Jerry Hughes

“I had first seen the hurdy gurdy in a medieval festival in the late 80s. I thought it was the coolest thing I had ever seen, but I was in music school then and needed to stay focused on my education, so I forgot about it for a long time. But then a couple decades later I was writing a piece and I was missing this really specific drone sound. So I built this weird drone cello type of thing out of styrofoam and the roller of a carpet, but that still wasn’t the sound I was looking for. And then all of a sudden it just dawned on me that I needed a hurdy gurdy. And I realized that all these years I had been writing pieces for a hurdy gurdy without even knowing it. So I got the hurdy gurdy, and I got all these books about maintenance and technical things to learn how to play and take care of it. But it was funny because I had started out using the hurdy gurdy like I had all my other instruments, which was just to play part of a piece I had written. But then at a certain point I decided that I really wanted to master this thing. So about two years ago I told myself that I was going to commit to mastering the hurdy gurdy, and that meant practicing for hours every day. Sometimes I’m cranky, and sometimes the gurdy is cranky, but with practicing you just have to do it and confront yourself every day. It’s interesting because usually when I write music I write with a specific situation in mind, but with the hurdy gurdy it’s just pure music. I just finished recording an album of just solo hurdy gurdy pieces. I have no idea if anyone would have any interest in that at all, because it’s a pretty niche thing, but I figured I would just go for it. I’ve also been trying to get a little better about performing, and so I’d love to play a few solo hurdy gurdy performances with pieces I’ve written. What I worry about sometimes is that so few people know about a hurdy gurdy and so when I play it there is a sense that I’m representing the instrument, and if I play badly people will think it’s a bad instrument. I love the hurdy gurdy, and I want people to love it, and so I want to represent it well.” (December 2020)

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July 2024 Update from December 2020 Interview:

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“When I gave that interview in 2020, except for the wonderful luthier who made my instrument, Claire Dugue, I hadn’t met anyone else in the hurdy-gurdy community. Since then I have had the pleasure of meeting many hg folks, fellow players, teachers, even luminaries in the field, people who had inspired me to play. And it’s quite a remarkable community, so welcoming and friendly, generous, supportive, knowledgeable. This instrument seems to attract interesting people. One time while describing a workshop I was asked if I felt like Mr. Normal there, I said, no I felt like I had come home.”