Hurdy-gurdy for beginners

Caroline Phillips cranks out tunes on a seldom-heard folk instrument: the hurdy-gurdy, a.k.a. the wheel fiddle. A searching, Basque melody follows her fun lesson on its unique anatomy and 1,000-year history.

Now, since this is TEDGlobal,

who can tell me what this is called in French?

I see you're all up on the history of hurdy-gurdy --

"vielle à roue."

And in Spanish, "zanfona."

And in Italian, "ghironda," okay?

Hurdy-gurdy, or wheel fiddle.

So, these are the different kinds and shapes of the hurdy-gurdy.

The hurdy-gurdy is the only musical instrument

that uses a crank to turn a wheel

to rub strings, like the bow of a violin,

to produce music.

It has three different kinds of strings.

The first string is the drone string,

which plays a continuous sound like the bagpipe.

The second string is a melody string,

which is played with a wooden keyboard tuned like a piano.

And the third string is pretty innovative.

It's also the only instrument

that uses this kind of technique.

It activates what's called the buzzing bridge, or the dog.

When I turn the crank and I apply pressure,

it makes a sound like a barking dog.

So all of this is pretty innovative,

if you consider

that the hurdy-gurdy appeared about a thousand years ago

and it took two people to play it;

one to turn the crank,

and another person -- yes -- to play the melody

by physically pulling up large wooden pegs.

Luckily, all of this changed a couple of centuries later.

So, one person could actually play

and almost -- this is pretty heavy --

carry the hurdy-gurdy.

The hurdy-gurdy has been used, historically, through the centuries

in mostly dance music

because of the uniqueness of the melody

combined with the acoustic boombox here.

And today, the hurdy-gurdy is used in all sorts of music --

traditional folk music,

dance, contemporary

and world music --

in the U.K., in France, in Spain

and in Italy.

And this kind of hurdy-gurdy takes anywhere from three to five years [to order and receive it].

It's made by specialized luthiers,

also in Europe.

And it's very difficult to tune.

So without further ado, would you like to hear it?

(Audience: Yes.)

Caroline Phillips: I didn't hear you. Would you like to hear it? (Audience: Yes!)

CP: Okay.

There I go.

I'd like to sing in Basque,

which is the language spoken in the Basque Country where I live,

in the region in France and Spain.

(Music)

[Basque]

(Music)

Thank you.

(Applause)

This is a song that I wrote

based on traditional Basque rhythms.

And this is a song that has a kind of a Celtic feel.

(Music)

Thank you. Thank you.

(Applause)