When I First Looked At This Picture,

I thought some one had found and refurbish an old musical instrument,

but whilst the Wheelharp is based on an old design, the hurdygurdy the Wheelharp is in fact a new instrument being made by Antiquity Music, there are 2 basic models, models, the Radial Model (curved keyboard) and a Linear Model (flat keyboard), which are available in 3 respective ratings for each model,

5-octave range, G2 – G7 range, 61 strings
4-octave range, C3 – C7 range, 49 strings
3-octave range, G3 – G6 range, 37 strings


now to the harp, I mean heart of things, it has a keyboard controls 61 bowed strings, so one musician can sound like an orchestra- or at least the string section, when the player presses any key on the Wheelharp, the action moves the selected key’s respective string toward a rotating wheel with a rosined edge, thereby bowing the string, with the right pedal, the player controls the speed of a motor that turns the wheel, which varies the bowing speed of the wheel against the string and thus changes the dynamic effect, for instance, the wheel speed and the key depth can both be used to create swells and decrescendos, in the original hurdygurdy the rotating wheel was spun by hand,


listening to the sound in the demonstration video the sound is certainly different, but then how often do you hear the sound of the original instrument, the hurdygurdy? for a brief history of the hurdygurdy have a look here.