Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun One of the large early forms of the medieval viol.
  • noun Same as hurdy-gurdy, 1.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun An old stringed instrument played upon with a wheel; a hurdy-gurdy.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun music A medieval stringed instrument similar to a violin.
  • noun music The hurdy-gurdy.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Old French viele, vielle.

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Examples

  • Among these were a diminutive harp, which was laid on the table while being played, the fiddle, also called vielle or viola (prototypes of our violin), the very ancient crwth, crowd or chrotta (an instrument having originally three, but later five strings, now obsolete), and the hurdy-gurdy.

    The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 10: Mass Music-Newman 1840-1916 1913

  • She told me the instrument was called the vielle, in fact -- our old English viol; a very ancient instrument, which is represented as being played by one of the minstrels sculptured on the east front of Launceston Parish

    In Troubadour-Land A Ramble in Provence and Languedoc 1879

  • Je suis une parente de 2 petite filles, et la plus vielle fille a commence la maternelle cet autumne!

    joyeux - French Word-A-Day 2008

  • Unrelated story: When I was a bride in Quebec, using my school French and learning the local patois, my brother in law coached me in the following exchange while we were all dancing at a vielle:

    se tromper - French Word-A-Day 2008

  • A few moments of faulty tuning and uneven articulation aside (not to be confused with the pungent harmonies and piquant effects written into this music), the ensemble's two instrumentalists -- medieval-harpist Constance Whiteside (the group's artistic director) and violinist Craig Resta, who played here on the arrestingly throaty precursor to the violin, the medieval vielle -- both did sterling and vividly atmospheric work.

    Armonia Nova's arresting concert of early music at St. Mark's, Capitol Hill 2010

  • The painting portrays Renaissance instruments with great accuracy: a tenor or alto shawm, a precursor of the English horn; a Gothic harp; a brass trumpet; a portative organ; a vielle, an early form of violin; a soprano or treble shawm, a distant forerunner of the oboe; a lute; three recorders; a dulcimer being struck by a light hammer; and a harp.

    Ave Regina Caelorum 2009

  • The painting portrays Renaissance instruments with great accuracy: a tenor or alto shawm, a precursor of the English horn; a Gothic harp; a brass trumpet; a portative organ; a vielle, an early form of violin; a soprano or treble shawm, a distant forerunner of the oboe; a lute; three recorders; a dulcimer being struck by a light hammer; and a harp.

    Archive 2009-06-01 2009

  • Unrelated story: When I was a bride in Quebec, using my school French and learning the local patois, my brother in law coached me in the following exchange while we were all dancing at a vielle:

    se tromper - French Word-A-Day 2008

  • Je suis une parente de 2 petite filles, et la plus vielle fille a commence la maternelle cet autumne!

    joyeux - French Word-A-Day 2008

  • Soprano Sarah Barnes, Tobie Miller (recorder/hurdy- gurdy), Emilie Brule (vielle) and Esteban La Rotta (lute/harp) will play examples of their specialty, the rarely heard virtuosic secular music of Medieval France.

    Medieval Music in Milwaukee 2007

Comments

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  • hurdy gurdy

    August 1, 2007

  • VL.

    April 3, 2009