Definitions
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A musical instrument made of blown-glass bowls mounted on a spindle turned originally by a foot pedal, and played with wetted fingers, producing an ethereal sound. Technically, it is a
crystallophone . It has enjoyed a modern revival.
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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He initially named his invention the ‘glassy-chord’, but changed it in early 1762 to the ‘armonica’, named after the Italian word for ‘harmony’. (w/video)
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I also never knew he invented a brand new instrument called the armonica try Googling it for fun.
Archive 2006-07-01 fusenumber8 2006
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Yet Franklin also invented bifocals, the lightning rod, the Franklin stove, a flexible urinary catheter, not to mention the armonica [glass harmonica], and, with his cousin, was the first to name and to chart the Gulf Stream.
July « 2008 « L.E. Modesitt, Jr. – The Official Website 2008
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For Ariel, we crafted a sound as light and airy as the name, and found an instrument invented by Ben Franklin -- the glass armonica, which sounds like champagne glasses played with fingertips.
Elliot Goldenthal: On Scoring The Tempest and the Exclusive Video Premiere of "O Mistress Mine" Elliot Goldenthal 2010
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Yet Franklin also invented bifocals, the lightning rod, the Franklin stove, a flexible urinary catheter, not to mention the armonica [glass harmonica], and, with his cousin, was the first to name and to chart the Gulf Stream.
"Lies" and Forgotten Innovation « L.E. Modesitt, Jr. – The Official Website 2008
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For Ariel, we crafted a sound as light and airy as the name, and found an instrument invented by Ben Franklin -- the glass armonica, which sounds like champagne glasses played with fingertips.
Elliot Goldenthal: On Scoring The Tempest and the Exclusive Video Premiere of "O Mistress Mine" Elliot Goldenthal 2010
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For Ariel, we crafted a sound as light and airy as the name, and found an instrument invented by Ben Franklin -- the glass armonica, which sounds like champagne glasses played with fingertips.
Elliot Goldenthal: On Scoring The Tempest and the Exclusive Video Premiere of "O Mistress Mine" Elliot Goldenthal 2010
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For Ariel, we crafted a sound as light and airy as the name, and found an instrument invented by Ben Franklin -- the glass armonica, which sounds like champagne glasses played with fingertips.
Elliot Goldenthal: On Scoring The Tempest and the Exclusive Video Premiere of "O Mistress Mine" Elliot Goldenthal 2010
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For Ariel, we crafted a sound as light and airy as the name, and found an instrument invented by Ben Franklin -- the glass armonica, which sounds like champagne glasses played with fingertips.
Elliot Goldenthal: On Scoring The Tempest and the Exclusive Video Premiere of "O Mistress Mine" Elliot Goldenthal 2010
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The strange maladies may have been a result of lead poisoning from paint applied to the bowl edges, and the lead content of the glass bowls, since some armonica players moistened their fingers on their tongues.
Celestial Music of the Spheres: Dean Shostak Plays Glass Instruments 2009
alexz commented on the word armonica
Science Friday has an episode about this instrument. http://sciencefriday.com/blogs/07/05/2013/playing-the-ol-armonica.html#path/blogs/07/05/2013/playing-the-ol-armonica.html
July 6, 2014