The irrepressible Stephen Bell made another return call to Sage One to conduct, dressed as a wizard, but the evening's real star was concert presenter, story-teller and musician Alasdair Malloy, who played marimba, xylophone and the hydrodaktulopsychicharmonica, which we learned to be a
glass harmonica, or two rows of tuned glasses played with the hands.
book,
Glass Harmonica, was published in 2011 by Quale Press.
A late performance in The Loft @ Bates Mill on Saturday will showcase the Carlos Casas' installation Avalanche II with an eclectic mix of instruments - from a
glass harmonica and vibraphone to Japanese transverse flutes and violin.
The ingenious score calls for a 60-piece orchestra, including unusual elements such as
glass harmonica, viola da gamba and bongos.
Teodore Anzellotti provided a constantly brooding accordion presence while Christa Schoenfeldinger mesmerised with her performance on the
glass harmonica.
"The
Glass Harmonica: A Sensualist's Tale" is a novel following Chjara Valle, a driven young woman who through her life of a servant as she goes from Corsica to Paris to America.
The
Glass Harmonica is SET IN NEWFOUND-land, but it is not necessarily a Newfoundland book.
* Artifacts related to Franklin's inventions--including bifocals, the Franklin stove, the armonica (
glass harmonica), and microscope--and his activities in publishing, firefighting, the postal service, libraries and education, abolishing of slavery, and diplomacy and government.
Researching the weird and wonderful instrument, made up of 54 specially-tuned glass rods, led Hawley on to other leftfield instruments such as the ondes Martenot (a very early electronic instrument), the
glass harmonica, which sounds like rubbing a wet finger around the rim of a crystal glass, and Tibetan singing bowls.
There is a musical saw, a Cristal Baschet - made up of 54 glass rods - and a
glass harmonica which makes a sound similar to rubbing a wet finger around the rim of a crystal glass.
I'd heard of a lot of these instruments and heard how they sounded, like the
glass harmonica. And the musical saw was something my grandad played at family parties.
I managed to record 99% of it in Sheffield but had to travel to France to get Thomas Bloch to record the
glass harmonica, so again that was a bit different to the process of recording my other records.