Jamey Turner's glass harp
CT Features Staff
April 24, 2007
As Hokies made their way back on to campus yesterday, for the first time in what feels like forever, many wondered how these last few weeks would play out before summer finally arrives. For those passing through Squires Student Center, it was business as usual. Well, except for the sound of a glass harp echoing within the cavernous main atrium.
After getting the puzzled OK from campus authorities, Alexandria native Jamey Turner set up shop on Squires's 3rd floor for an impromptu performance with one of the most intriguing and mysterious instruments in the land. Consisting of 60 water-filled glasses, Turner's personally constructed glass harp entertained dozens of awestruck students and faculty throughout the afternoon.
While he's toured all over the country with different orchestras to show off a truly unique skill, Turner (along with his wife Mary) decided to visit Tech in an effort to relieve students of lurking anxieties. And, watching him deftly move his fingers around glass to glass, as classical compositions mesmerized onlookers, one couldn't help but feel at ease; especially when a turkey baster full of extra water supplemented flat chords.
In between renditions of Handel and ragtime favorites like The Entertainer, Turner told stories of how he's individually selected each wine glass, brandy snifter, and even fish bowl, over the past 30 years of playing, to masterfully construct his instrument. Despite the gorgeous sound each individual glass exuded in tandem, they'd be nothing without the 84 industrial rubber bands anchoring them to worn wooden table. Regardless of its brutish exterior, there was no short of appreciative applause.
"It's such a peaceful and delightful sound and we wanted to share it with this community," said Turner. "People can't help but smile. It's something in the tone," he laughed.
Whenever the couple wasn't entertaining with anecdotes of having to kick egotistical glasses out of their band, they invited members of the crowd to test their skill for themselves. While nobody came close to stringing together a tune, everyone relished the experience. For one student, this wasn't the first time he'd enjoyed Turner's inspirational gig.
"I'm really a fan," chuckled engineering and music double-major DJ Drummond. "I actually watched Jamey on the streets of northern Virginia and in a few libraries as well. I walked in to Squires, heard the music, and wondered if it was him and it actually was!"
Most everybody has tried to catch music in a glass by running their finger along the edge but come with little success. As Turner wetted his fingers before the next performance, he explained that Beethoven in particular wrote music specifically for the glass harp.
"When Beethoven wrote Ode to Joy, he couldn't hear a thing," detailed Turner. "It's a song about the complete confirmation of triumph over adversity. That's what's happening here. The students are triumphing over adversity."
Soon thereafter, that very same Ode filled the ears and hearts of Hokies as the sun set on the first day, of many, before this memorable and trying academic year comes to its close.