# Glassichord?



## NoCoPilot

I'm reading a biography of Benjamin Franklin by Walter Isaacson, and as you probably know, Franklin invented the Glass Armonica, which had concentric glass bowls on a turning spindle so it was easier to play the "singing wine glasses."

Also mentioned in the biography is another instrument Franklin kept in his possession, called a Glassichord. I'd never heard of it before. Apparently it was a keyboard instrument with a movement somewhat like a piano, where the keys caused little hammers to hit mounted glass tines. Sort of like a Fender Rhodes but glass instead of metal tines?

Anyway, a quick Google didn't turn up any sound samples. Has anyone here ever heard of this, and know of any recordings? It sounds like it ought to be lovely.


https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/501773


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## pianozach

Judging only by your description, and the accompanying photo of the *Glasscord*, it looks/sounds to be a precursor to the celeste (celesta), which wasn't developed until the mid 1800s. The glasscord evidently came in different sizes; *Glassmusic* says they were a 5-octave instrument, but your MetMuseum photo is of a glasscord of only 3 octaves.

Untitled 

Yale has one too, and it also is a 37-note (3 octaves) from the mid-19th Century. 









Glasschord


Glasschord. 37 glass bars tuned chromatically. Compass: three octaves, c' to c''''. Case of mahogany. Nameboard is inlaid with satinwood and is pierced with two fretwork panels on either side of a central medallion that likely once bore a maker's inscription. Hammer action. Hammers are covered...




music.yale.edu





Yale has some more information in their description of the instrument:

* Description *



_Glasschord. 37 glass bars tuned chromatically. Compass: three octaves, c' to c''''. Case of mahogany. Nameboard is inlaid with satinwood and is pierced with two fretwork panels on either side of a central medallion that likely once bore a maker's inscription. Hammer action. Hammers are covered with soft cloth.

An instrument very similar to this example made by Chappell & Co., London, is in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. The glasschord has long been connected with Benjamin Franklin, whose role in the development of the glass harmonica is widely known. Franklin may have provided the English name for this instrument. (The trade name, "pianino," used by Chappell & Co., is ambiguous at best.) Thomas Jefferson, in a letter of 6 July 1785, from Paris, describes Franklin's interest in the instrument: "The Doctr. Franklin carries with him a little instrument. It is the sticcado, with glass bars, instead of wooden ones, and with keys applied to it."

The "sticcado," often "sticcado pastorale," was a sort of glass xylophone played with hand-held mallets. What distinguishes the instrument described above by Jefferson from the sticcado proper is the presence of a keyboard, which would seem to identify the instrument as the fortepiano à cordes de verre, so named by its presumed inventor, one Beyer of Paris._​
And it's funny that you mention the *Fender Rhodes*, and how its hammers strike metal tines, as the *celeste* hammers strike a graduated set of metal (usually steel) plates or bars suspended over wooden resonators.


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## NoCoPilot

Yeah, I love the celesta. Bartok's "Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta," "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy" by Tchaikovsky, "Neptune" by Holst (from The Planets), "Grand Canyon Suite" by Grofé, Respighi's "Pines of Rome," Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood theme song, Shostakovich 5th, Mahler's 6th... longer list here.

I wish I could find an album of solo celesta pieces. These tracks makes me think it would be wonderful.


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## Enthalpy

NoCoPilot said:


> [...] I wish I could find an album of solo celesta pieces. [...]


Here you are:
carus-verlag.com​
The glasschord had no resonators added to the glass bars, if the instrument's size is a good hint. Then it would be an ancestor to the dulcitone more than the célesta
wikipedia​I expect the tone to appear immediately as from the dulcitone and glockenspiel, rather than rising smoothly as from the célesta, marimba and vibraphone. And be very faint.
nAYQ5sa51SY - bbp3eYqE0bY at 38s​


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