by Bob Schultz
Explaining why so few people have heard of the glass armonica and why he loves the obscure instrument, Palo Altan Dennis James unspools a strange and intriguing story of what, by many accounts, was the first instrument invented in the American colonies. Benjamin Franklin himself created the armonica--a desklike case in which glass bowls are suspended on a spindle--in 1761. The new instrument's sweet sounds drifted back to Europe, entrancing audiences.
But then something curious happened.
In the early part of the 19th century, following an Austrian hypnotist's claim that he could cure people with nervous disorders by putting them into an armonica-induced sleep, the idea was born that the glass armonica's lingering overtones and penetrating chords were putting unsuspecting maidens into trances. Some in the anti-armonica movement claimed that illness, insanity--even death--could be brought on by the ethereal, mesmerizing sounds of the glass instrument. All-out bans on the instrument were to follow.
Nevertheless, before the armonica police could clear the instrument from Europe's collective memory, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, in the last years of his life, composed the Adagio in C for Solo Armonica and the Adagio and Rondo in C Concertante Quintet with Armonica.
According to James, 44, one of the world's foremost revivalists of the glass armonica, Mozart's contribution to the instrument helped to ensure that the haunting sounds of the armonica's glass bowls would not be forever lost.
Now, after centuries of obscurity, the armonica has come to Palo Alto.
James, who has devoted a significant part of his eclectic performance career to the armonica, will offer a free concert and lecture, titled "Glass-ical Music," at the Covenant Presbyterian Church at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 11.
James is also an organist. He performs occasionally at the Stanford Theatre, often accompanying silent films. He finds the armonica remarkably similar to the organ, despite the structural differences between the two instruments.
They both require nimble fingers to play, and the armonica player touches the suspended glasses as if they were keys. The joy of the instrument, James says, is that there is no delay between the musician's touch and the production of sound. Touching the glass and having the vibrations under your fingertips, he says, brings you that much closer to the music. Imagine striking a piano's wires with your fingertips rather than the hammers that are attached to the keys, he says.
Looking back on his path to becoming the most active of just four armonica-ists in the world, James says, "The root of my interest in (the armonica) is even before my memory of it."
Childhood visits to the Philadelphia museum where Franklin's original version is on display kindled an early spark of interest in James. From that early stage of life, glass instruments continued to pop up in James' life--just as the glass armonica repeatedly reasserted its presence in history.
Many young people are delighted to learn that rubbing the lips of wine glasses with moistened fingers will produce varied tones. But James' early interest in this method of creating music didn't end with the family's Thanksgiving crystal. He started assembling sets of glasses and building instruments.
Later, when he was working toward a bachelor of music degree and, eventually, a master's in organ performance at the University of Indiana, James attended a series of lectures by Bruno Hoffmann, an expert on the German "table glass," an arrangement of wine glasses mounted on a table and tuned with water. Hoffmann represented the link James needed between his hobby and performing music: Hoffmann's performances on the table glass had been recorded and were available on record.
Perhaps James could do the same.
Hoffmann became more than just a role model to James, however; he challenged him. Hoffmann had based his career on the table glass, and he claimed that much of the music said to be written for the armonica was really written for the table glass. He even argued that the armonica was not playable. This denial awoke a spirit of rebelliousness in James, turning his lifelong interest in glass instruments into an obsession.
"It was a good obsession, not bad," he says. But it was nearly 25 years before he was able to turn his hobby into a profession.
But first: where to find a glass armonica?
No museums would let James play their armonicas, so he set out to build one of his own. He copied the bowls in Franklin's original instrument and built a case resembling a that of the Prague armonica, built in 1819. Now, his performance armonica is valued at $55,000 and, when not in use, is on display in museums.
James' love of the armonica continues to develop today as he travels the world performing 18th-century compositions by Mozart, Beethoven, Hasse, Reichardt, Rollig and others. As of yet, there are no reports of his putting maidens into spells or driving audiences insane.
"Glass-ical Music," a concert and lecture by Dennis James
When: 7:30 p.m. Nov. 11
Where: Covenant Presbyterian Church, 670 E. Meadow Road, Palo Alto
Cost: Free, but donations accepted at the door
Information: 321-4422
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