Unusual Instruments

The harmonica is known all over the world, but there is a glass version known as the hydrocrystalophone or the glass armonica. This strange version of the more popular steel harmonica was made by Benjamin Franklin. It is made from spinning glass and can fetch prices of up to 3500GBP. The glass armonica is a type of musical instrument that uses a series of glass bowls or goblets varying in size to produce musical tones by creating friction. Instruments like this are called friction idiophones.

In the 1740’s, an Irish musician Richard Puckeridge was the first to play an instrument composed of glass vessels. He did this by rubbing his fingers around the rims of the glasses. The glasses of upright goblets were filled with varying amounts of water. This is often used in the classroom as way of teaching the science behind the difference in pitches.

An instrument from Java that plays one of the lead instruments in their traditional Gamelan music is called the Bonang. This very strange instrument is composed of a double row of horizontally mounted tuned bronze kettle gongs and is usually played with two padded beaters. All of the kettles have a central boss, but around it the lower-pitched ones have a flattened head, while the higher ones have an arched one.