Robert Mandel - Hungarian hurdy gurdy virtuoso

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Robert Mandel - YouTube

Hungarian hurdy gurdy virtuoso Robert Mándel, at Concordia University (Chicago) on February 8th, 1982. Robert talks about the hurdy gurdy, plays some tunes and then there are some closeups of the gurdy.

Quoted from one of his recordings:

'The hurdy-gurdy came to Eastern Europe at the beginning of the nineteenth century and was brought in by Western European travelling musicians, and by the middle of the 20th century it was no longer part of living folk music anywhere. The instrument had no repertoire of its own and bagpipe music, of a similar sound, was usually played on it. These days in Hungary one can bare by meet a hurdy-gurdy player or two of the older generation in the rural farmstead regions of Szentes, Csongrád, Kecskemeét."

Like many folk events, there wasn't enough light to make my early 1980s vintage camera very happy, hence the blurred / smeared video. You should see the un-processed original ;)

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thanks to Gurdypedia!
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A more recent video of Robert Mandel and the Mandel Quartet performing a number of French renaissance dances by Claude Gervaise (c.1550) on the hurdy-gurdy and other period instruments.

ROBERT MANDEL and the Mandel Quartet
French renaissance dances composed by the editor and arranger Claude Gervaise. Gervaise was an assistant to Pierre Attaingnant too, and also the editor on the title pages for several of Attaingnant's books of instrumental dances.

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thanks to Gurdypedia!

posted > The Hurdy Gurdy Weekly

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