The Hurdy Gurdy - An Ancient Instrument With A Modern Sound

Few have heard of the hurdy gurdy, but of all of the instruments that have been invented and played over the past 1100 years, nothing else can produce as striking a range of sounds as this awkward mechanical violin with the even more awkward name.

(Go ahead - jump to the bottom and click one of the videos so you can listen while you read!)

Like a violin, the hurdy gurdy produces sound by rubbing a rosined surface across strings which are stretched over a hollow sounding body. The violin's bow, though, has been replaced by a crank-driven wheel. This wheel can sound several strings at once - usually a melody string and several drones. The low drones give it the melancholy harmonization of bagpipes - a similarity so striking that these two vastly different instruments are often grouped together, and sometimes mistaken for one another. (By sound, if not by appearance!)

But the hurdy gurdy has high drones, too. These are strung over a buzzing bridge called the "dog." The dog is only anchored at one side, so that when the wheel is turned with enough speed, it produces a distinctive vibration. This brings an electric-sounding flavor to the music. If the wheel is turned in short, staccato bursts, it becomes downright percussive.

There's much more that's unique about this instrument. To produce melody, wooden keys are mounted beneath a box. These keys press into the box and against the melody string. They're pushed up from beneath, and fall back by gravity when released. That makes the hurdy gurdy the only bowed instrument with a keyboard, the only keyboard instrument that allows you to "bend" notes by applying different levels of pressure, and the only instrument with a keyboard that's played upside down.

It also makes it the only stringed instrument that a tone-deaf pianist like myself could manage, although I'd have to get someone with a better ear to tune it for me. Apparently they're notoriously fickle and difficult to keep in tune.

I first came across a hurdy gurdy when watching the classic Captains Courageous from 1937. (That's one of my all-time favorite movies and worth another post to itself.) One of the fishermen in this film, played by Spencer Tracey, sings and plays a few simple folk tunes on a hurdy gurdy in a rare moment of leisure. This gave me the impression that this was a working-class instrument, something quick to learn and easy to play. But there was something about it that sent me looking to learn more.

I learned that it was meant to simplify performance, somewhat. A little ironic, for such a complicated gadget. But the wheel and keys has to be a little easier than a bow and a neck with no frets.

The first known models, back in the 9th century, were so large they had to be managed by two people - one for the crank and one for the keys - but they only had one melody string and two drones. They were probably used in medieval churches and monasteries as accompaniment to choral singing. More portable models became popular during the Renaissance, and that's also when the dog was introduced. (You know that buzzy music you hear at Renaissance Faires and old Robin-hood movies? Turns out maybe you have heard a hurdy gurdy!)

In the 1800s, desperate women known as Hurdy Gurdy Girls spread out from the impoverished region of Hessen, Germany, and were taught to entertain in dance halls and saloons around Europe, England, and the US - particularly in gold-rush California. (As you might expect, a lot of these girls were forced into prostitution once they were re-located.) This all shows how common this instrument was through much of history, and how readily a large number of people were able to learn and perform with it. It's great for quick dance melodies, and the percussive element really gets the toes tapping. I'm not saying it's easy to play but a lot of people clearly mastered the basics.

But the hurdy gurdy's versatility has a lot more to offer, and there are a few performers who are really exploring its potential today.

The mechanical wheel and the buzzing dog almost makes you think you're listening to something electronic at times, even though the overall tone is so analog and acoustic. The best of today's performers exploit that cognitive dissonance. Many of them push the boundaries of this instrument in other ways too: reaching into the box and plucking or sliding fingers on the strings, turning the wheel back and forth or backwards, and using looping pedals to layer their melodies and percussion.

An instrument this complicated has a lot of boundaries to push.

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As usual, you could search "hurdy gurdy" on Youtube and lose an evening or ten listening to all the marvelous performances out there. I'll just share a few of my favorites to get you started.

Matthias Loibner is a renowned hurdy gurdy master. This is one of his most impressive performances, demonstrating the range of sound he can coax from his instrument. As far as I can tell, he's not using any more electronics here than an amplifier. and even so, he's able to mix ingredients from the medieval to the modern.

Here's Bear McCreary explaining how he used the hurdy gurdy in the composition of the theme song for the television program Black Sails. He gives a quick explanation of the sounds the instrument can make and how they fed into his creative inspiration for the track, and much of the instrumentation for the show.

Here's Guilhem Desq with a performance that starts out slow and traditional - not too much drone and a warbling middle-eastern melody. Gradually he introduces a little of the vibrating dog for spice. But in the second half of the piece he incorporates some distortion and a looping pedal. The loops carry the melody while he shows off some rhythmic and percussive tricks, bringing the performance to a jaw-dropping finish. He also opens up the box around 3:30, exposing the keyboard mechanism.

Last I want to share the scene from Captains Courageous which introduced me to the hurdy gurdy in the first place. Here you can listen to Spencer Tracey playing a little folk song on the deck of a fishing schooner somewhere off the grand banks, in 1937.

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I would love to acquire a hurdy gurdy of my own. They're not as common as they once were. Part of the problem is they are too complex and temperamental to stand up to age and use. (All that wood, all those strings.) So the antiques are unplayable: little more than historical artifacts.

A decent hurdy gurdy has to be made to order by skilled labor. I have no doubt @vachemorte could make one. You can check out some of this luthier's work right here on Steemit - it's stunning! But I doubt I could afford the result. The craftsmen I've found online that produce them to order are charging around $2000 to $3000 - about the price of a decent used grand piano. I'm sure they're worth every penny.