April 2012
207 posts
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British Pathé: hurdy-gurdy footage from the 1950’s
Charming 1953 news footage of the International Eisteddfod in Llangollen, Wales, featuring footage of a number of French hurdy-gurdy players accompanying dancers (about 1 minute into the clip). See here.
And more footage, this one from French Week in Jersey - the “hokey kokey of its period”. See here.
and footage from the Paris Exhibition of 1937, including hurdy-gurdy and dancers. See...
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Hurdy-gurdy forum - resources page
The UK hurdy-gurdy forum has recently added a terrific new Resources page, with links to other sites, makers, artists, music and more. Check it out here.
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What's in a name?
The hurdy-gurdy is the 18th Century English slang term for the instrument, but it is known by a whole variety of terms in English as well as other languages. Here is what I’ve stumbled across:
Dutch
Draailier [turning lyre]
English
Beggar’s lyre
Crank lyre
Cymphan [16th Century]
Hurdy-gurdy [18th Century slang]
Organistrum [Earliest form of the instrument]
Symphon(y)(ie)(ia) [Normally...
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A French hurdy-gurdy player, London c. 1850
Volume III of “London Labour and the London Poor” by Victorian journalist Henry Mayhew has an interesting interview with a French hurdy-gurdy player from London circa 1850 (see pp.171-174). A touching insight into the life of a street musician. You can find the whole book on Google here but what follows is the relevant section:
French Hurdy-gurdy Player, With Dancing Children
“I play on the...
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“Old Sarah” - the well-known hurdy-gurdy player
Graham Whyte has posted a wonderful piece on “Old Sarah” - a blind hurdy-gurdy player from London, born in 1786, taken from “London Labour and the London Poor” by Henry Mayhew.
“ I was born the 4th April, 1786 (it was Good Friday that year), at a small chandler’s shop, facing the White Horse, Stuart’s-rents, Drury-lane. Father was a hatter, and mother an artificial-flower maker and...
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Hurdy-gurdy playing satyr with a sleeping nymph
Hurdy-Gurdy Playing Satyr with a Sleeping Nymph Master of 1515 (Italian [?], active ca. 1515) Engraving with drypoint burr
Nice old engraving dating to 1515 of a hurdy-gurdy playing satyr with a sleeping nymph. Part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. The satyr appears to be left handed.
More here.
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Building a hurdy-gurdy: a medieval synthesizer
Nice photo-essay by Mark Hoogslag on Flikr as he documents the process of turning an old lute into a hurdy-gurdy.
“After 150 days of continuous work, an hour or so every day, a presentable and playable instrument has emerged. It looks as if it has been around for 150 years.
I last add three strings and a nice lady’s belt. Three more strings, a lid, internal amplifiers and microphones will...
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Poland’s hurdy-gurdy builder
Short piece in Jim Deacon’s blog about Polish hurdy-gurdy maker Stanislaw Wyzykowski, including a sound and video clip.
“In Haczów, Poland 83 year old Stanisław Wyżykowski has been hand crafting Hurdy-gurdies. He has built more than sixty since 1967.”
More here.
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Iconography of the 16th Century hurdy-gurdy
I stumbled across a page at the University of New Hampshire, which provides an iconography (list of references to images) of the 16th Century hurdy-gurdy. Sadly no illustrations, but a comprehensive list nonetheless.
“The purpose of this iconography is to answer the question “Where can I find an illustration of …?” I have included only works of art for which there is a...
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Caroline Phillips: Hurdy-gurdy for beginners
TED Talks
Caroline Phillips cranks out tunes on a seldom-heard folk instrument: the hurdy-gurdy, a.k.a. the wheel fiddle. A searching, Basque melody follows her fun lesson on its unique anatomy and 1,000-year history.
Californian-born, French-resident entrepreneur and musician Caroline Phillips is one half of Basque music duo Bidaia, alongside Mixel Ducau. Her searching, Moroccan- and East...
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Bagpipes and hurdy-gurdies
Oliver Seeler has written a superb and detailed discussion of the hurdy-gurdy on his bagpipes-focused website (hotpipes). The hurdy-gurdy section starts here. Beyond discussing the long historical relationship between the pipes and the gurdy, he has three detailed sections dedicated the Lisberg Museum (of pipes and gurdies in Germany), a detailed explanation of the hurdy-gurdy and how it works,...
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The hurdy-gurdy in Spain
Interesting article on the history of the hurdy-gurdy (zanfona) in Spain:
“Can the hurdy gurdy be considered as part of the musical tradition of Spain? Can the bagpipes be considered a traditional instrument in continental Europe? The answer to both questions can be “Yes”, but to justify that, on both cases you need to look back to the origins, and mainly to the development of these...
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What to look for when buying a hurdy-gurdy
Simon Wascher has compiled some useful advice for what to look out for when buying a hurdy-gurdy. It’s available on his website here, but I’ve reproduced it below for simplicity:
The instrument should have:
1-2 melody-strings
1-2 trompettes, or 1 trompette with a capo to raise its pitch a tone
2 drones
More strings cannot be controlled by a beginner. If an instrument with more strings is...
