The first was guitar-shaped and the second had a rounded lute-type body made of staves. The buzzing bridge is thought to have been borrowed from the tromba marina ( monochord), a bowed string instrument.ĭuring the late Renaissance, two characteristic shapes of hurdy-gurdies developed. When the wheel is accelerated, one foot of the bridge lifts from the soundboard and vibrates, creating a buzzing sound. The buzzing bridge (commonly called the dog) is an asymmetrical bridge that rests under a drone string on the sound board. ![]() ![]() It was around this time that buzzing bridges first appeared in illustrations. Medieval depictions of the symphonia show both types of keys.ĭuring the Renaissance, the hurdy-gurdy was a very popular instrument (along with the bagpipe) and the characteristic form had a short neck and a boxy body with a curved tail end. These keys were much more practical for faster music and easier to handle eventually they completely replaced keys pulled up from above. At about the same time, a new form of key pressed from beneath was developed. The solo organistrum was known from Spain and France, but was largely replaced by an improved variant, known as a symphonia, in the 13th century, a small box-shaped version of the hurdy-gurdy with three strings and a diatonic keyboard. Later on, the organistrum was made smaller to let a single player both turn the crank and work the keys. Hurdy-gurdy player in Saint-Jean-des-Ollières, Puy-de-Dôme (France) One of the earliest visual depictions of the organistrum is from the twelfth-century Pórtico da Gloria (Portal of Glory) on the cathedral at Santiago de Compostela, Galicia, Spain: it has a carving of two musicians playing an organistrum. Another 10th-century treatise thought to have mentioned an instrument like a hurdy-gurdy is an Arabic musical compendium written by Al Zirikli. Abbot Odo of Cluny (died 942) is supposed to have written a short description of the construction of the organistrum entitled Quomodo organistrum construatur (How the Organistrum Is Made), known through a much later copy, but its authenticity is very doubtful. The pitches on the organistrum were set according to Pythagorean temperament and the instrument was primarily used in monastic and church settings to accompany choral music. Pulling keys upward is cumbersome, so only slow tunes could be played on the organistrum. Due to its size, the organistrum was played by two people, one of whom turned the crank while the other pulled the keys upward. The organistrum had a single melody string and two drone strings, which ran over a common bridge, and a relatively small wheel. One of the earliest forms of the hurdy-gurdy was the organistrum, a large instrument with a guitar-shaped body and a long neck in which the keys were set (covering one diatonic octave). 911) describing the lira ( lūrā) as a typical instrument within the Byzantine Empire. The first recorded reference to fiddles in Europe was in the 9th century by the Persian geographer Ibn Khurradadhbih (d. The hurdy-gurdy is generally thought to have originated from fiddles in either Europe or the Middle East (e.g., the rebab instrument) some time before the eleventh century A.D. It is mostly used in Occitan, Aragonese, Cajun French, Asturian, Cantabrian, Galician, Hungarian, and Slavic folk music, it can also be seen in early music settings such as medieval, renaissance or baroque music One or more of the gut strings called 'trompette' usually passes over a buzzing bridge called the 'chien' that can be made to produce a distinctive percussive buzzing sound as the player turns the wheel.Īncient kings playing an organistrum at the Pórtico de la Gloria in the Catedral de Santiago de Compostela in Santiago de Compostela, Spain ![]() For this reason, the hurdy-gurdy is often used interchangeably or along with bagpipes. Most hurdy-gurdies have multiple drone strings, which give a constant pitch accompaniment to the melody, resulting in a sound similar to that of bagpipes. Like most other acoustic stringed instruments, it has a sound board and hollow cavity to make the vibration of the strings audible. Melodies are played on a keyboard that presses tangents-small wedges, typically made of wood or metal-against one or more of the strings to change their pitch. The wheel functions much like a violin bow, and single notes played on the instrument sound similar to those of a violin. The hurdy-gurdy is a string instrument that produces sound by a hand-crank-turned, rosined wheel rubbing against the strings. Problems playing this file? See media help.
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