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<strong>FoMRHI</strong> Cor-. 1\ A RECGISTRUCTIOH OF THE "BOSCH" HURDY-GURDY Bryan Tolley Anyone who has seen the tryptych known as the "Garden of Earthly Delights" by Hieronymus Bosch will no doubt have noticed the Hell scene in the riè,ht band panel. One of the main foca! points of this painting is a group of gigantic musical instruments being used as implenents of torture. A nude figure ia attached by devila to the neck of a lute; another is helplessly entangled in the strings of a harp, while a third soul has been stuff ed down the beli of an emormous shawm. In the centre of the group stands a hurdy-gurdy slowly being turned by a naked figure and consuning a lady who is playing a triangle. It is perhaps interesting to note that the remaining instrumenta in the group consisting of trunpets, a tabor and what appears to be a flute were ali broardly classified by the Church in Bosch's time as being profane. Tnis follows through for the ahawm, lute and hurdy- gurdy but tre harp seems to be an anomaly, more at home in the hands of an angel and not an instrument of Hell. Could this apparent irregularity be synbolic of the Fallen Angel? With Bosch's almost photographic style of painting it is possible to see even the smallest details on the instruments. The hurdy-gurdy he has shown is simple and plain but has a rather beautiful shape enhanced by two flying buttresa type struts blending the curve of body into the cyllndrical pegbox. The tryptych waa painted around the year 1500 A.D. and at tais period in time the hurdy-gurdy had degenerated into an instrument associated with beg^ars,thus accounting for its plain appearance. Compare this with the elaborate and highly ornaxe hurdy-gurdiea of eighteenth century France. Due to the accuracy of Bosch's painting and the fact that the hurdy-gurdy appears in an almost perf-ct pian view, it was possible to copy the outline of the instrument and to sLaply scale it up. In my initial drawings I found that by using a string length of 38 cms (a typical playing length for the viola string) the instrument car.e out to be a confortable size and further more the ten sliding keys fell almoat into the correct positions for a diatonic scale of an octave and a fourth. Other basic specifications taken from the painting were that the instrument had five strings, two obviously chanterelles and possibly one a trompette drone indicated by a length -12-
of gut between a right hand drone string and the tailpiece. Also the colour of the instrument gives an idea of the wood that was used; in my reconstruction I have used mainly sycamore with the exception pf spruce for the soundboard and the back. THE SOUNDBOX The first stage in the design was to decide on a side view. This I chose as that being shown in Fig. 1, similar in style to the French folk instrument depicted by Baines using a tapered soundbox with a gently curved soundboard and back slightly overlapping the sides. 13- Fig. 1 General Viqr (Not to scale)
Page 1 and 2: •rf
Page 3 and 4: FELLOWSHIP of MAKERS and RESTORERS
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Page 13: list of members, 3rd suppl. p.3 p.7
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Page 19 and 20: Fig. 6 End of Tailpiece go somewher
Page 21 and 22: where they pass over the wheel, the
Page 23 and 24: FoMRHI Com. 32 BUSHIUO AS AH ALTK3H
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Page 29 and 30: The botanista and zoologista, when
Page 31 and 32: PRAETORIUS AND THE VIOLA BASTARDA D
Page 33 and 34: The styles of written music for the
Page 35 and 36: FoMRHI Com 38 PRAETORIUS AND ENGLIS
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Page 39 and 40: -ol v lr\rll Low. 23 ON THE STRING
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Page 43 and 44: BIBLIOGRAPHY 1. Milan, L. de El mae
Page 45 and 46: p0PTrVm ^utri. «f*. MUSEUMS, COMME
Page 47 and 48: Horniman wind instruments, p.2 p.76
Page 49 and 50: Horniman wind instruments, p.4 p.94
Page 51 and 52: Horniman wind instruments, p.6 p.lO
Page 53 and 54: The amount of information surviving

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