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 ...

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, ...

It’s hard to say for sure, but something special happens when an old instrument meets contemporary creativity. These aren’t ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

In 1971, if you’d have told British guitar star Ritchie Blackmore that in 40 years he’d be playing Renaissance fair music on a hurdy-gurdy in castle courtyards throughout Europe he would never have ...