its supposed "ill making" properties as well as its use by hypnotherapy pioneer Franz Mesmer, himself a fine player. The book covers some of the same ground as William Zeitler's The Glass Armonica; for scholars, Zeitler's 25-page bibliography is invaluable. VERDICT A solid choice for readers interested in the history of music (especially musical instruments or the physiological/psychological/social effects of music) and/or the life and times of Franklin.-Bruce R. Schueneman, Texas A&M Univ. Lib., Kingsville © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Excerpts
Excerpts
Angelic Music Excerpted from Angelic Music: The Story of Benjamin Franklin's Glass Armonica by Corey Mead All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.
Table of Contents
| Author's Note | p. xiii |
| Introduction | p. xvii |
| 1 The Angelick Organ: A History of the Musical Glasses | p. 1 |
| 2 Benjamin Franklin and Music | p. 33 |
| 3 Benjamin Franklin and the Invention of the Armonica | p. 47 |
| 4 A Brief History of Glass | p. 71 |
| 5 An Instrument So Grand and Haunted: The Heyday of the Glass Armonica | p. 91 |
| 6 The Armonica in Germany and America | p. 123 |
| 7 Mesmer and the Armonica | p. 133 |
| 8 The Armonica Fades into Obscurity | p. 159 |
| 9 The Armonica's Revival | p. 187 |
| Acknowledgment | p. 211 |
| Notes | p. 215 |
| Illustration Credits | p. 241 |
| Index | p. 245 |