Living up to its present-day nickname, “the world's deadliest instrument,” Franklin's glass armonica allegedly began killing people. The complexity of the armonica overstimulated the brain, which ultimately caused dizziness, nervousness, hallucinations, and cramps amongst performers.
The Armonica was accused of causing evils such as nervous disorder, domestic squabbles, premature deliveries, fatal disorders, animal's convulsions. The instrument was even banned from a German town by police decision for ruining the health of people and disturbing public order (a child died during a concert).
A crystallophone is a musical instrument that produces sound from glass.
Franklin's original armonica is still held by the Franklin Institute, but can no longer be played, and Zeitler is still using the same glass armonica he assembled years ago.
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.
The Cristal Baschet is also known as the Crystal Organ and the Crystal Baschet. The range of a concert instrument is five octaves. The Cristal is related to the glass harmonica.
A hydraulophone is a tonal acoustic musical instrument played by direct physical contact with water (sometimes other fluids) where sound is generated or affected hydraulically. The hydraulophone was described and named by Steve Mann in 2005, and patented in 2011.
The Glass Harmonica is notorious for being the first animation to be banned in the Soviet Union. Its message of beauty as humanity's moral compass and the challenging surrealist imagery proved too challenging for the state.
In 2003, HARIO completed the world's first glass violin, the Hario Violin. and the unique properties of HARIO heatproof glass. Perfecting the soft curves with thin and uniform glass required much trial and error.
A champagne glass is stemware designed for champagne and other sparkling wines. The two most common forms are the flute and coupe, both stemmed; holding the glass by the stem prevents warming the drink.
The slapaphone was made by eclectic instrument craftsman Jeff Fahringer, located in Pennsylvania. It consists of tubes that are open at the top, but closed at the bottom, and are hit with either paddles or hands.
Although there is no concrete historical evidence of how its popularity grew, the harmonica was floating around America at the tail end of slavery, and most likely got into the hands of poor African Americans because it was small and concealable.
The harmonica is the only instrument that you may be allowed to keep in your cell. All others have to be checked out for use on the rec yard. If you play well, you might also be allowed to play piano or organ at the chapel, usually conditioned on being willing to play for services in exchange for practice time.
Watch the Surrealist Glass Harmonica, the Only Animated Film Ever Banned by Soviet Censors (1968)
There is no good reason why women should not play the violin, it having been proved that they are capable of attaining as high a degree of proficiency in that accomplishment as are men.
Known as the Red Stradivarius and owned by legendary violinist Joseph Joachim, the 1720 Red Mendelssohn Stradivarius would eventually surface in 1930s Berlin.
The Messiah Antonio Stradivari - $20 million
The Messiah violin by Antonio Stradivarius is estimated to have a worth of $20 million and ranks among the most expensive violins in the world. Made in 1716, this historic instrument remains incredibly in almost perfect "like new" condition.
The first musical instrument made of upright wine glasses was called the glass harp and was invented around 1750. About 10 years later, Benjamin Franklin—one of the founding fathers of the United States—invented a mechanical version of the glass harp, called the glass harmonica.
The harmonica, that most modest of instruments, has ancestors that go back to Asia over a thousand years ago. But the "mouth organ" or "harp" as we know it today dates back only to 19th century Germany.
The first form of the harmonica, known as the sheng, was invented in China in 3000 B.C. The Sheng was a free reed instrument with metal or bamboo reeds which used bamboo shoots to amplify the sound.
The hydraulophone is the world's first musical instrument that makes sound from vibrations in water.
But the underwater singing technique that the group has developed is perhaps the most impressive: "We go up above the surface, take air in and then we dive under," explains Skovmand. "Then you let an air bubble from the lungs come up into the mouth, and you sing through that little air bubble.
In a swimming pool, fast-traveling sound waves leave the underwater speaker and bounce off the bottom of the pool, the surface of the water and each side of the pool.