This part of the website is an English translation of the definitive hurdy-gurdy reference book Die Drehleier (The Hurdy-gurdy), written by Marianne Bröcker. For general information about this translation please see the Index Page.
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A. The Use of the Hurdy-gurdy in Modern Times
The hurdy-gurdy was played in many European countries up until the 19th and 20th centuries, but except in France there are almost no musical sources which would permit a general view of the instrument's repertoire. The music intended for the hurdy-gurdy was preserved mainly by being handed down orally, and it was only the last decades that some of the melodies played on this instrument were written down. These few examples together with numerous examples in the literature of earlier centuries indicate that since the end of the Middle Ages the hurdy-gurdy was used consistently in two musical areas: as an instrument of the itinerant musicians and beggars and as an instrument of the local country musicians.
As in the Middle Ages (see page 288) the hurdy-gurdy was very popular as an instrument for accompanying song for a long time afterward (compare ills. 41, 133, 148, 152, 154, 161, 163, 170, 199, 223, 224, 226, 227, 228, 233) [figlink]. Thus in 15th century England music was played much for entertainment and sung stories were especially liked, which were accompanied by various instruments, among these the hurdy-gurdy [fn]; this was a method of presentation which is testified to even in 17th century England:
".............. with the sound
Of dulcet symphonies and voices sweet" [fn].
In England in the 18th century the hurdy-gurdy was still
used to accompany song, so for example in a burlesque ode, composed by Bonnel Thornton and intended for the 30th of May 1763, Saint Cecilia's Day, in which the author calls upon all instruments to celebrate the Saint's Day. This ode, introduced by an overture, was presented with music. The individual parts consisted of recitatives, instrumental pieces, and vocal pieces with instruments, among these an air sung and played with the text:
"With dead, dull, doleful, heavy hums,
With mournful moans,
And grievous groans,
The sober Hurdy-Gurdy thrums" [fn].
Edward Jones reports of an old custom which in his time, the end of the 18th century, was still practiced in Oxfordshire and North Wales. There at Christmas times mummers marched about presenting old plays, dancing and singing and receiving apples or nuts in payment. In some of these events the mummers grouped together with musicians and sang this tune accompanied by the hurdy-gurdy:
"My father he killed a fine fat hog,
And that you may plainly see;
My mother gave me the guts of the hog,
To make a Hurdy-Gourdy" [fn].
In the 18th century therefore the hurdy-gurdy in England still belonged to those instruments which were used in country
festivities, probably for dancing [fn].
Even during the height of vocal polyphony in the 15th and 16th century, in Spain the hurdy-gurdy and the songs it accompanied, the romances and the 'canciones' derived from these, lost none of its popularity with the nobility and the common people: "Y si la Reina Católica tenía sus cantores e instrumentistas, también nos dirá luego Cervantes que las gentes de ciudad cantan romances viejos y nuevos acompañándose de la zinfoña en las horas de reposo común" [fn] [translation JW: And if the Catholic queen had her singers and instrumentalists, Cervantes would later tell us that the town's folk sung old and new 'romances' accompanied by the hurdy-gurdy in their leisure time.] In the 16th century the romances disappeared gradually from the popular music of Spain and were partly replaced by religious songs which were presented in a tired and complaining tone. These religious and sentimentally presented songs were recalled even up until the 20th century in the Andalusian and Levantine coastal reg