Description
The hurdy-gurdy, an instrument with deep roots in traditional European folk music, has found a firm place not only in folk music but also in early music and jazz since the 1970s. Their musical fascination is complemented by the need for continuous technical care – a challenge that the hurdy-gurdy player must master with care and knowledge.
The art of setting
To you, the hurdy-gurdy musician: The fine tuning of your hurdy-gurdy is essential for the quality of your playing. They require your full attention before you play the first notes. From harmonizing the tone colors to improving the playability – every setting contributes to your instrument sounding its best and adapting to your personality.
The need for personal responsibility
The perfect tuning and maintenance of your hurdy-gurdy is in your hands. Instrument makers give you an instrument with basic settings, but the fine-tuning that brings out your musical expressions requires your personal touch. Only you can really “bring your hurdy-gurdy to life” and make it a part of your musical expression.
The evolution of the hurdy-gurdy
Our time demands innovation. The hurdy-gurdy, often dismissed as an instrument of old folk music, is now more than ever at the center of musical experimentation and innovation. Through improved fine-tuning, enhanced techniques and the development of more powerful models, it has become an instrument that boldly takes on the music of today.
“The hurdy-gurdy – fine-tuning and maintenance”: A detailed guide
In this manual you will find detailed instructions and sketches showing you how to set up your hurdy-gurdy optimally. From selecting the strings and tunings to adjusting the tangents and caring for the wheel and snare bridge – this book covers all the aspects you need to know to look after your hurdy-gurdy.
Your hurdy-gurdy, your expression
Our aim is not just to provide you with technical instructions. Rather, we would like to encourage you to see your hurdy-gurdy as a medium of personal expression. The fine adjustments you make are the key to turning your musical visions into reality.
Why this book is indispensable
With this manual, we offer you a timely tool to tackle the problems of poor tuning that have accompanied the hurdy-gurdy for too long. It shows you new possibilities and helps you to experience your instrument in its full sonority.
Discover the full potential of your hurdy-gurdy
Your hurdy-gurdy is waiting for you not only to play it, but also to understand and care for it. This manual is your first step towards a deeper understanding and better performance. Invest in your musical development today and let your hurdy-gurdy shine in new splendor. Get your copy now and unleash the full potential of your music!
Foreword
To all hurdy-gurdy musicians and lyre players!
This manual is intended to help you with the various fine-tuning operations on the hurdy-gurdy. All too often neglected, they are a necessary task, inseparable from the art of hurdy-gurdy playing and the quality of music-making.
Fine-tuning comes before playing!
This means finding a sound in which the strength of the different tone colors harmonizes and also improving everything that makes music-making easier. Aligning the tangents or adjusting the key play are standard maintenance tasks. Adjustment work on the hurdy-gurdy never stops, sometimes it takes more time – and patience – than building a new instrument.
In general, the instrument maker will only hand over a new hurdy-gurdy with an approximate setting, so the musician must deal with this if he wants an optimum result. Just as he has to learn the playing technique, he also has to learn how to set up the instrument. No one else can or should do this for him. The musician must make the hurdy-gurdy his own, bring it to life, adapt it to his music and personality and adjust to it.
The perfect execution of fine-tuning should not become an end in itself: the essence of music always remains tones and sounds. The goal has been achieved when the hurdy-gurdy has become a means of personal expression and a part of the musician.
The current upswing of the hurdy-gurdy must not lead to its continuing isolation; it must face up to the music of today and take part in the various experimental projects. Improved fine-tuning, extended technology, musical experiments, innovative ideas, the production of more efficient prototypes, etc., these are the stages of its development.
Its further development and its future depend on hurdy-gurdy musicians, on their creativity, on their ability to bring a constantly expanding art of hurdy-gurdy playing into the modern age, which reveals the character of this instrument and brings out its strengths.
This font is indispensable. It opens up new possibilities and comes at the right time to combat the problems of poor fine-tuning that have plagued the hurdy-gurdy for too long. The ordeal of this “beggar’s lyre, this devil’s and folklore instrument … ” so that the hurdy-gurdy can simply become a musical instrument.
Valentin Clastrier
Fascinated by the hurdy-gurdy, we have gathered our experiences as musicians, instrument makers and teachers and combined our knowledge and insights in this new manual on fine-tuning and maintaining the hurdy-gurdy.
After the first attempt at such a handbook – published ten years ago by Volker Heidemann – it seemed appropriate to write a completely new version to take into account the further development in instrument making and the use of new materials.
We do not presume to answer all questions comprehensively in this guide – who can claim to know and master everything in this field? We would rather ask the reader seeking advice to regard this work as a summary of information and specific suggestions for solving problems with the hurdy-gurdy.
Our information is based on our own experience and numerous conversations with passionate instrument makers and musicians. We would like to thank them in particular for their valuable advice. We would like to thank Richard Butler, Valentin Clastrier, Christia- ne Duval, Fran9oise Etay, Ulrike and Jochen Giesler, Ina Gilchrist, Doris and Ulrich Joosten, Veronique Nguyen for their help and suggestions.
Philippe Destrem
Volker Heidemann
Author:inside
Philippe Destrem
has been interested in the hurdy-gurdy since 1976. He builds instruments and as a musician he leads numerous courses in France and abroad. His experience enables him to teach hurdy-gurdy players how to play and adjust the instrument. After teaching hurdy-gurdy for six years at the Creuse State Music School, he is now responsible for a hurdy-gurdy class and a bagpipe class at the Limoges Regional State Conservatory (Traditional Music Department).
Volker Heidemann
completes his first hurdy-gurdy in 1978. He has been building and playing hurdy-gurdies ever since. He soon becomes an expert in repairing, setting up and improving hurdy-gurdies. In this function he supervises hurdy-gurdy courses in France and Germany. This prompted him to write a guide to setting up hurdy-gurdies in 1983, the bilingual forerunner of this book. He has been organizing hurdy-gurdy courses in the Cologne area since 1983, which has enabled him to constantly exchange experiences with some of the best teachers and players in France, the Netherlands and Germany.
