A mechanical string instrument from the Middle Ages that can still evoke chills today... With a few turns on a hurdy-gurdy’s hand crank, a rosined wheel sweeps against the instrument’s three main ...

Ever heard of a hurdy-gurdy? You may know it by many other names – vielle a roue, zanfona, or organistrum – as there is a version of this medieval instrument in ...

The hurdy-gurdy is one of Europe's oldest musical instruments. A kind of mechanical violin, it uses keys and a crank, along with melody and drone strings. Some call it the medieval synthesizer, and a ...

Would you love to launch your own Middle Ages band but can’t find a lutist let alone a good hurdy gurdy player? First off, congratulations on knowing what a hurdy gurdy is (man). But second and more ...

Twenty-seven years ago, in search of a hurdy-gurdy master, Donald Heller wandered into a music shop in Budapest. There, he saw a beautiful maiden, an ancient-looking stringed instrument in her lap, ...

Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. The hurdy-gurdy is the duck-billed platypus of instruments. It has strings but you don’t pick or strum them. It ...