 an instrument for accompanying voice and as an entertainment instrument without voice.
There was still a hurdy-gurdy player in Paris shortly before 1870, a roaming street musician, who understood how to play his instrument with a great deal of talent and good taste. Often he sang and accompanied himself on the hurdy-gurdy or improvised interludes on the instrument. It is also reported of him that he played with other instruments. He then removed the drone strings from the wheel, played the melody on the hurdy-gurdy and was accompanied by the other musicians on the guitar and violin. It is particularly noted that he had an entirely independent repertoire. The reporter had often heard him play "Le Trio des Masques ou le sextuor de Lucie" [fn]. His artistic playing of the hurdy-gurdy is also expressly mentioned. Not only did he have a "coup d'archet de violon", but he also played a diminuendo by slowing the movement of the wheel, and then had the tone swell again by turning faster [fn].
Next to these forms of urban existence the hurdy-gurdy enjoyed undiminished popularity in the French provinces throughout the entire 19th century, above all in central France: in the Bourgogne, in Limousin, in the Auvergne,
in Nivernais, in Bourbonnnais, in Poitou, but also in Normandie and in Brittany. The instrument's central area was Berry, as it is today [in 1973]. The repertoire of the hurdy-gurdy in the provinces in the 19th century would have been similar to that which exists today. It is to be supposed that the country music played on the hurdy-gurdy even in the 18th century was founded, independent of its urban popularity, on an older musical tradition and did not experience much influence from the salon music. The effects of the hurdy-gurdy fashion in the cities was restricted in the provinces to changes in the construction of the instrument. In the countryside the hurdy-gurdy and the bagpipes were even in the 19th century the instruments with which musicians headed a wedding march or a procession and later played for dancing [fn]. Just how lively this tradition was is shown in a report from Bourbon-l'Archambault, where on the occasion of a holiday on a single street up to 15 pairs of 'menestriers' were counted. They were all a few meters apart from one another and played their music. They blew bagpipes and played hurdy-gurdies and paid no heed to the disharmony arising from the various pieces which were being played at the same time, and which drove the dogs and the hen-houses in the entire area into revolutions [fn]. [Editor's note: This is a direct translation of "welche die Hunde und Hühnerhöfe der ganzen Gegend in Revolution versetzte". Whether the author intended this pun is not clear.]
One century earlier (1793) the decline of the hurdy-gurdy as an aristocratic instrument was absolutely brought to a close by the events of the French Revolution. This decline of the instrument had however no effects on the traditional music of the hurdy-gurdy in the provinces, where it continued to be respected just as much. This is even shown by a man whose bloody political career is characterized by hate and revenge: Carrier. Even he was closely tied to the music of his home. Carrier, the 'representant en mission' in Nantes came from Aurillac in the Auvergne. In the same position as Fouche in Lyon and Barras in Toulon, he was responsible for bloody excesses in Nantes under the reign of terror of Robespierre. He was accustomed to play music
of the Auvergne on the hurdy-gurdy to recuperate from the bloody executions [fn].
Once again the hurdy-gurdy came into Paris from the provinces, this time however not as a fashionable toy for the aristocracy as in the 18th century, but with the folk music of those regions. The famous sculptor Jean Baffier, himself an excellent hurdy-gurdy player (ill. 200) [figlink] [fn], brought an entire group of village musicians to Paris. He had them appear at folk festivities and at artistic gatherings. They played for dancing at the 'bals-musettes', at the festivities of Montsouris, on the stage of the 'Théâtre Scip