Series makes music

October 6, 2006

Throughout the fall at Georgia Southern University, a number of lectures, discussions, workshops and concerts are focusing on the seven Celtic nations and the larger topic of regionalism among those nations.

The Seven Nations Series continues on Monday, Oct. 23, and Tuesday, Oct. 24, when the hurdy-gurdy is explored. Of medieval origins, the hurdy-gurdy is commonly used in Breton folk music and has been undergoing a dynamic revival in the last 30 years. It is a stringed instrument in which the strings are rubbed by a rosined wheel rather than a bow. The player’s right hand turns the wheel while the left hand plays the tune on the keys in the keybox.

World-renowned French hurdy-gurdy masters Gilles Chabenat and Patrick Bouffard will lead three conversations and interactive demonstrations of their instrument and will follow with a concert. Chabenat plays an experimental electro-acoustic hurdy-gurdy, while Bouffard plays a 19th century one.

On Monday, Oct. 23, at 1 p.m. in the Carol A. Carter Recital Hall in the Foy Fine Arts Building, they will present ‘Introducing the Hurdy-Gurdy: Instrument & Repertoire.” In this session they will discuss the instrument and the range of music compatible with it. From 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. in the Carol A. Carter Recital Hall, they will present ‘Hurdy-Gurdy Music-Making: Fun & Experimentation with the Wheel Fiddle.”

On Tuesday, Oct. 24, from 9:30 a.m. to 10:45 a.m. they will present ‘Hurdy-Gurdy History: Middle Ages to Mozart to Led Zeppelin & Beyond” in the Carol A. Carter Recital Hall. In this session Chabenat and Bouffard will explore the long, varied history of the hurdy-gurdy.

The highlight of Chabenat and Bouffard’s visit will be a full concert in the Performing Arts Center at 7:30 p.m., Tuesday, Oct. 24.

Admission to all events is free and reservations are not required.

The events are sponsored by the Campus Life Enrichment Committee, College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences, the Betty Foy Sanders Department of Art, Department of Communication Arts, Department of Foreign Languages, Department of History, Department of Music, Department of Political Science, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Center for International Studies, Center for Irish Studies, Southern Coastal Humanities Consortium, John Humma Cinema Arts Program, European Union Certificate Program and the Religious Studies Program.

To learn more about the Seven Nations Series, go to http://class.georgiasouthern.edu/irish/celtic/.