Invented in 1761 by Benjamin Franklin, the Glass Armonica was one of his favorite inventions. The word "Armonica" is the Italian word for "Harmony". It is played on the same principle of rubbing a wet finger around the rim of a wineglass. The glass bowls are individually tuned, so that they do not need to be filled with water, though the players fingers do need to be moistened with water. The glass bowls are tuned by size, mounted one inside each other with cork on a metal spindle. The glasses are made to spin with a flywheel attached to a foot pedal. The composer Mozart, being into Oddmusic himself, composed two of his works specifically for the Glass Armonica.

Listen to Mozart's adagio for Glass Armonica