HN geek checking in to namedrop my own project (sorry it's not Rust + RISC-V!)...
Autumn Equinox are a three-piece of hurdy-gurdy (the "wheel fiddle"), nyckelharpa (the Swedish "keyed fiddle"), and upright bass. We play tunes from and inspired by Celtic and Eastern European traditions, and the hypnotic drone of the hurdy-gurdy is a common thread. We often play tunes by other hurdy-gurdy composers like Andrey Vinogradov and Nigel Eaton as well.
It appears to be a sort of polyphonic hurdy-gurdy: one tuned string per key, and depressing the key engages that string with the wheel-bow. The wheel appears powered by electricity, and the foot pedals appear to either control the pressure or speed of the wheel-bow.
In contrast, the hurdy-gurdy's (and nyckelharpa's) keys shorten its melody string to increase the pitch, like fretting a violin or guitar. The wheel is manually cranked, and the rhythm of the cranking is used to adjust tone and engage the buzzing of the trompette. The HG is monophonic in that you can't dynamically play chords, though you can engage multiple melody strings simultaneously (usually octaves or fifths).
For the folks down voting the parent post: Charles Babbage spent a considerable portion of his later life railing against street musicians. Street musicians, at the time, ran a sort of extortion scheme. They'd show up in the early morning hours outside your house and play loudly until you paid them to go away. So Babbage worked to try to pass legislation to ban street music (don't remember off the top of my head if he was successful).
And hurdy gurdies were a popular instrument for street musicians in Babbage's day.
The Nerdy Gurdy is a laser CNC and 3D-printed hurdy-gurdy kit (and now also nyckelharpa kit) sold by Jaap Brand. It's the least inexpensive real hurdy-gurdy you're likely to find, and better than many cheap hurdy-gurdies.
While the hurdy gurdy enthusiast are here, I'd like to share something I've been working on that has a lot of inspiration from hurdy gurdy droning... The Electroduochord. It has 2 strings, with a humbucker pickup for each string, and is played by controlling the speed of a rotary magnetic bow, that has an arrangement of magnets that manipulate the overtones of the vibrating strings. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28349487
and the latest version... https://www.flickr.com/photos/duchamp/52017939884/
34 comments
[ 2.7 ms ] story [ 88.3 ms ] thread“Guilhem Desq - Cicatrices”
Matthias Loibner - Mooreiche
The kind of coloration he teases out of the instrument is mindboggling
(Corsican) -> (English) -> (Latin)
Thanks Google translate for helping to expand on this awesome medievalXmodern theme
On its own, calling a piece like that “research” is quite endearing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqqAun9LukU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqHeOcItSkQ
Autumn Equinox are a three-piece of hurdy-gurdy (the "wheel fiddle"), nyckelharpa (the Swedish "keyed fiddle"), and upright bass. We play tunes from and inspired by Celtic and Eastern European traditions, and the hypnotic drone of the hurdy-gurdy is a common thread. We often play tunes by other hurdy-gurdy composers like Andrey Vinogradov and Nigel Eaton as well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ntNy6aNOfA
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgPXIBhQzGT3O_Y7fLVFb2w
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGOqIYo9cBE
It appears to be a sort of polyphonic hurdy-gurdy: one tuned string per key, and depressing the key engages that string with the wheel-bow. The wheel appears powered by electricity, and the foot pedals appear to either control the pressure or speed of the wheel-bow.
In contrast, the hurdy-gurdy's (and nyckelharpa's) keys shorten its melody string to increase the pitch, like fretting a violin or guitar. The wheel is manually cranked, and the rhythm of the cranking is used to adjust tone and engage the buzzing of the trompette. The HG is monophonic in that you can't dynamically play chords, though you can engage multiple melody strings simultaneously (usually octaves or fifths).
https://youtu.be/FBK7i7oChKk
Carbon-free energy source?
And hurdy gurdies were a popular instrument for street musicians in Babbage's day.
For those curious about something closer to the real thing, here's a laser-cut / 3D printed gurdy that actually works: https://www.nerdygurdy.nl/
And here's a MIDI one: https://midi.org/component/zoo/item/the-digi-gurdy-a-midi-hu...
And finally here's a really great hurdy gurdy player, see the rest of his videos for more super tunes and playing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8gohQvUuCs
https://www.youtube.com/c/Keijike/videos
Japanese player with lots of videos of himself and others playing Tekero (traditional Hungarian hurdy gurdy)
https://www.nerdygurdy.nl/product-category/hurdy-gurdy/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mI1X10VB6U
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DXQ0z9NCl8
The sound isn't for everyone, but I like how it's used in the show's opening credits:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFTcA4QLHw0
I became mildly obsessed with Hurdy Gurdy videos for a while. This was my gateway drug: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHmML7bu-iM
and something a bit less purist but still fun: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0DrXyzlHM8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqgA3nIGByg