Creating music by rubbing a wet finger along the rim of a glass has been a form of entertainment since the 1400s.

This form of musical art gained in popularity with the invention of the glass armonica by Benjamin Franklin in 1761.

Today though, the glass music is a a rare form of art

As part of its family art series, the Aurora Free Library organized a peformance by Brien Engel, a professional glass harpist, at the Morgan Opera House in Aurora, Saturday morning.

“The glasses create the music by friction that is caused when the wet finger is rubbed along the rim of a glass,” Engel explained to the audience during his performance. “The friction works much like the bow against the strings of a violin.”

Engel's glass harp consists of 50 glasses of varying shapes and sizes that create the different chords of a musical number when rubbed along the rims.

For more on this story, and to see photos from Saturday's show, read Sunday's edition of The Citizen.