Glass harmonica Franklin and a fellow of the Royal Society, extended the experiments of Pockrich, contriving a set of glasses better tuned and easier to play. During the same decade, Christoph Willibald Gluck also attracted attention playing a similar instrument in England. Benjamin Franklin invented a radically new arrangement of the glasses in 1761 after seeing water-filled wine glasses played by Edmund Delaval at Cambridge in England in May 1761. Franklin worked with London glassblower Charles James to build one, and it had its world premiere in early 1762, played by Marianne Davies. Writing to his friend Giambatista Beccaria in Turin, Italy,
Adagio and Rondo for glass harmonica, flute, oboe, viola and cello purchased by Zweig from a Berlin auction house in 1930. The work was first published by Breitkopf & Härtel in 1799. The adagio, in C minor, is 58 bars long, while the rondo (C major) contains 230 bars. According to Willi Apel, "Among various compositions for the glass harmonica, Mozart's Adagio in C major (K. 356) and Adagio and Rondo (K. 617)...both composed in 1791, are the most interesting. They seem to require an instrument equipped with a keyboard mechanism such as that constructed in 1784." Adagio and Rondo for glass harmonica, flute, oboe, viola and cello The Adagio and