Just glassin' around

The family trekked to the Texas Renaissance Festival last weekend. Actually, we drove halfway, then had to leave the minivan in Columbus because the engine started making unpleasant noises again. So we're back down to one vehicle. But we got to TRF and back home again in my mother's van, so things worked out OK.

The first thing Lisa pointed out to me when we entered the festival grounds was a woman in--or rather out of--some sort of wood nymph costume. She was wearing a light cloak, and nothing else other than some strategically-placed autumnal leaves. My first thought was the Eve girl from Halloween past, but this... wow. It was incredibly stylish and designed. Only a few leaves, but they were either spirit-gummed on with great care, or were body paint. Perhaps a combination of both, now that I think of it. Where her flesh ended and leaves began was almost seamless, and the arrangement gave the impression of wind blowing them around her in a whorl. Foolishly, I didn't think to get a picture, and didn't see her the rest of the day. Pity. It was very, very well done.

Calista was eager to see Istanpitta, as that group had made a big impression on her last year. Unfortunately, there were only two members there performing that day, and neither of them were Sahira, a belly dancer that my daughter's become a huge fan of. The group's just put out a new CD, "Pilgrimage to the Shrine of St. Mary," that I wanted to get, as I've enjoyed the "Chevrefoil" disc we picked up last year. We moved on pretty quickly, and I planned to go back later for the disc, but never made it.

Instead, later in the day as we headed into the Sherwood Forest section of the festival, we passed a guy playing music on water-filled wine glasses. This stopped me in my tracks, since I hadn't seen anyone do the glass harmonica at a ren faire since Glasnots went defunct after Terry Hinely was killed in a car wreck in the late '90s. I glanced at the CDs on display, and saw the name "Donal Hinely," who used to be the Glasnots guitarist. I said something clever and insightful, like "Oh my gosh, Glasnots!" and Donal quickly looked up in surprise, and said it was nice to hear that someone remembered that name. We talked for a bit, and he knew me from my reviews over at Green Man Review. He gave a demonstration of his glass harmonica playing to my daughters and their friends who were with us, and before you knew it there was a crowd of 20 people where none had been before. I grabbed two of his CDs--"Midwinter Carols," traditional Christmas music performed on glass harmonica, and "We Built a Fire," a folksy, guitar-centric album of original Americana songs by Hinely. That sparked a bunch of other people to grab the various other CDs he was selling as well, so I like to think I helped contribute to his financial solvency.



The interaction with Hinely made a huge impression on Calista. The first thing she did when we got back to Columbus before heading on to New Braunfels was try to make a wine glass resonate. It took her a few times, but she got it. She's made me play "Midwinter Carols" on the drive to school every day this week. She's gotten wine glasses and champaign flutes out at home and experimented with different water levels in them. She's actually gotten very good at drawing notes from the crystal, even though she hasn't put that together as an actual song yet. She says she's going to learn to play as well as Hinely, and I'm hesitant to doubt her. I've seen how determined she can be. The first song she wants to learn is Beethoven's "Ode to Joy." And she's not even seven.



Out of obsessive curiosity, I looked up glass harmonicas online. Apparently, the only manufacturer of the Benjamin Franklin-style glass harmonica in the world is G. Finkenbeinder Inc.. Before they started making these around a decade ago, it'd been more than 150 years since the last one was produced. Amazing.

Out of more obsessive curiosity, I emailed them, asking for pricing. To my surprise, they responded quickly. The bowls used in the harmonicas are made from pure quartz, so there's no danger of going insane from lead poisoning. That's a relief. And the prices, while not cheap, are certainly reasonable in comparison with other professional musical instruments. At the low end, a two-octave, 25 note glass harmonica has an asking price of $6,150 while at the high end, a three-plus octave, 42 note harmonica goes for $19,845. Obviously, we're sticking with the cheap wine glasses for now, but if Calista does become proficient on this instrument, I could possibly see one of these professional ones as a graduation present or somesuch. But that's a long way from now.

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