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 stick, and was usually part of an accompaniment of instruments.
As the century developed, so did the variations on the verrillon. Rubbing the rim of a glass with a moistened finger actually became the ephemeral form, and it had substantial influence not only in music, but in the cathartical sciences of the day. For example, in G.P. Hasdorfer’s Deliciae Physicomathematicae published in 1677, Hasdorfer writes: “(There is) an account of an experiment with four glasses, filled with brandy, wine, water and salt water or oil. The diverse sounds produced by the contrasting content of the glasses were thought not only to correspond to the emotions aroused by the four “humours” of the human body, but even to have the power of alleviating or curing such disorders as a thickness of the blood.”
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