What's a hurdy-gurdy?
By Robbie Rhodes
Bob Conant described an interesting instrument built by a friend (Digest 960201), which creates music using hand-cranked "bowing wheels". It appears to me that "hurdy-gurdy" (and that's the proper spelling, too) is indeed the proper name!
A recent book from the Black Forest relates the origins of these instruments and their various names: (Translated from "Waldkirch Barrel and Fair Organs", by Herbert Juettemann, pp. 17-18, copyright 1993 by Waldkirch Publishing.)
> The small, light-weight and easily-transported organ with a crank,
> which one carries or sets on a cart, has several well-known
> designations. Especially popular is the name "Leierkasten", or
> "Lyre-box".
> But really this is improper: the term "Leierkasten" actually comes
> from the hand-cranked player violin carried by minstrels in the
> Middle Ages. There aren't any pipes -- the only thing it has in
> common with the barrel organ is the crank!
{ The accompanying illustration shows an ancient lute-like }
{ violin fitted with a bowing wheel, frets and push-buttons; }
{ it bears a remarkable resemblance to a Mills Violana, and }
{ also to the "Arthur Godfrey Push-button Ukulele" advertised }
{ on the radio in the 1940's! }
> The more meaningful name is therefore "Drehorgel", or "Crank-
> organ". To differentiate from the smaller weight-driven flute-
> clocks seen in residences, one speaks also of the "Handdrehorgel",
> or "hand-cranked-organ", and for further differentiation from home
> organs one speaks of "Strassendrehorgel", or simply "Street-
> organ".
> In France it was called the "Orgue de Barbarie", the "Organ of
> Barbary". One theory holds that the name comes from association
> with Giovanni Barberi of Modena, who lived around 1700 and built
> small barrel organs. Another theory suggests that the barrel
> organ originated in Italy and was introduced in France and Germany
> by Italian traveling musicians.
> More likely, though, is that the term is a derivative of the
> common French word "Barberie", used by the sailors to signify
> merchandise or anything else from a different land. Swiss author
> Helmut Zeraschi, in "Dreyhorgeln" (1976), remarks that the little
> organ may be of neither French nor Italian origin, but might have
> been a German invention.
{ "Barbarie" survives in English as the "Coast of Barbary", and }
{ that's presumably where your local hair-cutter came from! }
{ Fortunately for your tonsils, your barber isn't a _Barbarian_ }
{ anymore, even though he/she may be from another land. }
> In Austria it's called "Werkel", in the Netherlands "Draaiorgel",
> and in England, as long as it has a pinned-cylinder, it's the
> "Hand Cranked Barrel Organ".
Well, that's the background. My "Webster's New International Dictionary" of 1930 (weight: 16 pounds!) defines a hurdy-gurdy as the same hand-cranked-violin "Leierkaste" which Juetteman describes, and also as "any instrument, especially of street music, played by turning a handle." The name 'hurdy-gurdy' is "probably of imitative origin," it says, implying that the name imitates the sound of the machine.
What do you call the sound of your friend's instrument, Bob?!
-- Robbie Rhodes
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(Message sent Sat 3 Feb 1996, 06:27:51 GMT, from time zone GMT-0800.) |
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