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Eric -- how the heck do you know all this
stuff??? You SCARE me!
Okay, I have those other composers' Glass Harmonica pieces.
The sound of the GH is so lovely and haunting that I always play the whole CDs,
so I'm familiar with all these pieces.
In the most respectful vein that I can
muster, I disagree -- the Mozart is by far the best. Gimmick or not, sick and
broke or not, I think he authentically loved the sound that came from this
astonishing instrument. None of the other pieces are compositionally distinctive
or talented, IMHO.
Is this the CD you're referring to? This is a real treat,
everybody get it:
Music for Glass Harmonica
Bruno Hoffmann, Glass Harmonica
Vox Unique VU 9008
Mozart
Adagio and Rondo in C minor, K. 617 for GH, Flute, Oboe, Viola
and Cello
Adagio in C major, K. 617a for GH
Johann Friedrich Reichardt
Rondo in B-flat major for GH, String Quartet and Double
Bass
Karl Leopold Rollig
Quintet in C minor for GH and String Quartet
Johann Abraham Peter Schulz
Largo in C minor for GH
Johann Gottlieb Naumann
Quartet in C major for GH, Flute, Viola and Cello
Where can I get the recording for the mechanical organ??? I'd
love to hear that! Your description convinces me I can't live without it for
much longer. Do any of the original mechanical organs or clocks still exist in
Europe (or Japan)?
Was I right about the lead toxicity problem with the GH? About
five years ago, Linda Ronstadt, of all people, stumbled on the GH, was entranced
by it, found one of the few remaining thrill-seeking soloists, and recorded a
Hispanic-flavored CD with GH tracks. I've never heard it, just read an interview
with her about her passion for it.
My Philadelphia cousins tell me that there's a GH on display
at the Big Museum (Franklin Institute?), and that it actually gets played once
in a blue moon. I think this would be a good instrument to teach to young punk
and thrash-grunge musicians, they would appreciate its Living on the Edge /
Flirtation with Death and Madness qualities.
The GH's principal is familiar to anyone who ever ran a wet
thumb around the rim of a crystal glass with water in it; and of course changing
the volume of water changes (to precision) the pitch of the ensuing tone. At a
fancy hotel bar mitzvah reception, me and a dozen other 13-year-old boys once
put on a spontaneous thumb-and-crystal concert, until the Maitre d' came over
and threatened to kill us with his bare hands. The notes from wet-finger crystal
are incredibly penetrating (pleasantly, if you're Mozart) and far-travelling.
The GH itself consists of a pedal-rotated main horizontal cylinder of crystal
glass blown with cylindrical bulges at right angles to the main cylinder, which
produce the precise notes of the scale when wet fingers are touched to the
rims.
Eric, whenever you post, you make me feel like I live in a
trailer off Route 221, I have empty Budweiser cans on the floor, and my socks
have holes in them and don't match.
Bob / Elmer
Mozart only wrote three pieces at the
end of his career for the glass harmonica. They are an Adagio and Rondo for
glass harmonica, cello, flute and violin (I don't remember the KV number off
hand, but it is in the 600's) and he wrote a solo work Adagio for glass
harmonica KV.618. Both works were written for a blind girl who was quite
skilled at the glass harmonica. Mozart was not in the best of financial
condition in the last year of his life (1791), and he took commissions for
all sorts of odd projects to make a few extra Florins. One of the more
interesting sets of works in this period is the three pieces he wrote for
Mechanical Organ (or mechanical clock). He wrote these pieces for an exhibit
of wax figures set in a mausoleum. These three pieces have a funeral
character, although the adagio and fugue is really an example of Mozart
showing his expertise in counterpoint. I consider this work to be a
masterpiece. It is in fact one of my favorite Mozart
works.
I am afraid; I have a different opinion
of the pieces for glass harmonica. I don't consider them among his best,
although the solo adagio KV.618 is quite pretty. I have CD of glass
harmonica music by other much less known composers of Mozart's time and I
find that I like these better than Mozart's works in this genre.
Regards,
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