This symphony, commissioned by Ian Pittaway, is a result of his extensive research into medieval illustrations and carvings depicting symphonies. One peculiarity is that some of them are shown with the keyboard at the top, facing the player, not along the lower edge, where one would expect an organistrum or hurdy-gurdy keyboard to be. These depictions also show equal width keys extending right across, or almost right across, the top edge.

If just one symphony were depicted in this way, it could be dismissed as an artist's error, but roughly half of all depictions of symphonies show this top-mounted keyboard. We entered into lengthy discussions about whether this was possible, and if so, how such a thing would work.

Medieval illustrations and carvings of symphonies with top-mounted keyboards. Click on the image to enlarge.

In a hurdy-gurdy, the keys are simply rectangular strips of wood that slide up and down in holes, pressing the tangents onto the string to make the notes, and falling back by gravity. The keys get smaller as one ascends the scale, because the key tangents act as frets. It's a simple and time-tested principle, but it was clear that the internal mechanism on this symphony would need to be a good deal more complex.

Ieventually came up with a keyboard similar to a clavichord, with canted key levers that allow a regular row of keys of equal width to stop a string at the irregular positions demanded by a diatonic sequence of frets. I added return springs to the keys, because many of the illustrations show the instrument being played with the lid vertical. Gravity won't do the job in that orientation.

The intial, obvious idea was for the keys to lift tangents vertically onto the strings from below, exactly as a clavichord does. This didn't work. The tangent tended to reduce string pressure on the wheel, causing weak tone and squealing. I eventually invented heavily sloped tangents that touch the strings from the side. That cured the problem without resorting to more complex mechanisms.

What emerged was a versatile instrument, tuned as follows :

The instrument is more powerful, less contemplative than a "standard" symphony with its single chanteretlle. I named it the "Luttrell Symphony" because the Luttrell Psalter is a major source of the illustrations on which I based it.