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
Hurdy Gurdy (film) Hurdy Gurdy (film) Hurdy Gurdy is a 1929 animated short film which is presented by Carl Laemmle and was produced by Walter Lantz, who he and his wife would go on to make Woody Woodpecker. The film, which is animated by R.C. Hamilton, Bill Nolan and Tom Palmer, features Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, who is substituted for the organ grinder's dancer, after the original one is comically swallowed up by Oswald's bubblegum. The title is another name for the instrument (that instrument being a barrel organ) which the street performer plays throughout the film, as the informal meaning of the