I used a $100.00 dollar awful hurdy gurdy as a drone with only 5 decent notes for an entire Season at the Minnesota Renaissance Festival in 1993. The instrument now is a Door Stop.
I sang through the repertoire of Trouver and Troubador songs with a one holed pipe and the hurdy gurdy. I memorized Ventedorn, Jafre Rudel, Vaqueyras as well as Brule, Berneville and other wonderful Medieval tunes. I sang as a countertenor with a gut string drone. I worked on my French. I created my own verses in French. I had fun, and was very musical. It was a good high with the hurdy gurdy. The one hole pipe and drone, bells on my foot thing, was fun. It was worth my time. The performance practice was intimate, and live and now in lives in my authentic mind and body. When I see people who have the $6000.00 Hurdy gurdies and that do not play them much or in public, I am proud to think back on how much mileage I got out of my $100.00 Hurdy gurdy I bought at Amherst Mass. Early Music workshop in 1987. That is what is also nice about some of the medieval tunes, that they consist of only 5 notes and are accessible and great melodies as well as great poems. And all you need is a good drone, a voice and authentic desire to crank away time. It’s the music that gives me a buzz. Also, we need the venues for creative process to exist in our culture. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "hurdygurdy" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/hurdygurdy The rules of posting, courtesy, and other list information may be found at http://hurdygurdy.com/mailinglist/index.htm. To reduce spam, posts from new subscribers are held pending approval by the webmaster.
