The Hurdy Gurdy
From a distance, the hurdy-gurdy with it’s eversounding drones can be mistaken for a bagpipe. But the hurdy gurdy is a bowed string instrument where the bow is, in fact, a wheel, turned by the help of a crank. It also has a kind of "rythm section". One of the drones rests on a small bridge that gives a buzzing sound when the wheel is turned with short accelerandos or pushes. The intensity of the resulting sound can be controlled to produce — given an able musician — a very precise rythmication to the beat or to the melody — mostly a mixture of both — of the tune played.
The hurdy gurdy is an old instrument with an origin lost in the early medieval era. It has been played by kings and beggars, its reputation varying with almost every century for the last thousand years. Mozart and Haydn wrote music for it and in many countries it became well rooted in the folk music sphere.
In Sweden the instrument was rare and extinct until some 15-20 years ago when the folk and early music revivals brought it forward again. An amazing instrument and a fantastic time machine! In Lirans hemligheter, a book written by Per-Ulf Allmo and myself you can read more about the hurdy-gurdy in the Nordic countries. Get it here.
My hurdy gurdies: