Wine?

The Wine Glass Adagio

For no particular reason, I decided to see if it was possible to create a modern version of the glass harmonica using a set of wine glasses filled with different amounts of water.

After quickly running out of glasses before I got anywhere near a full chromatic scale, I decided to just use a few glasses and record each note individually. An evening of experimental water slopping thus ensued and I’m slightly surprised that I didn’t manage to drown the Android tablet that I was recording everything on.

Once I’d recorded the notes and tweaked the tuning slightly (I’d forgotten to use even-tempered wine glasses), I went on the hunt for a suitable piece of music to perform with my new instrument. The obviously choice was Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings so, without further ado, I invite you to listen to my Oenophilic Adagio (just press the play button):

The only instruments used to create this were wine glasses, water and multi-tracking software on the computer. No alcohol was harmed in the making of this performance.