glass harps

Noun

glass harp (plural glass harps)

1. A musical instrument consisting of glasses (typically wine glasses) tuned by putting different amounts of liquid into them. Sound is produced by rubbing one's fingers around the rims of the glasses, causing them to vibrate.
   • A newer glass instrument is the glass harp [G[erman] Glasharfe] constructed by B[runo] Hoffmann in 1929. Similar to the musical glasses of England, it consists of 46 individually tuned glasses fixed on a resonant table.1969, “Glass harmonica”, in Willi Apel, editor, Harvard Dictionary of Music, 2nd rev. and enl. edition, Cambridge, Mass.: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, →ISBN, page 347

   Synonyms:

   musical glasses, verrillon