Melannde Music:
Modern-Day Hurdy-Gurdy Crafters by Mel & Ann Dorries

As interest in the hurdy-gurdy grows, so does the opportunity to pass along the heritage of this intriguing instrument.

When I tell people we build hurdy-gurdies, they give me a strange look and then laugh, thinking I'm joking. But it isn't a joke. The hurdy-gurdy, known in France as the la vielle a roué or simply the vielle, is an ancient and storied musical instrument enjoying a popular revival in many countries today. We met our first hurdy-gurdy in an unlikely place. Showing several of our classical and steal string guitars at the Dulcimer Festival in Evart, Michigan three years ago, we joined a few other guitar builders in a crowd of Dulcimer builders and players. From our booth, we heard an unfamiliar sound resembling a bagpipe at times and the violin at others yet never quite either. Finally unable to resist our curiosity, we closed our booth for a lunch break, and followed the sound to a campsite nearby. There lay a beautiful and unique wooden instrument on the lap of one of the four gurdy players with enough courage to come to a dulcimer festival.

At first glance its silhouette resembled the picture I had seen in Sunday school of Noah's ark. Its lute-shaped body was crowned with a long narrow box with a row of small windows running the length of it. Then, I realized that the "windows" were actually keyholes. The music was the result of the player turning the crank, which turned the wheel, which vibrated the gut strings. The keys in turn pressed tangents against the strings, like fingers on a fretboard, shortening them to create the desired note. The similarity to the guitar was striking and the differences were intriguing. I was hooked. I knew then I had to build one of these fascinating instruments.

It's difficult to establish a time line for origin of the hurdy-gurdy. It appeared in a stone carving in the mid 11th to 12th century, but a construction manual written by Odo of Cluny, possibly in the 10th century, mentions a similar instrument. Also known as an organistrum and a symphonia, there is speculation that its ancestors could have arrived on the European continent when the Moors invaded Spain around the 8th century. They brought several kinds of stringed instruments with them, some of which are thought to be the ancestor our classical guitars today. For example, the ud (la ud) gave rise to the lute.

The symphonia pictured in the stone etching of the mid-eleventh century was so large it had to lie across the lap of two musicians, one to turn the crank and one to lift the keys. First used in cathedrals for worship music, it soon moved into the homes and streets of the common folk.

Musicians not only played the symphonia, but also experimented with its shape, size, and sound. A smaller version with keys that could be pushed with one hand pressing the tangents against the gut strings while turning the crank with the other made it practical for just one player. Over the centuries its popularity moved from cathedral to rural communities across Europe to the courts of Louis XIV and Louis XV and then back to the street musicians. During this time, music written for it by such composers as Mozart and Vivaldi added to its prestige.

The hurdy-gurdy is known by many names, depending on the country claiming it. It has ridden the waves of history, politics, and religion; sometimes the entertainment of the rich and powerful and at other times the instrument of street musicians, blind beggars, and street children. It has been a grand journey through the Middle Ages to the workbenches and festivals of today.

Like the hurdy-gurdy's journey down through history, my journey to the workbench in my shop began as young boy building and flying model airplanes. My first plane flew on the end of a fine wire. During my teen years and early adult life I spent many hours building model planes and flying them. This was my schooling regarding adhesives, woodworking, and stress points as I built, crashed, and repaired over 35 planes. Like the gurdies of the past, it was a progression of ideas, some good and some not so good.

Then, around 19, I held my first classical guitar and knew that this would be my next building project. Starting with the smallest part, I built the bridge from a piece of rosewood. I soon realized how much I still needed to learn. It was several years before I had a guitar ready to attach to the rosewood bridge. I have built many since then including both steel-string and classical models. Each one was the result of knowledge gained from building the ones before.

Trial and error and building on past experience is also the story of the hurdy-gurdy; musicians learning and tweaking the conception of some unknown musician hundreds of years ago. What began as a two-person instrument is today a lap-size guitar or lute-shaped instrument generating its musical notes by the turning of a small wooden wheel which serves much like a violin bow; thus its French name vielle o rue, which means "fiddle wheel".

The strings, anchored in the tailpiece near the crank, pass over the bridge or bridges on the face of the gurdy, lie against the wheel, and run toward the very short neck (if there is one) where they are wound onto the tuning pegs. The melody strings pass through the key box, while the others including the sympathetic, drone, and trompette strings run along the outside of the box. One of the distinctive features of the gurdy, the trompette bridge or "buzzing bridge" is possibly one of the most difficult parts of the gurdy to build right and certainly the most challenging to play, the chen or "dog" as it is also known gives a rhythmic buzzing sound to the tune and adds to its appeal as a source of music for folk dancing. Rhythm is generated by special techniques in turning the crank.

The challenge we face today is to build hurdy-gurdies that look and sound true to their heritage while incorporating modern technology making them more user friendly. For centuries, small wood flag-shaped tangents were used to change the string length and resulting note. The pressure of the strings wore them down making repair or replacement a part of the maintenance. In place of the wood tangents we use precision metal tangents with complete adjustability, resulting in precision tuning and key alignment options.

Today instead of wood wheels, many builders are offering cast synthetic wheels. Again there are gurdy players who only use wood and others who find the synthetic wheel a small compromise with tradition in view of its advantages. The synthetic wheel offers consistency in surface texture and stability while the wood wheel is subject to surface wear and may experience some distortion over time.

Another area of change is seen in choices of hurdy-gurdy strings. A combination of traditional gut strings and wound gut strings are preferred by most players, although some use music wire for the sympathetic strings, i.e., those that don't pass through the keybox. We have actually seen some players using weed whacker string.

The hurdy-gurdy needs a lot of TLC in terms of tuning, lubricating, and cottoning. Tuning is accomplished by adjusting the tuning pegs at the head of the instrument. Since the wheel and crank mechanism involves friction points, an occasional application of a lubricant prolongs the life and improves the quality of the hurgy-gurdy. The wheel edge, which rubs against the strings, must have a fine coat of resin like the violinist's bow creating just enough friction to set the strings in motion. Finally, the string at the point of contact must be carefully wrapped in fine cotton. Although cotton from cotton swabs or other sources has been used, there are many suppliers of fine English long-strand cotton that better meets the need for a smooth cotton wrap.

There are many more parts to this intriguing instrument than I had encountered in building guitars. It was a bit overwhelming and inspite of the several books and Internet articles I read, it seemed the best way to begin was the same way I had first learned to build RC airplanes- with a kit. I ordered what appeared to be the best one available, actually the only one at that time. I cleared my workbench, laid out the necessary tools and waited for the kit to arrive. I was surprised at the number of small parts and found the directions somewhat vague. In spite of its deficiencies or maybe because of them, it was a great teacher. Months later, sitting down to play it for the first time, I decided that the next one would be built from scratch, to the same standards as I had been building guitars for almost 30 years.

Today we are known as Hurdy Gurdy Crafters as well as Melannde Music. Many of the tools and lessons required for building quality hurdy-gurdies are already in place. Years of building guitars taught me much about the musical qualities of various woods, their strength, versatility, and application. Some woods seem to enjoy the time spent in the side bender I built several years ago to form guitar sides. Others are less compliant.

Experience taught me about glue joints and how to work with wood to maximize its potential and minimize its weaknesses. I go into the shop these days with a sense of anticipation knowing that three hurdy-gurdies lie on the bench waiting for the last bridge, tuning pegs, or string adjustments. Each one has a character of its own and each one has its own special challenges. Some days I hesitantly face a new challenge and sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night with the answer to a problem from the day before. At those times you will see the shop lights on at 2 or 3 in the morning and find me leaning over the bench or lathe or drawing board following my dream.

Our goal at Hurdy-Gurdy Crafters is to offer a sturdy and finely built hurdy-gurdy, a tribute to the generations before who have passed this historical instrument down to us. We presently offer both finished gurdies and parts for the musician-builder. In the near future we will offer a quality kit for those who, like me years ago, want to build their own but lack the experience and could use a little help. We are working on plans for several styles including a reproduction of some historical models. As interest in the hurdy-gurdy grows, so does the opportunity to pass along the heritage of this intriguing instrument.

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About the Authors

Mel Dorries and his wife Ann both enjoy working with wood and have realized their dream of crafting instruments in a woodshop attached to their old white farmhouse in Michigan. The beginnings of classical guitars hang from the shop walls and parts line the shelves, while several hurdy-gurdies lie patiently on the maple workbench awaiting the next phase of construction.

To learn more about Ann and Mel Dorries and their unique instruments, please see their websites at:

Melannde@yahoo.com or Hurdygurdycrafters.com

The Dorries may also be contacted via email at melannde@Yahoo.com or by traditional means:

HURDY GURDY CRAFTERS
4043 Snook Road
Metamora, MI 48455
Tel: (810) 797-5407