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Pourtant, Paganini en parle comme d'un "orgue angélique", Marie Antoinette en joua, le docteur Franz Anton Mesmer s'en servit pour relaxer ses patients avant de les soigner (de la musique new age... avant l'heure), Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, Carl Philipp Emmanuel Bach, Gaetano Donizetti et Richard Strauss composèrent pour lui et des auteurs comme Goethe ou Chateaubriand le louèrent.
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Glass harmonicas were banned by a police decree in some German cities and disappeared in 1835. Among the reasons put forward : the sounds made by the instrument frighten animals, cause premature deliveries, shoot down the strongest man within one hour (according to a medical dictionary published in 1804) and drive the interpreters to madness (maybe because of lead poisoning; 40% lead glass was used). However, Paganini called it an "angelic organ", Marie Antoinette played the glass harmonica, doctor Franz Anton Mesmer used it to relax (...to mesmerize) his patients before examining them (a kind of new age music), Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, Carl Philipp Emmanuel Bach, Gaetano Donizetti and Richard Strauss composed for it and writers such as Goethe or Chateaubriand praised it.
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