The first glass instrument played with wet fingers wa invented in 1743 by an Irishman, Richard Puckeridge, but it was Benjamin Franklin who went on to invent a variant of it, the glass harmonica, which produced similar sounds but could be mechanically controlled. The instrument around passionate responses during its hey-day, and many composers of the late eighteenth century composed music for the instrument. The most well-known were Mozart and Beethoven, both of whom wrote for it towards the end of their lives. Gaetano Donizetti was one of the last to compose for the glass harmonica before its revival in the late twentieth century, when he originally featured it as the accompanying instrument to Lucia’s mad scene in his opera Lucia di Lammermoor, to startling effect. This disc concludes with Thomas Bloch’s own haunting Sancta Maria, which includes 4 multitracked vocal parts all performed by a male soprano.