I have a band that includes the Hurdy-gurdy. We are called Diabolis in
Musica. We also play bagpipes, shawms, violin, guitar and recorder - not
all at the same time. Our hg songs tend to be HG and rauschpfeife duets
with guitar and drum backing. The rauschpfeife - a noisy reed instrument is
in F and works well with my D/G gurdy. Thus, most stuff we play is in G
minor. My gurdy is pretty loud so the rausch. works pretty well volume
wise. Our repetoire is medieval and renaissance music (no surprise there)
but also some middle eastern stuff. Violin and gurdy also work well but
since I'm also the violin player in the band, we haven't really made this
work
----- Original Message -----
From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Sunday, January 13, 2008 5:03 PM
Subject: [HG] Playing with other musicians...
So those of us who play the Hurdy-Gurdy are few and far between. Probably
the farther you get from France, the harder it is to find another HG
player. From what I gather, the HG in France is often in ensembles with
the Cornemuse, accordion, perhaps the fiddle. With the exception of the
fiddle, these instruments can also be quite rare, or if the instrument
isn't rare, then knowledge of the tunes and playing style is.
How have those of you other lone HG players built ensembles given this
problem? What I'm particularly interested in is what specific instruments
and in what keys you found to be well suited to playing with the HG? I
was thinking the B-flat penny whistle would be good for accompanying the
HG on C-minor tunes (That way, you could find an Irish whistle player,
give them a B flat whistle and away you go). What key of diatonic
accordion would work best? Where would you suggest your guitar player
capo to best work with the HG?
Thanks in advance for your thoughts!
-Ian Clemons
Portland, Oregon
