Hurdy Gurdy: 'A cure for pandemic gloom' - The Times

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niněra (Czech). Guitar-shaped. Two forms: one has a standard drone-melody arrangement, while the other runs the drone strings between the melody strings in the keybox. Both diatonic and chromatic forms are found. The hurdy-gurdy is the instrument played by Der Leiermann, the street musician portrayed in the last, melancholy song of Schubert's Winterreise. It is also featured and played prominently in the film Captains Courageous (1937) as the instrument of the character Manuel, played by Spencer Tracy. Diggory's world is one in which there is little point in wallowing in ubiquitous tragedy and loss; Wilson allows for some melancholy and moments of, essentially, horror, but philosophical Diggory's fundamentally cheerful attitude easily leads the reader through what otherwise would surely be the overwhelmingly painful.

And the thing is much of this would have been vaguely tolerable if there had been any real self-analysis, or real reflection on his actions, or any evidence of growth. He's quite disappointed that, so far, opportunity has passed him by -- and with the plague bearing down on them, it doesn't look like he'll have much of a chance in what looks like it won't be much of a future ..... The drone strings produce steady sounds at fixed pitches. The melody string(s) (French chanterelle(s), Hungarian dallamhúr(ok)) are stopped with tangents attached to keys that change the vibration length of the string, much as a guitarist uses his or her fingers on the fretboard of a guitar. In the earliest hurdy-gurdies these keys were arranged to provide a Pythagorean temperament, but in later instruments the tunings have varied widely, with equal temperament most common because it allows easier blending with other instruments. However, because the tangents can be adjusted to tune individual notes, it is possible to tune hurdy-gurdies to almost any temperament as needed. Most contemporary hurdy-gurdies have 24 keys that cover a range of two chromatic octaves. Nomenclature [ edit ] Two Hungarian-style hurdy-gurdies ( tekerőlants) Hurdy-gurdy in Museu de la Música de Barcelona To achieve proper intonation and sound quality, each string of a hurdy-gurdy must be wrapped with cotton or similar fibers. The cotton on melody strings tends to be quite light, while drone strings have heavier cotton. Improper cottoning results in a raspy tone, especially at higher pitches. In addition, individual strings (in particular the melody strings) often have to have their height above the wheel surface adjusted by having small pieces of paper placed between the strings and the bridge, a process called shimming. Shimming and cottoning are connected processes since either one can affect the geometry of the instrument's strings.Izci, Aylin (2017-06-23). "Alles andere als altmodisch: die elektrische Drehleier"[All-other than old-fashioned: the electric hurdy-gurdy]. enemy.at (in German) . Retrieved 2018-12-08. Hurdy Gurdy bubbles with a convivial, earthy humour and Brother Diggory is an amusing antihero. The prose is highly evocative, full of flesh and blood (.....) This is an entertaining and atmospheric picaresque -- though in the midst of our own pandemic, Wilson's satire of misguided churchmen and unscientific plague doctors feels somewhat quaint: our own leaders appear far more monstrous. Still, it is often ingenious and frequently hilarious." - Christopher Shrimpton, The Guardian Oxford English Dictionaries online entry for hurdy-gurdy". oxforddictionaries.com. Archived from the original on August 10, 2012 . Retrieved 26 January 2016. Zanfona (Spain). Typically guitar-shaped body, with three melody strings, and two drone strings. Some older examples had a diatonic keyboard, and most modern models have a chromatic keyboard. Zanfonas are usually tuned to the key of C major, with the melody strings tuned in unison to G above the middle C on the piano. The drones are: the bordonciño in G (one octave below the melody strings) and the bordón in C (two octaves below middle C). Sometimes, two of the melody strings are in unison, and the remaining string is tuned an octave lower, in unison with the bordonciño (this string was sometimes known as the human voice, because it sounds as if someone is humming the melody an octave lower).

It's always hard to tell fiction from fact with Don -i'd like to believe that all stories are true. There was a time when Donovan was on the frontiers op pop music and was hip and happening. The cream of the crop so to speak. A time of magic, peace and love. available. Some people have good results with them, and some don't, somewhat dependent on the builder's expectations. One Hurdy Gurdy is a touching coming-of-age tale, joyful and extremely funny. It cleverly dissects medieval beliefs, while suggesting that perhaps we aren’t as wise in the modern day as we think we are.François Couperin (1668-1733) Les Fastes de la grande et ancienne Ménestrandise – Second Act ‘Bourdón / Les Viéleux et les grueux

Later, the organistrum was made smaller to let a single player both turn the crank and work the keys. The solo organistrum was known from Spain and France, but was largely replaced by an improved variant, known as a symphonia, in the 13th century, a small box-shaped version of the hurdy-gurdy with three strings and a diatonic keyboard. At about the same time, a new form of key pressed from beneath was developed. These keys were much more practical for faster music and easier to handle; eventually they completely replaced keys pulled up from above. Medieval depictions of the symphonia show both types of keys.In fact, readers will have long glommed onto why so many that Diggory encounters soon later find themselves suffering from the plague.

As he realizes, facing mortality, there seems to be something to be said for having experienced more in life; indeed, he concludes: "it must be better to sin and live to regret it, than never to sin at all". On the Hungarian tekerő the same control is achieved by using a wedge called the recsegőék (control wedge, or literally "buzzer wedge") that pushes the drone string downward. In traditional tekerő playing, the buzzing bridge is controlled entirely by the wrist of the player and has a very different sound and rhythmic possibilities from those available on French instruments.

Specifically, Diggory recounts bits from one of Odo's great works, The Great Unhappened: Being a Record of the Yet Undone, which describes -- in terms appropriate to the times -- inventions and technological advances from our times, an amusing -- particularly in how things are described -- glimpse of our present in the distant past.