I remember the first time I heard a Hurdy gurdy. My mum or older brothers would take me to the pictures back in the 60's. The queues were always really big and buskers would usually be there. Someone playing the fiddle or, if we were lucky, a one man band. One afternoon, though, there was a man playing a hurdy gurdy, (my mum told me). It was a strange sound to me and it felt as if I was in what I now know to be a time slip. It only lasted moments but it was very unsettling and then I started to enjoy the sounds. It really is a link to the past. What a marvellous instrument. Thank you for these videos and playing the hurdy gurdy!
There is a Hurdy-Gurdy part in the contemporary opera "Vireo" by Lisa Bielawa played by Randall Matamoros. In one scene he is playing in the back seat of an auto, with the singers in the front seat while the vehicle is flying through a snowstorm. It's an extraordinary work, made for TV and On-line, presented in 12 scenes. It was nominated in Los Angeles for an Emmy and won an ASCAP award in 2015. It can be seen on PBS SoCal KCET TV.
5:29 ... Thumbing his nose! immortalized!! 🤣🤣🤣🤣 8:20 .. great book!! Got mine in the late '80's... 11:09 ... yes, the Polar Express... Tom Hanks owns a hurdy gurdy, but why he had his animators have the hobo character playing the hg with his left hand reaching underneath the instrument to the keyboard had a number of us in the hg community scratching our heads...
@@nigeleaton1 Undoubtedly!! Iirc, the hg Hanks owns was made by Alden and Cali Hackman... or maybe that's just hearsay ... hg players hear a lot of stuff and then say it!!
Very nice Nigel and everbody - it reminds me I must get back into playing some more. I've not seen the stereo photograph at 5:50 before. It looks like a colourised 19th century picture?
