Dennis James (musician) - Glass Armonica Performance

Glass Armonica Performance

James plays the glass armonica and has collected other vitreous vibrators including Francis Hopkinson Smith's 19th century Grand Harmonicon, modern glass instruments such as Sascha Reckert's verrophone, the cristal baschet, and a wide variety of glass flutes and glass bells. James played glass instruments on Marco Beltrami's film scores for The Minus Man (1999) and The Faculty (1998). "I first became aware of glass instruments at about the age of 6 while visiting the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia. I can still recall being mesmerized by the appearance of the original Benjamin Franklin armonica then on display in its own showcase in the entry rotunda of the city's famed science museum.". In the interest of historical and philological accuracy, James adheres to Franklin's original name, "armonica" without the "h".

In 2010 James was appointed Lecturer for glass music studies at the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey where he oversees the development of glass music research including graduate level student teaching (the first such academic appointment in the history of the field). James performed glass armonica on six Linda Ronstadt's album projects, including Winter Light and the Grammy Award winning "Dedicated to the One I Love" and "Trio II" featuring Dolly Parton and EmmyLou Harris. "Linda explained she had first heard the sounds of rubbed glass some 15 years before, just where, though, escapes her to this day. She kept that ethereal sound in her mind all those years and it was during the orchestra sessions and post-session mix on the track "A River for Him", written by Emmylou Harris, that Linda had the inspiration to add the glass tones", says James. James appeared on Late Night with David Letterman with Ronstadt. "It was a great surprise. A sort of unspoken message in the air to me before the broadcast was 'Do not say anything on the air!' After all, these things are Linda's appearances. When David Letterman leaned over his desk and directed a question to me I simply froze - on playback of the dub I can see myself caught and unable to speak. I received a glance from Linda that said to me it was OK and so when he tried again I called back a flip one liner and on things went from there," says James.

James recorded an album of all glass music, Cristal: Glass Music Through the Ages co-produced by Ronstadt and Grammy Award-winning producer John Boylan. James plays the glass armonica, the cristal and the seraphim on the CD in original historical compositions for glass by Mozart, Scarlatti, Schnaubelt, and Fauré. James collaborates with the Emerson String Quartet, operatic soprano Ruth Ann Swenson, and Ronstadt.