April 2012
207 posts
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Marc Egea - Catalan hurdy-gurdy player
Reader Christa Muths sent me a review of possibly the best hurdy-gurdy player in Spain, Marc Egea. All the text that follows is from Christa:
Marc Egea (Barcelona 1973) is the leading Catalan musician and composer playing the hurdy-gurdy.
Marc started playing the hurdy-gurdy when he was 22 and soon recognised its enormous possibilities and followed in the foot steps of the great French...
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An interview with Matthias Loibner
There’s a great video interview with hurdy-gurdy virtuoso, Matthias Loibner over at interMuse - see here. Interesting description of the instrument and some fantastic playing. Well worth a watch!
Whilst you’re thinking about Loibner, there are a couple of nice videos on Vimeo of his Winterreise recording. See here and here.
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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.
