Sinfonias available?

[Happygittern]

I play several Medieval instruments and would like to acquire a small Sinfonia. I had a Kalachek (sp?), but found it too large for my needs. There is a much smaller instrument , measuring about 5 or 6 inches square with the crank protruding from that face. It was about 12 to 14 inches long. It has two drone strings and a chanter string, with keys for a major ninth on the under side. Can someone please suggest how I procede to find such an instrument? This Sinfonia was copied after iconography of the 13th or 14th century. There are several builders who make renaisance models that are much larger.
Thank you.
Happygittern

[fdoell]

Hi,

the word "sinfonia" is mostly used for a structure of music and for ensembles. Some instrument builders or their handicraft organisations use the name as well as a type name eg. for a violin of specific properties from one builder. At Google, an instrument called "sinfonia" was not found. So is it really the name of the instrument or could it be something different in meaning?

Perhaps you should try "medieval instruments" at Google and you will find a lot of webpages showing those instruments, players etc. Then you could get in contact with the website adminsitrators to ask for instrument builders who you could contact then (time-consuming, but a suggestion).

Greetings
Friedhelm

[DaveF]

Your description sounds a lot like the instrument often known in English as the hurdy-gurdy. There's a very good maker in my part of the world called Chris Allen - you'll find him at http://www.hurdygurdy.org/.

DF

[carlos]

Dave seems to be right about the English name of the instrument. In this page one reads:

The hurdy gurdy I play in concert is based on a medieval design from the 12th century, when it was often called a Sinfonia (from symphony) or a Rote (from "to rotate"). It was found in England and Europe. Later hurdy gurdys were developed with larger bodies that often resembled lutes or guitars.

You could try to contact Katy on that page to discover who produced the hurdy gurdy for her. There's a foto of the instrument on her site.

By the way, her association of the name with orchestral symphony seems wrong. Back in medieval times there wasn't yet the symphony as we know it today, so the instrument probably took its name straight from Greek roots, where it means "agreement or concord of sound".