New video: Ai Wo Mitsuketa Basho (愛を見つけた場所) by Oku Hanako and Akito Matsuda. I adapted the brass duet arrangement from Sound! Euphonium for hurdy gurdy, and played both parts on gurdy #10 before shipping it to its new owner.
Nobody’s likely to make an anime about hurdy gurdy players any time soon, so this will have to do for the moment.
who’s a good doggo then?
Possibly the most complicated thing I’ve ever designed. Now to order some boards and see if it works!
magnetic fields
hashtag #jimihellinga
More proof, were it needed, that Malbourg (AKA Malborough, Malbrook, “For He’s A Jolly Good Fellow”) was an 18th Century european mega-hit: here it is arranged as a duo in Corette’s hurdy gurdy method, where he claims to offer “les plus jolis airs connus”
Found this nice ISMLP category page while starting research for a new project, containing enough baroque French gurdy scores to keep anyone busy for a while imslp.org/wiki/Category:Scores_featuring_the_vielle
There’s all sorts of interesting stuff if you poke around a bit — for example, in Bordet’s Méthode raisonnée pour apprendre la musique there’s a summary of the hurdy gurdy which suggests that extended keyboards beyond the usual two-octaves-minus-high-F# existed, but were “extraordinaire, et peu usité:”
Cookin’ up a new gurdy preamp with even less noise than before. The secret ingredient? The pot itself! Turns out EM shielding is every bit as important as all those grumpy people on guitar forums spend their spare time telling each other.
Augmented Hurdy Gurdy Experiments
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPGKeMdRU5I
As I can’t currently commit to building a new series of gurdies due to my living situation, I’ve been keeping myself busy developing the MIDI system for my instruments, to develop new extended, augmented playing techniques.
This video is the first demonstration of some hybrid electronic-acoustic experiments using the prototype MIDI system installed on my hurdy gurdy.
0:22 Technique: Pitch-shifting Polyphony
Gurdy MIDI and Audio → Apogee ONE → Macbook running a puredata patch
Monophonic acoustic gurdy signal is pitch-shifted down in real time to play chords and harmonies. Chords and intervals on the keyboard can also be used to pitch-shift the trompette signal (0:55) or the drones. Inspired by an idea from Sébastien Tron.
1:18 Technique: Expressive MIDI Controller
Hurdy Gurdy MIDI → DIY Hybrid Poly Synth based off Mutable Instruments Ambika
The keyboard and wheel sensors send MIDI note, expression and polyphonic aftertouch messages to a polyphonic synthesizer. In this case a split keyboard effect is used to play two sounds.
1:36 Technique: Layered Acoustic and Electronic Sound
Hurdy Gurdy Acoustic audio, Gurdy MIDI → DIY Hybrid Poly Synth based off Mutable Instruments Ambika
1:36 The acoustic string plays a melody, the bottom half of the keyboard controls a synthesizer with a long release for subtle held chords
2:08 Using trompette technique can send MIDI messages, used here to play synthesized percussion on an Ambika voice assigned to MIDI channel 10, whilst the keyboard plays chords.
2:30 Acoustic trompette and melody string sound layered over subtle polyphonic synthesized chords
Playing, Instrument and Software: Barnaby Walters https://gurdy.is https://waterpigs.co.uk
Polyphonic Pitch-shifting idea: Sébastien Tron
Filming, editing: Adriana Borger
After missing the crowdfunding campaign, I was happy to finally be able to buy a copy of Tobie Miller’s excellent Bach solo hurdy gurdy CD at Chateau d’Ars last week. I couldn’t find any official album artwork on the web yet, so here is a quick scan of the cover, for anyone else who got a copy already.
I’ll be at the Mazurki Festival Tagowisko Instrumentów (Musical Instrument Exhibition) with my instruments on Saturday the 28th. It’s not on the English programme, but is on the Polish one so is definitely happening! Come and try out my gurdies, and see my (experimental) MIDI system and hybrid synth in action!
Hurdy Gurdy #7, finished and picked up by the customer!
3x chanters, 2x drones, 2x trompettes, 4x capos, 4x sympathetic strings, 3 channel active preamp system. Very happy with how this one came out — in fact I need to retro-fit some of the electronics changes onto my own instrument… No more 50Hz hum!
Video: OWLS WITH TENTACLES
A tune of mine from when I lived in Iceland a few years ago, recorded with Emilyn and John in Toronto, Canada on 2017-05-12.
Barnaby Walters: Hurdy Gurdy
Emilyn Stam: 5 String Fiddle
John David Williams: Accordion
Video: Trip to the Mill / Wicker Basket Schottishe
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGbZvzddnmk
Two lovely new tunes by John, played by Emilyn, John and myself in Toronto, Canada, 2017-05-12.
Barnaby Walters: Hurdy Gurdy
Emilyn Stam: 5 String Fiddle
John David Williams: Accordion
Video: The Poisonous Polonaise (Polonoise No. 19, Wittenberger Apothekenhandschrift, Deutschland)
More music from Emilyn, John and me!
This one is a beautiful polonaise found in the Wittenberger Apothekenhandschrift, a hand written dance manuscript found in the Giftschrank (poisonous substance cabinet) in an old pharmacy in Wittenberge, Germany.
Sheet music for this piece, and many other amazing northern German traditional music, can be found in volumes 1-3 of Neues aus Alten Büchern (new things from old books) published by Tramudea e.V., and also on tanzmusikarchiv.de and the TradTanzMusik youtube channel.
Recorded in Toronto, Canada on 2017-05-12
Barnaby Walters: Hurdy Gurdy https://gurdy.is
Emilyn Stam: 5 String Fiddle
John David Williams: Accordion