THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, November 29, 1995 TAG: 9511280130
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 10 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MARY REID BARROW, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 83 lines
Benjamin Franklin's wife thought she was hearing baby angels sing when she heard him play his musical invention for the first time.
Kids today think Franklin's glass armonica sounds close to the synthesizer, said musician Dean Shostak from his home in Williamsburg.
An older generation might think of sounds they made when they slid a wet finger round a wine glass or when they ``played'' grandma's crystal fingerbowls.
Whatever you think the glass armonica sounds like when Shostak plays at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at the Central Library, you can be sure of one thing. The music will not match anything you have ever heard before.
Not only will you hear an out-of-this world sound, you also will see an unearthly instrument, unlike any other musical instrument you know.
It's not an instrument but a contraption. Clear or gold glass bowls of varying sizes are strung on their sides on a metal spindle. The spindle hangs from brackets at either end of a table. The spindle also is connected to a foot treadle underneath the table.
Shostak will sit at the table with a bowl of water in front of him. As he rotates the spindle by pressing the foot treadle, he ``plays'' the rotating bowls with a wet finger.
The larger the bowl, the deeper the tone. Clear bowls emit tones of the piano's white keys and gold bowls, the black keys.
But, as Mrs. Franklin would say, they bring forth the sound of angels.
The bowls nestled into one another, but not touching, also take on a life of their own. They begin to vibrate, picking up the sounds of the other bowls played in the same key, and produce their own music.
``It's an ethereal sound, an amazing sound,'' Shostak said, ``a sound really not like anything else at all.''
There are only about 100 glass armonicas in the world, many of them in museums. Shostak, one of fewer than 10 people who play the instrument, owns three of them.
A full-time musician, he often plays the glass armonica for Colonial Williamsburg where the instrument was used at concerts 200 years ago. Both George Washington and Thomas Jefferson attended glass armonica concerts there. The instrument was once so popular that even Mozart wrote for it.
The glass armonica became extinct in 1830 after it appeared to be making its musicians ill. They suffered numb fingers and even nervous breakdowns. Today historians think it was the lead in the glass that may have caused the illnesses.
When the instrument was revived by a master glass blower in Boston in 1982, quartz bowls were substituted for lead ones. Shostak, healthy as ever, has made two recordings of glass armonica music, ``Crystal Carols'' and ``Revolutions.'' On Saturday, he will play holiday music from the former as well as a Mozart piece from the latter.
Shostak also will play the violin and the hurdy-gurdy, another instrument that looks like the monkey man's barrel organ but is actually a stringed instrument. Talking his way through the concert, he will discuss the history of the instruments and how they were made and used.
Shostak said he likes to think that he has become a part of the glass armonica's history not only for helping to bring it to life again but for devising the foot treadle that rotates the spindle. When the instrument was revived 15 years ago, it was made with an electric motor. Since Colonial Williamsburg relies on authenticity in its recreations, Shostak reinvented Franklin's foot treadle.
``If you like history or are into New Age music or into acoustical instruments, it's fun to see,'' he said.
Or, if you just want to hear the angels sing. ILLUSTRATION: Dean Shostak of Williamsburg is one of only about 10 people who
play the glass armonica, an invention of Benjamin Franklin. There
are only about 100 glass armonicas in the world, many of them in
museums. Shostak owns three of them.
WHEN & WHERE
``Dean Shostak: An Evening of Colonial Music,'' will be at 7:30 p.m.
Saturday at the Central Library auditorium. Tickets are $6 and are
available at the Francis Land House, 3131 Virginia Beach Blvd. If
any tickets are left, they will be sold at the door the night of the
concert. Call 431-4000.
by CNB