On disappointing ladies

[Mike Weaver]

At 18:07 28/06/02 -0700, you wrote:
>This is snowballing into one of the more schizophrenic exchanges I´ve 
>inter-sustained in a viddy long tempo.   ´´ The mask is slipping?´´ The 
>sask is mipping whereto, Mick?

>Up your sphycnter,
>Monica Belevan


from
The Glass Armonica By Thomas Bloch - http://www.finkenbeiner.com/gh.html
"...
The instrument, adored or hated, roused passion. Paganini said "such a 
celestial voice", Thomas Jefferson claimed it was "the greatest gift 
offered to the musical world of this century", Goethe, Mozart, Jean-Paul, 
Hasse, Theophile Gautier praised it. A dictionary of instruments mentions 
that the sounds 'are of nearly celestial softness but can cause spasms", In 
a Treaty on the Effects of Music on the Human Body by J.M. Roger, 1803, we 
can read that "its melancholy tone plunges you into dejection ( ) to a 
point the strongest man could not hear it for an hour without fainting".

True, some interpreters ended their lives in mental hospitals, among them 
one of the best, Marianne Davies. In his Method to Teach Yourself Armonica 
(1788), J.C. Miller retorts- "It is true that the Armonica has strange 
effects on people . If you are irritated or disturbed by bad news, by 
friends or even by a disappointing lady, abstain from playing, it would 
only increase your disturbance". The Armonica was accused of causing evils 
such as nervous disorder, domestic squabbles, premature deliveries, fatal 
disorders, animal's convulsions. The instrument was even banned from a 
German town by police decision for ruining the health of people and 
disturbing public order (a child died during a concert). Franz Anton 
Mesmer, a Vienna doctor known for his experiments (Mesmerism) and for using 
hypnosis to treat his clients, would condition them by playing the 
glassharmonica for them. He was expelled from Vienna after a blind pianist, 
Marie Paradies, recovered sight but to the detriment of her mental health. 
Spread by rumor, this contributed to the death of the Armonica considered 
in 1829 as "the fashionable accessory of parlors and sitting-rooms".

Hasta proxima vez
Miguelito