Glass+Sound Research

Italian artist Agostino Di Scipio, born in Naples in 1962, uses glass jars and contact microphones to record ambience sounds from an art gallery, with added filtering and EQ, as Di…

An artist from Japan who explores sound and material very extensively and with remarkable sensitivity. Here is an instrument called De Koolmees, consisting of hollow glass tubes suspended over a…

“Glass World” (excerpt) from Glass World (EM Records)   Recorded in 1970. Many types, shapes and sizes of glass were used in performances of the Glass World. The glass used…

Here's some good information from Unmaking Things about the Bell Jar. Little is known of the origins of bell jars. Effectively inverted, wide-mouthed glass vessels, it has been suggested that…

Here's a piece that utilizes the principles of the pyrophone Glass Tube – 2012 Dimensions Variable Materials: blown glass tube, color video with sound, 2 minutes For more Pyrophone go…

Armonica Those who’ve heard people playing music with glass (not at all uncommon today), or anyone who’s worked a wet finger around the top of a water glass, will be…

The Cloud Chamber Bowls are made from large pyrex containers, called carboys. The original instruments came from the University of California radiation laboratory, where they would cut out the middles…

Yuri Suzuki is among the 2016 Swarovski Designers of the Future Award commissions, unveiled at Design Miami/Basel 2016. Suzuki's sculpture for the commission, titled Sharevari, is also interactive. It is a…

In this famous scene from Fellini’s film E La Nave Va… (1983), a group of musicians and conductors seem to improvise on Franz Schubert’s Six Moments Musicaux No.3, 1828, originally…

Glass Armonica In 1761 Benjamin Franklin was in London representing the Pennsylvania Legislature to Parliament. Franklin was very interested in music: he was a capable amateur musician, attended concerts regularly,…

Patent lodged on 10th September 1806: “Mr Laurent (Claude), who had long sought the means to remedy thetendency of flutes to alter their various tones due to the influence of…

Glass Xylophones are known to have been in existence since 1825.  David Ironmonger of London, England was one manufacturer of these instruments and  wrote two books for the “Harmonicon Glasses.”  …

The Indian Jâlatharángini appeared perhaps around 700 CE. It consisted of a set of porcelain cups tuned with water, and was played with sticks covered with felt or tipped with…

from James Rouvelle's website: Our sound work with glass involves the creation of shapes that can be bowed or struck to produce fundamental pitches and harmonics so that one instrument…

"This is video documentation from the production of Jocelyne Prince's conceptual glass series called Sound Wave. In the piece, molten glass is poured into a solid blown glass vessel. Then…

Josef Anton Riedl (*1929): Glas-Spiele, for an array of glass tubes (estratto) (1974/1977). Performers: Lorenzo Ferrero, Stefan Gabanyi, Johannes Göhl, Michael Hirsch, Robyn Schulkowsky, Florian Tielebier-Langenscheidt. Gruppo diretto da Josef…

What's been described as "a trumpet player trapped in a two dimensional universe" is in fact the unique work of Justice Yeldham, a maverick musician with an unhealthy obsession with…

Light Bulb Music is an audio-visual performance using sounds that are generated by different light bulbs and actuating electric devices. The use of different controllers such as switches, dimmers, relays,…

This work documents my search for the tones of the Listening Glasses in "the whistling of the wind, the rumbling of carriage wheels [and] the splashing of water" (1954, 44)…

Another lovely example of the bell jar hijacked for other purposes.

Our Lady of Late, for voice and wine glasses (1972) Meredith Monk’s, ‘Our Lady of Late’ was performed in 1975 at the Naropa Institute, Boulder, Colorado. Abstract and pre-verbal in…

Miguel Frasconi uses electronics and an instrumentarium of glass objects to create music from a uniquely imagined tradition. His glass instruments are struck, blown, stroked, smashed, and otherwise coaxed into…

Japanese Minoru Sato & ASUNA (Naoyuki Arashi) recorded 5 different tracks of harmonium (a reed organ), the sustained notes recorded into a specific glass tube like the one pictured at…

"MIT’s Glass Lab, a hotbed of creative materials science in the basement of Building 4, is well known for the visual artworks that emerge from its furnaces. In the spring,…

Sophie Durand + Emmanuel Holterbach : verres enharmoniques French duo Orbes devised their own system of tuned wine glasses, with added water pumping under the table allowing them to alter…

In the 18th century, there was talk of a “chemical harmonica”. “An instrument with dancing flames, invented by Mr. Kastner; it is a type of organ in which the pipes…

In 1300, the Chinese had an instrument which was called Shui Chan.  This instrument consisted of nine cups struck with a stick.  The Japanese Hi was described as a teacup-shaped…

This soundtrack to a film installation is based on light bulbs and bells sound samples, reconfigured by Steve Roden into a hypnagogic soundscape of tintinabulating and resonating sounds. From the…

2004 hand cut bottles, sound composition, 20 audio speakers, electronics, plywood base, ash From Steve Roden's website inbetweennoise duet (your magnetic ashes) began with the discovery of an old cassette…

The glassharmonica was very popular from the start. 400 works were composed for it, some unfortunately now lost, and probably about 4000 instruments were built in 70 years. The instrument,…

The classic experimental music band, The Glass Orchestra, performs in 1979 with the original members. Eric Cadesky, Paul Hodge, John Kuypers, Miguel Frasconi, and Marvin Green. An excerpt from the…

The Verrillion consisted of a table with glasses filled with different amounts of liquid. The performer would stand at one end of the table and strike the glasses with a…