Mr. Holmes

 From the movie- Mr. Holmes; I learned about a musical instrument-- the Armonica (also known as Glass Harmonica). The instrument was invented by Ben Franklin in 1761. It has a haunting, airy but captivating sound. Almost like the singing bowls to me. The instrument was not without controversy. It is said that many of the people who learned to play the instrument got mad, got obsessive and got entranced. Generally-- they went insane. Furthermore, there's also the rumour of lead poison from over-exposure because the instrument is basically made from a stacked row of glass goblets, stacked at the rims, varying in diameters. The fingers would be moisten with water and pressed onto the spinning glass to create friction, hence vibrational sounds would be the effects of friction on glass. 

I don't think it's a myth, I think it could be possible to be entranced by such haunting music. It is said that the reason for the Glass Harmonica to be so intriguing is that our brains could not determine the location of the sound due to the instrument having 1 to 4 kHz. Our brains either process sounds above 4 kHz (loudness) to determine source, or 1 kHz - with sound waves through right and left ear to determine location. So the Glass Harmonica is messing with our brains, confusing it, hence intriguing. Curiosity leading to trying out, leading to wanting more, leading to messing up the brain waves, leading to obsession, leading to more messing up of the brain waves, landing on insanity, I think.

No, the movie wasn't about the Glass Harmonica, it was just a prop in the movie but I got interested and Googled and sampled some Armonica music online and on YouTube. 

As it turns out, I'm getting the hang of searching for movies to watch. Pure gold.