Ned Simmons writes:


Manuel(Spencer Tracy), the Portugese sailor who befriends
Mickey Rooney plays one, the kind we're talking about here,
a couple times in the movie. It's a good movie, though I'm
not sure how Manuel was able to keep that hurdy-gurdy in
good tune on a Gloucester fishing schooner out on the Grand
Banks.g

Good question, easy answer: you never hear him play it. The sound is
dubbed in, and it's not even a hurdy-gurdy playing, it's an orchestra
sounding not even remotely like a HG. The most you hear from the
instrument itself is a heart-rending "thump" when Manuel puts it down a
bit too hard.

Sort of like the bagpipes, eh?

Almost exactly like bagpipes, but with a rhythmic buzzing.

I've only seen one in person once. Someone had several in
progress and a finished hurdy-gurdy at a folk craft show
here in Maine a few years ago. I found them fascinating.

We probably know the guy: Matt Szostak lives in Camden, and is one of the
few professional HG makers in the US. (The other ones all live in our
house.)

Alden
--
Alden F.M. Hackmann
Web: http://www.hurdygurdy.com/hg/hghome.html
"Beati illi qui in circulum circumeunt, fient enim magnae rotae."