FRANZ KONRAD BARTL, HIS TREATISE, AND THE KEYED GLASS HARMONICA SAM 1001

• Published in: The Galpin Society journal Vol. 63; p. 179
• Main Author: Darmstädter, Beatrix
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: West Sussex Galpin Society 01.05.2010
• Subjects: 19th century; Bartl, Franz Konrad; Design; Musical instruments
• ISSN: 0072-0127; 2397-5369

This article focuses on a rare keyed glass harmonica taken into the Sammlung alter Musikinstrumente, Vienna (SAM 1001) in 1996. This anonymous instrument matches details published in Franz Konrad Bartl’s Abhandlung von der Tastenharmonica (1797/98). Chemical and physical analyses suggest that SAM 1001 was made between 1840 and 1865, probably using ‘original’ components produced within Bartl’s lifetime. Contacts between Bartl and the Viennese Court during the late eighteenth century are recorded in documents in the Österreichisches Staatsarchiv and the Státní okresní archiv Olomouc, and Emperor Franz II became a patron of Bartl’s musical projects. Following the recommendations of Antonio Salieri and other artists and scientists, Franz II supported the printing of Bartl’s treatise and bought at least one keyed glass harmonica. This was integrated within a new exhibition in the Kunst-Cabinet at Josefsplatz in Vienna. As the ‘true’ inventor of the keyed glass harmonica, Carl Röllig, worked as librarian of the adjacent Court Library, a rivalry developed; it was settled by Röllig’s mischievous article in the Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung Leipzig. Contemporaries reported that the sound and the musical potential of Bartl’s instrument were remarkable – the bass register and colourful sound were especially appreciated by both audience and players.The