The glasschord ( French: fortepiano à cordes de verre) is a struck

crystallophone A crystallophone is a musical instrument that produces sound from glass. One of the best known crystallophones is the glass harmonica, a set of rotating glass bowls which produce eerie, clear tones when rubbed with a wet finger. Musical glas ...

resembling the celesta, invented circa 1785 by physicist M. Beyer of Paris. It creates sound by using cloth covered wooden

hammers A hammer is a tool, most often a hand tool, consisting of a weighted "head" fixed to a long handle that is swung to deliver an impact to a small area of an object. This can be, for example, to drive nails into wood, to shape metal (as wi ...

to strike glass tubes laid on a cloth strip, with no dampeners. The instrument has a range of three octaves, in various models from c' to c'', f' to f'', and g' to g''. The instrument was largely inspired by the

glass harmonica The glass harmonica, also known as the glass armonica, glass harmonium, bowl organ, hydrocrystalophone, or simply the armonica or harmonica (derived from , ''harmonia'', the Greek word for harmony), is a type of musical instrument that uses a ...

created by

Benjamin Franklin Benjamin Franklin ( April 17, 1790) was an American polymath who was active as a writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher, and political philosopher. Encyclopædia Britannica, Wood, 2021 Among the leading inte ...

, and was given the name ''glasschord'' by him. On 6 July 1785,

Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, philosopher, and Founding Father who served as the third president of the United States from 1801 to 1809. He was previously the natio ...

that Franklin carried a version of the instrument with him, describing it as a sticcado. Beyer originally presented the instrument on 19 January 1785, in a presentation at the French Academy of Sciences, while the instrument still was nameless, with the instrument being publicised in the

Journal de Paris The ''Journal de Paris'' (1777–1840) was the first daily French newspaper.(7 October 2014)The first French daily: Journal de Paris History of JournalismAndrews, ElizabethBetween Auteurs and Abonnés: Reading the Journal de Paris, 1787–1789 '' ...

multiple times through the same year. Many glasschords were built by Chappell & Co., until around 1815. The instrument was used in some scores, most notable by Hector Berlioz, who wrote the first verion of ''La Tempête'', and Camille Saint-Saëns who used the instrument in L'aquarium.

References

{{Stick percussion idiophones Keyboard instruments Crystallophones Stick percussion idiophones