-
Hurdy-gurdy
unknown - Enlarge image
Hurdy-gurdy
- Place of origin:
France (made)
- Date:
ca. 1770-1785 (made)
- Artist/Maker:
unknown (production)
- Materials and Techniques:
Carved ivory, turned ivory and purfled (bordered) sycamore, with tortoiseshell edging, silver and brass piqué work and paste imitation stones
- Museum number:
95-1870
- Gallery location:
On loan
The hurdy-gurdy is a stringed instrument, shaped like the body of a guitar or lute, with a winding handle which turns a disc to sound the strings. The left hand presses the buttons to produce the melody, while the right hand rotates the disc to produce a background drone. It was a widespread instrument in Europe during the Middle Ages in both religious and secular contexts. Although used at every level of society it became particularly associated with itinerant minstrels, peasants, beggars and blind musicians.
During the eighteenth century rusticity was in vogue; Queen Marie-Antoinette of France (1755-1793) created her own village and farm in the grounds of Versailles between 1783 and 1784, and made an idealized version of the peasant life fashionable. The hurdy-gurdy, with its rustic associations, was taken up by the French aristocracy. Disguised as shepherds and shepherdesses, they played the instrument at the fêtes champêtresat Versailles, and ladies and gentlemen at court played this instrument as well as musettes (bagpipes). This small, unsigned but beautifully decorated instrument was more suitable for the drawing-room. The rustic associations of the hurdy-gurdy are reflected in the carved ivory and sycamore female figure on this instrument, who is dressed like an idyllic version of a peasant.
The decoration also points to the status of this instrument as a fashionable accessory, rather than an instrument to be played seriously. Nevertheless, in 1731-3 the hurdy-gurdy was featured with orchestral accompaniment at the Concert Spirituel in Paris and the renewed interest in the instrument led to the production of a musical repertory; in 1739, for example, the French composer Nicholas Chédeville (1705-1782) published Le printems, ou Les saisons amusantes (1739) an arrangement of Vivaldi's The Four Seasons for hurdy-gurdy or musette, violin, and flute.
On loan to the Horniman Museum.
