Skip to content ↓

DANTE FERRARA

On Monday, Dante Ferrara visited our school to show and tell us about Tudor musical instruments. I could not believe Henry VIII’s favourite musical instrument was the recorder and he had eight of them.  Wow!  Oh and before I forget, Henry VIII loved music and had over 400 instruments.  If you don’t like gruesome things look away now. Strings in Tudor times were different to our strings, so if you broke a string you would have to pass your instrument to the string maker. The string maker would go to the butchers and ask for some sheep intestines. He would take the strings back to his shop and clean them and put them on a rock to stretch them. Finally, he put weights each end and let them dry.  The thicker the string the lower the sound.

My favourite instrument is the hurdy gurdy.  It’s like a violin but much more complicated and it would take weeks to practice.    By Mia S-E

On Monday, Dante Ferrara visited our school to show and tell us about Tudor musical instruments. I could not believe Henry VIII’s favourite musical instrument was the recorder and he had eight of them.  Wow!  Oh and before I forget, Henry VIII loved music and had over 400 instruments.  If you don’t like gruesome things look away now. Strings in Tudor times were different to our strings, so if you broke a string you would have to pass your instrument to the string maker. The string maker would go to the butchers and ask for some sheep intestines. He would take the strings back to his shop and clean them and put them on a rock to stretch them. Finally, he put weights each end and let them dry.  The thicker the string the lower the sound.

My favourite instrument is the hurdy gurdy.  It’s like a violin but much more complicated and it would take weeks to practice.    By Mia S-E