Hurdy-gurdy Hurdy-gurdy The hurdy-gurdy is a stringed instrument that produces sound by a hand crank-turned, rosined wheel rubbing against the strings. The wheel functions much like a violin bow, and single notes played on the instrument sound similar to those of a violin. Melodies are played on a keyboard that presses "tangents"—small wedges, typically made of wood—against one or more of the strings to change their pitch. Like most other acoustic stringed instruments, it has a sound board and hollow cavity to make the vibration of the strings audible. Most hurdy-gurdies have multiple drone strings, which give a constant pitch accompaniment
Symphonia in the Latin countries more especially, to the hurdy-gurdy. "Symphonia" is applied by Praetorius to an instrument which he classed with the clavichord, spinet, regal and virginals, but without giving any clue to its distinctive characteristics. Symphonia Symphonia (Greek ) is a much-discussed word, applied at different times to the bagpipe, the drum, the hurdy-gurdy, and finally a kind of clavichord. The sixth of the musical instruments enumerated in Book of Daniel, (verses 5, 10 and 15), translated "dulcimer" in the 17th-century King James Bible; in all probability it refers to the bagpipe. The symphonia, signifying drum, is mentioned in