h only present problems for the hurdy-gurdy player when triplets or staccato notes appear (exs. 37, 38, 39).
In the 18th century numerous composers wrote for the hurdy-gurdy, and many lute makers made efforts to beautify the construction of the instrument. Next to the various forms which emerged in this period, a novel combination of wind and string instrument was developed with the 'vielle organisée', the organized hurdy-gurdy (see page 163). The 'vielle organisée', although difficult to handle and very imperfect with regards to its technical aspects, found a great number of admirers, even beyond the French borders. The Austrian Norber Hadrava, himself an accomplished player of this instrument, taught King Ferdinand IV of Naples how to play it. The king liked the instrument so much that he commissioned several composers to write concerti and divertimenti for him to be played on the vielle organisée. Adalbert Gyrowetz (1763-1850) composed some serenades for the ' lira organizzata' for him [fn], as did Ignaz Joseph Pleyel [fn] and Johann Franz Xaver Sterkel, who probably first received the commission in 1783 to write several concerti for the 'organisierte Leyer' [fn]. After the success of these first compositions in 1785 he was again requested to write several more pieces for this instrument. Again the middleman was the imperial legation secretary Norbert Hadrava, who in a letter asked him to compose "drei Concerte für zwei organisierte Leyren für Sr.M. den König von Neapel ... das eine aus dem Ton C, das zweite aus dem F und das dritte aus dem G. Sind Sie bedacht die Ritornello kürzer als in Ihren
ersteren Concerten zu schreiben, übrigens richten Sie gänzlich den
Gesang deren Leyern oder die Melodie nach der Art der Oboen ohne vieler Beschaulichkeit
deren Passagen einzuleiten, die übrigen Erinnerungen wegen diesen Instrument
werden Ihnen ohnehin noch bekannt sein, da Sie mehrere
Stücke von dieser Art geschrieben haben." [fn] ["three concerti for two 'organisierte Leyern' for Sr. M the King of Naples, One in the scale of C, the second in F and the third in G. Make the Ritornello shorter than in your first concerti, and arrange the voice of the Leyern or the melody entirely according to the manner of the oboes without making their passages too slow; the other reminders with regard to this instrument you are already familiar with, since you have written several pieces of this nature."]
Among the composers who wrote music for the vielle organisée for the King of Naples was Joseph Haydn. It is not known how the king arranged the contact with Haydn. Under certain circumstances Norbert Hadravaa, who might have known Haydn, could have been the middle man; it is however also possible that Haydn's pupil Ignaz Joseph Pleyel, who in 1782 resided in Naples and wrote concertos for the king's vielle organisée, attracted the king's attention to Haydn [fn].
In the 1780's Haydn wrote five concerti for two vielles organisée for Ferdinand (Hoboken VII h:1-5) and between 1788 and 1790 wrote several nocturnes (Hoboken II: 25-32) [fn]. Haydn wrote these compositions for two of these instruments because the king wanted to play them with Hadrava.
Like Johann Xaver Sterkel, Haydn used the keys of C major / minor in the concerti. Thus both went beyond the two principal keys C and G. To be played in F major however the instrument either had to be retuned, although then the pipes could no longer be used because these could not be simply retuned a whole note, or both rows of keys had to be constantly used. However in the nocturnes written by Haydn (of which two are in the key of F), this cannot be done either, since in these the highest notes are f''' sustained and even g'''. For the performance of these compositions in F there were probably two possibilities: either the pipes were
not used or instruments especially tuned to F were used for these scales. In any case the instruments had to have a range that went somewhat over two octaves; hurdy-gurdies of this sort were also built in France (see page 125).
As with the French compositions for two hurdy