Hurdy-gurdy twenty-three different forms, and there is still no standardized design today. The six-stringed French "vielle à roue" is the best known and most common sort. A number of regional forms developed, but outside France the instrument was considered a folk instrument and there were no schools of construction that could have determined a standard form. There are two primary body styles for contemporary instruments: guitar-bodied and lute-backed. Both forms are found in French-speaking areas, while guitar-bodied instruments are the general form elsewhere. The box form of the "simphonia" is also commonly found among players of early music and historical re-enactors.
Hurdy-gurdy In Eastern Ukraine, the repertoire includes unique historic epics known as "dumy" and folk dances. Lirnyky were categorised as beggars by the Russian authorities and fell under harsh repressive measures if they were caught performing in the streets of major cities until 1902, when the authorities were asked by ethnographers attending the 12th All-Russian Archaeological conference to stop persecuting them. The hurdy-gurdy is the instrument played by "Der Leiermann", the street musician portrayed in the last, melancholy song of Schubert's "Winterreise". It is also featured and played prominently in the film "Captains Courageous" (1937) as the instrument of the character