ing [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 Scipion', and at the World Exhibition in 1889. On 11 June 1889 at a celebration of the fine arts in the Parisian city hall, a large gathering of painters, sculptors, musicians and poets, there appeared once again a group of hurdy-gurdy players and bagpipers from Berry. At the head of them all Jean Baffier played the hurdy-gurdy. On this day the musicians from Berry, playing the folk music of that region, marched past four to five thousand Parisians. [fn] Baffier made serious efforts to reawaken interest in folk music in Paris, but the success of the musicians drawn into the city by him was based more on the public's curiosity than a genuine interest.
Aside from these efforts it was once again attempted at the end of the last century to introduce the hurdy-gurdy again into artistic music. In a "Société des instruments de musique anciens" [fn] founded by Van Waefelghem in 1895 there was also a quartet with the instruments hurdy-gurdy, viola d'amore, viola de gamba and harpsichord, which were played by Delsart, Van Wafelghem, Diemer and Laurent Grillet. (ill. 232) [figlink]. Grillet, one of the co-founders of the society [fn], played the hurdy-gurdy. He came from Sancoins in the departement Cher, which belongs to the province of Berry, which is even today one of the
principle centers of the hurdy-gurdy. Grillet was probably acquainted with the hurdy-gurdy from his youth and had played it since then. In this ensemble he played it without the characteristic sound: he strung his instrument with just one string, which served as the melody string, and left all the other strings off, so that it had no drone strings. Thus he removed the peculiar tonal characteristic of the hurdy-gurdy, its drone tones, which even in the 18th century were not removed for the music which Grillet wanted to revive with his instrument (see page 320). In this case a violin or another bowed instrument would probably given better service.
In the society 'La Couperin' in Versailles there was another hurdy-gurdy player in the person of the director of t