Song of the Day 12/17: GlassDuo, “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy”

You’ll seldom hear a better match of music and instrument than this performance of Tchaikovsky’s “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy” from “The Nutcracker Suite.” It was written in 1892 for the then-recently invented celeste, a piano-like instrument with hammers that strike metal bars, producing a soft, bell-like tone. It sounds even better given the clear, pure tone of wine glasses.

Anna and Arkadiusz Szafraniec bill themselves as the only glass harpists in Poland, which is entirely believable. They also claim to play the world’s largest glass harp, and I’m going to give them the benefit of the doubt. I’m wondering if that 10,000 hours standard would be long enough to get this good at it.

Benjamin Franklin was a guy who tried to improve everything he saw, from stoves to spectacles. When he attended wine-glass concerts in London and Paris, he realized the glasses would be easier to play if they were nested on a rotating spindle; it even allowed him to express chords. He debuted his contraption in 1761, and it was quickly duplicated and improved. As with all his inventions, Franklin did not seek a patent for what he called the armonica. You can see how much easier it is to play.

Though it had fallen from favor by 1830, the glass harmonica was taken seriously by composers of Franklin’s day, prized for its ethereal sound. Many, including Mozart and Beethoven, wrote pieces featuring the instrument.