HURDY-GURDY – a Winter Project

Anyone who knows the northeast USA will tell you how brutal the winters can be, with temperatures frequently dropping down to 0F (-17C) for two or three months and usually accompanied with anything up to three feet (one metre) of snow. Once winter starts to set in, it is impossible to go out walking, even a gentle stroll round the local park requires clothing reminiscent of Artic explorers, so I retreat to the attic and my workshop.

Last years guitar

This time of the year is the time to think of what project I will tackle over those winter months, last year I made a classical guitar. It was the first musical instrument I have made, a change from CD racks, bird houses and bedroom furniture. I have to admit that I did cheat a little when building it, my carving skills are not the best in the world so I ended up buying a ready made neck blank that just needed finishing before fitting the fret board and frets and attaching to the body. While thinking about what do this year, my love of Brittany in northwest France and my interest in folk music, gave me the inspiration, I finally decided that this years project would be a hurdy gurdy.

As this project gets under way, fuller updates with photos and information will be posted on my web site.

Barrel organ player at Albany, New York Tulip Festival

The instrument should not be mixed up with what a lot of people call a hurdy gurdy. Developed in the 13th century the hurdy gurdy spread from Spain to France and eastern Europe, It did make its way across the English Channel but was never a really popular instrument in England, Today it is still played at dances along with melodic instruments, in the Breton (Brittany) region of France and the Szentes and Csongrád regions of Hungary. The man you see sometimes at fairs and Renaissance events often with a monkey holding a cup to collect offerings from the public is usually called a hurdy gurdy man but in fact the instrument he plays is actually a small barrel organ. The hurdy gurdy is a full instrument and can play any tune while the barrel organ uses a drum with the notes on it, so can only play one tune repeatedly without changing the drum.

The drum with the notes in the barrel organ

On the hurdy gurdy, turning a handle rotates a wooden wheel, which touches the strings and makes the sound, a similar principle to the bow moving over violin strings. A box on top of the instrument houses a set of tangents or stops, fixed on sliding bars or keys, when a key is depressed, the tangent stops the string at a particular note, just like fingers on a guitar neck.

Working parts of a hurdy gurdy

  

Up to four chanterelles or melody strings are encased in the box containing the keys and run over the wheel, additionally, up to four drone strings run outside the box; these drone strings can usually be silenced by being moved away from the wheel. One drone, the trompette, has a trembling or buzzing bridge, which rattles against the belly causing a buzzing sound. These extra drone strings give the sound that is characteristic of the hurdy gurdy. The body shape has many forms, from a guitar like body to a lute shaped body. The French hurdy gurdy or vielle, which I am going to start on, has the lute shaped body.

The major problem was finding the plans to work from, I had some rough ideas on sizes but nothing that I could sit down with and build a full instrument. Scouring the internet, I found several sites where I could buy plans, but not wanting to spend $50 or so on plans unless I absolutely had to, I kept looking just in case before having to part with my money. After much searching I found plans for a lute bodied hurdy gurdy on a site run by Graeme McCormack so now its time to settle down and study them.

A typical flat bottom hurdy gurdy

For the plans -
Graeme McCormack's hurdy gurdy plans