cassa armonica

noun. mouth organ [noun] a small musical instrument played by blowing or sucking air through its metal pipes. harmonica [noun] a kind of small musical instrument played with the mouth. (Translation of armonica from the PASSWORD Italian–English Dictionary © 2014 K Dictionaries Ltd)

: a musical instrument consisting of a series of rotating glass bowls of differing sizes played by touching the dampened edges with a finger.

These are different spellings of the same instrument. Franklin originally named his invention the "armonica", after the Italian word "armonia" which means "harmony", in 1761. Franklin's armonica was especially popular in Germany where it was known as the glassharmonika.

Some said the glass armonica was magical, but perhaps the man responsible for it was. Franklin made it possible to create beautiful sounds with the touch of a finger, sounds that his wife Deborah once called, "the music of the angels."

To play the glass armonica, musicians would moisten their fingers with water and gently touch the spinning glass bowls. The friction between the fingers and the glass produced ethereal tones that resonated with a haunting beauty.

Ben Franklin completed his glass armonica in 1761. (Its name is derived from the Italian word for harmony.) He didn't simply refine the idea of musical glasses, which were played much like children at the dinner table play them today, with notes being determined by the amount of water in the glass.

Franklin developed a musical instrument that he called the armonica (after the Italian word for harmony). To play the armonica, a musician powered a foot pedal to rotate 36 concentric glass bowls and produced notes by putting wet fingers to the spinning glass.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Adagio for Glass Armonica - In the last year of Mozart's life, he composed this piece for the glass armonica, which has been referred to as one of unearthly beauty.

The advantages of this instrument are, that the tones are incomparably sweet beyond those of any other; that they may be swelled and softened as pleasure by stronger or weaker pressure of the finger, and continued to any length; and that the instrument, being once tuned, never again wants tuning.. .

To play the armonica, a musician powered a foot pedal to rotate 36 concentric glass bowls and produced notes by putting wet fingers to the spinning glass. In Austria, the glass armonica provided the music for a royal wedding. Mozart and Beethoven would compose chamber pieces for it.

Franklin's armonica, also known as a glass harmonica, was made from 37 glass bowls of varying thicknesses and sizes threaded horizontally on an iron spindle which could be turned by a foot pedal. By moistening their fingers with water, a player could produce up to ten notes or chords at a time.