The music of the Hurdy-Gurdy Band is rooted in that curiuos and fortunate moment, early in the 18th Century, when the folk music of France and England combined with the more refined art music (Baroque) of the day. The result was a flowering of melodic charm both natural and elegant.
This went far beyond the courtly musicians composing pieces based on rustic dances. The blurring of these two distinct musical worlds was the natural result of a changing world: one in which nobles and regular folk rubbed shoulders in their common search for entertainment and beauty in art.
The Hurdy-Gurdy Band is inspired by several different, but related, French traditions. These include the music of the Opéra Comique known as vaudevilles, arriettes, brunettes and chansons a boire. Like the melodies of the London Ballad Operas of those same years (1720s and 30s), this music represents the marriage of the traditional national folk tradition with the more refined and courtly Baroque.
The Hurdy-Gurdy was very much part of this synthesis as it makes the transition from being an instrument played by beggars and, especially in France, by shepherds and other pastoral folk, to an instrument beloved and played by the french nobility and emerging urban middle class.
Along with the small bagpipes known as la musette, the hurdy-gurdy becomes an indispensible instrument of this new style, called the Rococo or Gallant style. The bucolic picnics known as Fetes-Galants were not complete without these instruments.
The Gallant Style is characterized by melodies and harmonies that are pleasing and embody a spirit of artistic grace.
The composers of this repertoire are the "lost" composers of the French Baroque. These include Aubert, Corette, the brothers Chédeville, Buterne, the brothers Hotteterre, Lavigne, Dupuits, and Voyenne among others.
Mostly composed for the riotous fair and boulevard theaters as well as more intimate gatherings, these pieces are scored for Hurdy-Gurdies, musettes, violins, oboes and harpsichord.
This is music that is charming, lively and easily appreciated.
The great French philosopher Jean-Jacque Rousseau (right) saw in the Hurdy-Gurdy a nobility of spirit that resonated in harmony with his philosophy of the inate benign and devine nature of humanity.
The paintings of Watteau and Fragonard, among others, are the visual embodiment of this Esprit Gallant.
Listen to Les Marguerites from Philbert Delavigne's Suite of duos Les Fleurs.
Remarkably, the music scene in London at this time experienced a similar uniting of the rich tradition of ballads, country dances and celtic traditions with that of the salons and operas of London.
In this snapshot of London's popular entertainments, (Hogarth's Southwark Fair, 1733), we take special note of the Hurdy-Gurdy Man/Shadow Puppeteer in the the lower right of the tableau and seen more clearly in the detail below.
Listen to Crossing to Ireland, a traditional Scottish ballad melody.
John Gay composed The Beggars Opera using these and other ballad melodies and gave them new lyrics.
The hurdy-gurdy leads the way as the actress Betty Careless and her beau Captain Montague make their way home in A Covent Garden Morning Frolick.
Julien and Donald are Premiers Jouers du Duos at the 2006 Festival des Maitres Sonneurs, St. Chartier, France.
Performing with fellow stageaires at the Festival du Novis in the Larzac region of France, August 2006
