Have you ever heard of a hurdy-gurdy? Well, besides sounding like something that the Swedish chef might cook up for you, it is an old Middle Ages kind of instrument.
I have always wondered what these were, exactly, and during my shawm research I came across them again. They are bigger than I had originally thought, from about the size of a large viola or a smallish cello. or about guitar sized, if you aren't sure what a viola or cello looks like. From watching players on YouTube, it looks like it does take a bit of skill to get a good sound out of them and to play them well.
They sound a bit like bagpipes, because there is a constant drone. To play them, the player turns a hand crank on one end of the instrument. The crank turns a wheel that is rosined and scrapes against the strings (just like violins and other bowed instruments). To make different pitches, there is a sort of a keyboard, that looks like the stops on a organ or the buttons on a button accordion. These are pressed, which in turn push wedges that press the strings, to make different notes (also similar to a violin, where the fingers act as stops to create pitches.) Of course, I'm over-simplifying, but hopefully you get the idea.
They were most popular during the Middle Ages and Renaissance in Europe, but people all over the world still play them. Maybe someday I can find one and learn to play it too.
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