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 ...

MS reader Mike W. sent us the following video from This is Colossal of a dude playing the hurdy gurdy, an instrument with which you’re likely familiar only if you’re a regular Ren Faire attendee or a ...

It’s a throwback to vintage optical instruments, a decidedly fringe strain of music-making pioneered by Edwin Emil Welte’s Light-Tone Organ in 1936 and realized within the consumer market as the ...

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 ...

Stringed instruments bowed by a wheel cranked by hand have been around for centuries, and come in many shapes and sizes. Inspired by 16th century instruments, mechanical model maker UGears has created ...

The only difference was, bagpipes usually sound like a polyphonic assembly while this sound seems like a lone voice shrewdly culled from such an assembly, singled out, groomed up and presented to us ...

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 ...

Yes, there is a Hurdy-Gurdy Man. There’s also a Hurdy-Gurdy Woman. And a Hurdy-Gurdy Baby. “He’s the Hurdy-Gurdy Baby,” confirmed Donald Heller, looking over at his son Gaspar, 19 months, who seemed ...

Nearly a year after Mudhen Meat and Greens flew the coop, Hurdy Gurdy is preparing to open at the anchor location at the Dallas Farmers Market. If you’re familiar with the Scottish singer-songwriter ...