Oops, of course a daguerreotype is a photograph so probably was accurate
after all (red face).
That's a hurdy gurdy she's holding regardless of what she called it.
Colin Hill
----- Original Message -----
From: "Richard York" <[email protected]>
To: "NSP group" <[email protected]>
Sent: Sunday, October 31, 2010 6:13 PM
Subject: [NSP] Re: Cymbal
Hi Anthony,
Thanks for this suggestion, which does indeed seem logical.
The Hurdy gurdy net group were talking about early names for the gurdy
recently, and this is where Old Sarah came up.
Mayhew, who was an experienced journalist who interviewed hundreds of
street people, so ought to know what he talked about, called it a hurdy
gurdy. There's a Scots reference in the 16th C to "Cymphan", thought to be
from the older "symphony" and that's one explanation. She was fairly old
when she talked to him, and from the early repertoire she had she was
possibly taught by an Irish or Scots musician, so a misremembered
"Cymphan" type word may have become "Cymbal". But I certainly wouldn't go
to the stake on that!
The old lady also talked about having to keep the works covered so that
pennies punters threw didn't get in and damage them.
She spoke of having to learn tunes, and mastering them over a few weeks
at first, so it wasn't a barrel organ type hurdy gurdy; and the dulcimer
is lacking in interior works, so I'm fairly happy going with the gurdy as
we now know it - there are pictures of people playing them on London
streets.
Thanks all for tolerating this excursion outside the Land Of Smallpipe.
Best wishes,
Richard.
On 31/10/2010 16:38, Anthony Robb wrote:
On 31 Oct Richard York wrote lots including:
Henry Mayhew in the 1850's interviewed "Old Sarah" a blind
Londonstreet
hurdy gurdy player who was taught in the very early years of the
1800's
to play what she called the "cymbal".
Richard
Can't help with the tunes I'm afraid but it might be that the
instrument she calls the "cymbal" is in fact the cimbalom.
[1]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cimbalom.
Good luck with your quest.
Cheers
Anthony
--
References
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cimbalom
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