The organistrum (the organ I strum) is a stringed musical instrument from the Middle Ages. It was commonly referred to as the “wheel fiddle” and was so large that it took two people to play it. One person turned the crank while another pressed keys that changed the pitch. It had a very limited range of notes, which suited it fine for accompanying the choral music of the church, where they referred to it as that “strummed organ.”
In the 13th century, the organistrum got smaller, lighter, and easy to carry around. As it evolved, people began to call it the hurdy-gurdy, which is easily confused with the barrel organ and other instruments of similar design played by organ grinders around the world. A source of confusion is that these and other terms are used interchangeably to describe an entire category of musical instruments.
A Closer Look at the Hurdy-Gurdy, Organ Grinders, and the Monkey
Try a real challenge, unlike the ones juveniles put on TikTok
Challenge yourself to imagine the music world as it was back in the dark ages. There were no phonographs, no radios, no iPods like mine, no iPhones, and no streaming. Hearing music in the outdoors was unheard of unless marching bands or strolling carolers happened to be passing by.
Organ grinders provided the only music and entertainment commoners saw and heard
Most people back then were too poor to afford to go to music halls or have musicians come and play in their homes.
Kids were particularly thrilled by the organ grinder and his hurdy-gurdy
Think of it as the same excitement that ran through the neighborhood when the Good Humor ice cream truck came around. Kids heard his bells jingling a block away and ran into the house for some coins. They rushed to the Good Humor man’s white truck and surrounded him, much like children must have done when the organ grinder appeared out of the blue.
The barrel organ
The barrel organ was a mechanical instrument using the same principle as a pipe organ. But where the pipe organist played that instrument by striking keys on a keyboard, the barrel organist played the notes by turning a crank. A few sources said mechanical organs played by turning a hand crank were invented to teach canaries how to sing. I would have thought other canaries would do the teaching.
The first barrel organs were big enough to require wheels to move them about
The more compact hurdy-gurdy was about the size of a violin and was played in the lap or resting on the knees, not with a bow tucked under the chin. The easy to carry and less-expensive hurdy-gurdy became such a favorite of traveling musicians that people knew it as a beggar’s instrument. That is, until trend-setter Louis XIV took it viral. It remained in favor until it became known that Marie, wife of Louis XVI and the court’s influencer du jour, didn’t like hurdy-gurdy music.
Hurdy-gurdy
Britannica says the hurdy-gurdy is “a squat, pear-shaped fiddle having strings that are sounded not by a bow but by the rosined rim of a wooden wheel turned by a handle at the instrument’s end.” Organology keeps it simple, “A mechanical violin with a wheel and a crank.” No matter your definition, it’s played to entertain and amuse passers-by in the hopes of picking up loose change.
The big drawback of hurdy-gurdies (hurdy-gurdys?) was that songs were not interchangeable
This meant that organ grinders played the same tune over and over, hour after hour, day after day, every song its own earworm. The smart organ grinders kept moving along to stay ahead of the complaints and avoid arrest as public nuisances. Charles Dickens told friends that “the most excruciating sounds imaginable” came from organ grinders in the streets below his window.
This boxy wooden crate-like instrument was carried around by a strap over the musician’s shoulder and supported by a single drop-down leg when played. The hurdy-gurdy became the instrument of choice for street performers, and was regarded as a peasant’s instrument.
How is a hurdy-gurdy like the bagpipes?
Hurdy-gurdys (hurdy-gurdies?) have what are called drone strings. These provide a continuous low-pitched buzzing sound. Some people liken the constant sound of the drone strings to the incessant honking sounds of Scottish bagpipes.
According to period newspaper accounts, New York City street musicians were usually Italian immigrants
Some wandered about the city playing what was known as a barrel organ or a street organ. It was a lot like a player piano, in that a paper cylinder with punches inserted into the box told the organ pipes what notes to play. The musician turned the crank on the side, which also operated a bellows that pumped air through the organ’s pipes. Street organs such as these started out as the musical accompaniment for puppet theaters in Italy. But eventually, Italian street musicians took them to other parts of Europe and from there to the United States.
The monkey was a great idea
Capuchin monkeys were chosen because they were easily trained, mostly well-behaved, and the rubes thought they were cute. The sights and sounds of a chattering monkey grabbed the attention of passersby who would stop to look and listen. Whether seated atop the hurdy-gurdy, perched on the musician’s shoulder, or doing tricks, the monkey was the show, not the music.
The monkey was always on a leash
To add to the show, the monkey was often dressed in what was considered to be a “cute little costume with a jacket” and what I think of as a “Call for Phillip Morris bellhop’s cap.” Onlookers were especially thrilled when the monkey tipped his little hat.
Many sources agree that these street performers chose monkeys because they had opposable thumbs. It makes instant sense if you want a helper to carry around a tin cup by the handle and scamper about picking up coins tossed on the ground.
The only place organ grinders didn’t use monkeys was in France
There, the organ grinders preferred to work with small dogs. Some say it was because dogs were more companionable. No word about thumbs or tin cups.
If you’re a big Inspector Clouseau fan, you know the scene where he asks a street musician if he and his monkey have a permit
“I am a musician and the monkey is a businessman,” said the man. ”He doesn’t tell me what to play, and I don’t tell him what to do with his money.”
I found lots of references to the phrase: “The organ grinder, not the monkey”
Most of them are wrong, especially on sites where poorly-formed opinions outnumber facts. Remember kids, a big part of being dumb is not knowing you are.
Look at it this way
The monkey may be the show, but it’s the organ grinder who’s in charge. The monkey is there only to do what it’s told and when. One should never mistake the lackey for the one in charge, no matter their claim to authority. Try to remember this the next time you’re talking to a monkey (a marketeer) and not the organ grinder (the boss).
Young Moderns are always stunned to learn how many different types of music were played on pop music radio stations in 1968
That year the Billboard Top 40 included more genres than you could shake a stick at. Anyone could turn on the radio and listen to songs by the Beatles, Otis Redding, Dolly Parton, Elvis Presley, James Brown, Simon & Garfunkel, Sly and the Family Stone, Stevie Wonder, Steppenwolf, Aretha Franklin, the Temptations, the Rolling Stones, the Monkees, and the Bee Gees – all in the same day. Need even more variety?
Also on the Top 40 in 1978 were the Doors, John Denver, the Commodores, K.C. and the Sunshine Band, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and the Bay City Rollers, which makes me think of Joanie Weston, star of the roller derby champion Bay Area Bombers.
Bonus
Hurdy-Gurdy Man was a hit for Scottish folk singer Donovan in 1968
Donovan was a part of the tripping era, when college kids and dropouts enjoyed experimenting with psychedelics. He was into transcendental meditation and studied in India with a Yogi not named Berra. He played around with a sitar-looking instrument carved out of a long-necked gourd while he wrote the song that brought him his 15 minutes. He never played a hurdy-gurdy.
Donovan said he wrote the song in India, “or maybe it was on the beach in Jamaica. I’m pretty sure it was Jamaica, where we had very good ganja that year and somebody gave me 110-proof rum.”
Hurdy-Gurdy Man went to #5 in the U.S. in spite of its numbing lyrics:
“Hurdy gurdy, hurdy gurdy, hurdy gurdy gurdy he sang, Hurdy gurdy, hurdy gurdy, hurdy gurdy gurdy he sang, Hurdy gurdy, hurdy gurdy, hurdy gurdy gurdy he sang.”
I knew about Donovan’s song, but it came as a complete surprise to me that Mozart and Vivaldi composed music for the hurdy-gurdy 150 years earlier
Classical composer Franz Schubert went even farther, writing an 1827 song titled The Hurdy-Gurdy Man. The first verse has the hurdy-gurdy man shivering in the snow as he plays with frozen fingers. Here’s the second:
“Though he’s old and broken, though his feet are bare, no one seems to notice, no one seems to care. Everyone ignores the <tip jar> at his feet, just another madman, standing in the street.”
Oh, one more thing. Did you notice the hurdy-gurdy in that panel of Hieronymus Bosch’s Garden of Earthly Delights, c. 480?
