National Network for Equitable Library Service

You may recognise the sound when a bored dinner guest begins playing with a wineglass. Once popularly known as the Angelic Organ, the Glass Harp, the Glass Armonica, or the Singing Glasses, an arrangement of tuned wineglasses can be played by rubbing a finger against the edges. Invented in 1742 by an eccentric Irish character named Richard Pockrich, this odd instrument once conquered the concert halls of Europe. While it beguiled the mainstream composers who wrote for it: Mozart, Gluck, Beethoven, Donizetti, Tchaikovsky and others, it was accused of causing spontaneous miscarriages and death to its listeners, and of driving its virtuoso performers crazy. Today you may occasionally hear it played by street buskers in Europe or Montreal, but in its native country it has been forgotten. This documentary taps into the secret life of the Glass Harp, exploring both its music and the strange career of its wild and wacky inventor.