The organistrum is an early form of hurdy-gurdy. [1] Generally considered the ancestor of later hurdy-gurdies, the organistrum differs substantially in that it was played by two individuals: one turned the crank while the other pulled the keys upward to change the musical pitch of the strings. In other examples a player pushed levers forward to create the notes. [2]
The word organistrum is derived from organum and instrumentum; the former term was applied to the primitive harmonies, consisting of octaves accompanied by fourths or fifths, first practised by Hucbald in the 10th century. [3] This explanation allows tolerable certainty about the period of its invention, at the end of the 10th or beginning of the 11th century. It also explains its construction. A stringed instrument of the period — such as a guitar fiddle, a rotta or oval vielle — was used as a model, while the proportions were increased for the convenience of holding the instrument and of dividing the performance between two persons (this happened in early models). Inside the body was the wheel, rosined like the bow of a violin, to create friction in its 3 melodic strings. The three strings resting on the wheel and supported on a bridge of the same height sounded together as the wheel revolved. In the earliest examples the wooden tangents [4] took the place of fingers on the frets and acted upon all three strings at once, thus producing the harmony known as organum. [5]
The organistrum appears on a bas-relief from the abbey of St Georges de Boscherville (11th century), preserved in the Rouen museum. A royal lady plays it while her maid turns the crank. It has the place of honour in the centre of the band of musicians representing the twenty-four elders of the Apocalypse in the tympanum of the Gate of Glory of the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela (12th century). A fine example appears in a miniature of a psalter of English workmanship (12th century), forming part of the Hunterian collection in Glasgow University. [5]
A fiddle is a bowed string musical instrument, most often a violin. It is a colloquial term for the violin, used by players in all genres, including classical music. Although in many cases violins and fiddles are essentially synonymous, the style of the music played may determine specific construction differences between fiddles and classical violins. For example, fiddles may optionally be set up with a bridge with a flatter arch to reduce the range of bow-arm motion needed for techniques such as the double shuffle, a form of bariolage involving rapid alternation between pairs of adjacent strings. To produce a "brighter" tone than the deep tones of gut or synthetic core strings, fiddlers often use steel strings. The fiddle is part of many traditional (folk) styles, which are typically aural traditions—taught "by ear" rather than via written music.
String instruments, stringed instruments, or chordophones are musical instruments that produce sound from vibrating strings when a performer plays or sounds the strings in some manner.
The hurdy-gurdy is a string instrument that produces sound by a hand-crank-turned, rosined wheel rubbing against the strings. The wheel functions much like a violin bow, and single notes played on the instrument sound similar to those of a violin. 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. Like most other acoustic stringed instruments, it has a sound board and hollow cavity to make the vibration of the strings audible.
In music, a bow is a tensioned stick which has hair coated in rosin affixed to it. It is moved across some part of a musical instrument to cause vibration, which the instrument emits as sound. The vast majority of bows are used with string instruments, such as the violin, viola, cello, and bass, although some bows are used with musical saws and other bowed idiophones.
The vielle is a European bowed stringed instrument used in the medieval period, similar to a modern violin but with a somewhat longer and deeper body, three to five gut strings, and a leaf-shaped pegbox with frontal tuning pegs, sometimes with a figure-8 shaped body. Whatever external form they had, the box-soundchest consisted of back and belly joined by ribs, which experience has shown to be the construction for bowed instruments. The most common shape given to the earliest vielles in France was an oval, which with its modifications remained in favour until the Italian lira da braccio asserted itself as the better type, leading to the violin.
Stemming from Sweden, the nyckelharpa, meaning "keyed fiddle" or "key harp"(lit.), is a bowed chordophone, similar in appearance to a fiddle or violin, which employs key-actuated tangents along the neck to change the pitch during play, much like a hurdy-gurdy. The keys slide under the strings, with the tangents set perpendicularly to the keys, reaching above the strings. Upon key-actuation, the tangent is pressed to meet the corresponding string, much like a fret, shortening its vibrating length to that point, changing the pitch of the string. It is primarily played underarm, suspended from the shoulder using a sling, with the bow in the overhanging arm.
A barrel organ is a French mechanical musical instrument consisting of bellows and one or more ranks of pipes housed in a case, usually of wood, and often highly decorated. The basic principle is the same as a traditional pipe organ, but rather than being played by an organist, the barrel organ is activated either by a person turning a crank, or by clockwork driven by weights or springs. The pieces of music are encoded onto wooden barrels, which are analogous to the keyboard of the traditional pipe organ. A person who plays a barrel organ is known as an organ grinder.
Bowed string instruments are a subcategory of string instruments that are played by a bow rubbing the strings. The bow rubbing the string causes vibration which the instrument emits as sound.
The lirnyks were itinerant Ukrainian musicians who performed religious, historical and epic songs to the accompaniment of a lira, the Ukrainian version of the hurdy-gurdy.
French musician Valentin Clastrier is one of the few performers in the world specializing in contemporary music for the hurdy-gurdy; before Clastrier, the instrument was used primarily in the performance of European Medieval and folk musics.
Nicolas Chédeville was a French composer, musette player and musette maker.
The lira, or relia, is a Ukrainian variant of the hurdy-gurdy, an instrument which can trace its history back to the 10th century. Regarding the origins of the lira in the region there are two schools of thought:
The drejelire is a string instrument with a keyboard, specifically, a type of hurdy-gurdy that uses a rosined wheel to create sound.
The kaisatsuko is a mechanical experimental musical instrument invented by Yuichi Onoue of Tokyo, Japan.
The vielle à roue et à manche is a modern term for an early music instrument, of unknown original name, of the hurdy-gurdy family, but distinct in that the notes were changed by fingering the neck rather than pressing tangent keys. The instrument has several strings which are constantly bowed by a spinning wheel turned by a crank, producing unbroken musical notes.
The Donskoy ryley is a stringed musical instrument from Russia. It is a type of hurdy-gurdy, where the strings are constantly bowed by a wheel which is turned using a crank, and the pitch of the strings changed by keys attached to sliding tangents.
Music technology is the study or the use of any device, mechanism, machine or tool by a musician or composer to make or perform music; to compose, notate, playback or record songs or pieces; or to analyze or edit music.
Mechanical music technology is the use of any device, mechanism, machine or tool by a musician or composer to make or perform music; to compose, notate, play back or record songs or pieces; or to analyze or edit music. The earliest known applications of technology to music was prehistoric peoples' use of a tool to hand-drill holes in bones to make simple flutes. Ancient Egyptians developed stringed instruments, such as harps, lyres and lutes, which required making thin strings and some type of peg system for adjusting the pitch of the strings. Ancient Egyptians also used wind instruments such as double clarinets and percussion instruments such as cymbals. In Ancient Greece, instruments included the double-reed aulos and the lyre. Numerous instruments are referred to in the Bible, including the horn, pipe, lyre, harp, and bagpipe. During Biblical times, the cornet, flute, horn, organ, pipe, and trumpet were also used. During the Middle Ages, hand-written music notation was developed to write down the notes of religious Plainchant melodies; this notation enabled the Catholic church to disseminate the same chant melodies across its entire empire.
The Hurdy-Gurdy Player is an oil-on-canvas painting by Georges de La Tour. The artist neither signed nor dated it, but it was produced in the first phase of his career, probably between 1620 and 1625. It is also known as The Hurdy-Gurdy Player in a Hat or The Hurdy-Gurdy Player with a Fly. It is now in the Musée d'Arts de Nantes.
Patricia Büchler, known professionally as Patty Gurdy, is a German hurdy-gurdy musician, singer, songwriter and YouTuber.
