Banned musical instrument “causes insanity”
By tyler on May 8, 2008 in Glass, Idiophone, Invention, Machine, Video, Water
The glass armonica’s ghostly notes will cause insanity in its musicians and listeners! At least this is what was thought to be true in the 18th century. People were frightened by the armonica’s sound due to it’s strange interactions with the human brain and ears (more on this later). Benjamin Franklin invented the glass armonica (above) in 1761 after being profoundly moved by the sounds of the glass harp (below).
The glass armonica’s ethereal notes were said to cause insanity, depression, and marital problems. Via Wikipedia:
One example of fear from playing the glass harmonica was noted by a German musicologist Friedrich Rochlitz in Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung where it is stated that “the armonica excessively stimulates the nerves, plunges the player into a nagging depression and hence into a dark and melancholy mood that is apt method for slow self-annihilation. If you are suffering from any nervous disorder, you should not play it; if you are not yet ill you should not play it; if you are feeling melancholy you should not play it.
The glass armonica’s sound is perceived by human ears differently than other instruments because its range is between 1,000 and 4,000 hertz. When sounds are below 4,000 hertz, the human brain compares “phase differences” between the left and right ears to triangulate the origin of the sound rather than comparing volumes. This causes hearing disorientation and a “not quite sure” feeling about where the sound is coming from. The video below is “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy” from the Nutcracker being played on a glass armonica. Relax and enjoy. 
Friction instruments of this type are called friction idiophones. The glass armonica is called a crystallophone while the glass harp is called a hydrocrystalophone.
Source: Wikipedia, The Bakken Library
I thought it made you carzy because of the high Pb content.
Polarstern | May 8, 2008 | Reply
Lead poisoning is is certainly a valid theory (the glass contained lead), but I doubt many people were getting sick from playing the instrument. 18th century Europe was not the healthiest of places.
*Thanks Polarstern for the first comment!*
tyler | May 8, 2008 | Reply
I think they used lead paint in these, so that would drive the players of the instrument crazy after a while.
tmunter | May 8, 2008 | Reply
Agggh…I’ll be sending you my therapist’s bill :). Seriously thanks for the facinating information.
PsuedoSwamy | May 9, 2008 | Reply
weird. I wonder if they’ve done any scientific studies on the device.
Barry | May 9, 2008 | Reply
Am I insane yet?
Gotttzsche | May 9, 2008 | Reply
Cool article.
Jim Bumgardner | May 9, 2008 | Reply
I bet that is a total biatch to tune.
John Goulden | May 9, 2008 | Reply
i’m pretty sure that whatever compression that clip uses cuts out the higher frequencies of which you speak, so it’s probably not the best demonstration..
moog | May 9, 2008 | Reply
Good call Moog, I dare say most MP3 compression would break the audio as well.
Revelation | May 9, 2008 | Reply
I Love Sugar Plum Fairy, and I did’nt feel particularly insane after listening to that rendition.
Seanross | May 9, 2008 | Reply
I wonder if listening to that video really simulates it. Can computer speakers put out frequencies that low?
Dan | May 9, 2008 | Reply
Wow… I actually want to find one of those now… though without the lead. Personally I think it has a kind of amazing sound, would love to hear it/play it in person..
cppchriscpp | May 9, 2008 | Reply
>”I think they used lead paint in these, so that would drive the players of the instrument crazy after a while.”
Nothing to do with paint, crystal is glass with lead in it’s lattice.
Senefen | May 10, 2008 | Reply
I have to agree that the “insanity” associated with this instrument has mostly to due with lead poisoning.
As I understand it, traditional armonicas were actually composed of crystal bowls, mounted horizontally from smallest to largest, on a spinning wooden rod.
The edges of each bowl were painted (with lead paint, of course), and as the instrument was played, the lead seeped into the fingers of the performer. Over time, the lead poisoning caused insanity.
A nice picture of one can be found here:
http://www.irtc.org/ftp/pub/stills/2006-04-30/armonica.jpg
Aaron | May 10, 2008 | Reply
i can just imagine what this sounds like and it actually makes me feel like i want to vomit
Easy Quiz | May 10, 2008 | Reply
the sound are like the begining and ending of harry potter.
i really like it!!!
Mosemer | May 10, 2008 | Reply
“18th century Europe was not the healthiest of places”
Nor was 18th century America, which would be where this was invented.
durden | May 10, 2008 | Reply
Actually 1000 - 4000 hz are closer to subsonic not hypersonic most compression algorythms can play it back but most speakers will not be able to reproduce it, and also localizing a reverberating sound such as this instantly destroys the mystery of where it is coming from…so no dissorientation.
Grant K. | May 10, 2008 | Reply
The early instrument made only the players go crazy because the “cups” they rubbed extensively to create the tones were made of lead and the instrumentalists received lead poisoning
Terry | May 10, 2008 | Reply
“The glass armonica’s sound is perceived by human ears differently than other instruments because its range is between 1,000 and 4,000 hertz.”
Here are just a few other instruments that can play notes well into this range: Violin, Harp, Mandolin, Piccolo, Organ, Xylophone, Glockenspiel, Piano.
DavidC | May 10, 2008 | Reply
Hm, didn’t expect to see Benjamin Franklin himself playing it.
jesse | May 10, 2008 | Reply
I was kinda disoriented at first for like 3 seconds then immediately closed it ‘cus i was scared. lmao, then i heard it with my mom. and nth happened. wth?! Yeah, i agree with Grant K.’s statement:
“Actually 1000 - 4000 hz are closer to subsonic not hypersonic most compression algorythms can play it back but most speakers will not be able to reproduce it, and also localizing a reverberating sound such as this instantly destroys the mystery of where it is coming from…so no dissorientation.”
But it was still weird why i still felt a lil’ bit… hmm. oh well.
Z0E | May 10, 2008 | Reply
I’m fairly sure Ben Frankin lived in France at the time he invented his mechanised armonica..
fishfingers | May 10, 2008 | Reply
has anyone mentioned the lead thing yet?
fred | May 10, 2008 | Reply
What lead thing?
tyler | May 10, 2008 | Reply
I have seen a similar instrument in Dresden, Germany.
It was made from glass, but with a metal ball attached to each singular node.
Cute Franzie | May 10, 2008 | Reply
1000 - 4000 hz is the same a 1 - 4 khz. most speaker systems will respond to frequencies as high as 18 - 20 khz (or 18000 hz - 20000 hz). Average quality Mp3 Compression only starts to attenuate frequencies starting at about 12 khz and higher. As I am Bored right now, I ran this video through a spectrum analyzer and most of the sound generated by this instrument is between 800 and 2000 hz. During the solo part, one of the notes went as high as 3000 hz as the musician never actually hit the highest note. the piano in the background created harmonic frequencies as high as 16000 hz. Thus, the compression does not seem to have limited the sound much other than ruining the clarity on the high frequencies. Based on my observation, I think the whole point the article was making about the 100 to 4000 hz range is that this this instrument does not appear to generate any harmonic frequencies above 4000 hz which gives it a unique sound due to the very tight spectrum being played.
Jon W | May 11, 2008 | Reply
Beautiful. How about a duet with a musical saw
Beautiful | May 11, 2008 | Reply
Some of you people (1) need to **read** the comments that have already been posted so you don’t repost the same comments, and (2) get a brain. And thank you Jon W for being one of the few intelligent people to comment on this.
anonymous | May 11, 2008 | Reply
They went insane
Anonymous 2 | May 13, 2008 | Reply
We must find something to let therapists work too!
Carlo | May 13, 2008 | Reply