Tabor (drum)
Tabor , also tabar ( old French ), is a group of historical double-headed cylinder drums of different sizes. In the European Middle Ages, the player usually played the tabor with the right hand together with a one-handed flute , whose three finger holes he operated with the left hand.
etymology
From the old French names tabor, tabour and tabar for “drum”, late Latin tabornum and Middle High German tambūr , the design differs from the old French word taborel for a frame drum . This resulted in new French tambour , Italian tamburo , Spanish tambor and the German loan word tambourine for the frame drum.
The word tabor is found for the first time in the old French heroic epic Rolandslied (line 852, line 3137), which was written around 1080, ie before the First Crusade (1096-1099). A presumed origin from the Persian kettle drum tabīr seems unlikely because of the chronological sequence. Therefore, the European spelling variants are derived from the general Arabic name for drums, tabl (طبل, DMG ṭabl , plural ṭubūl ). The Moors probably introduced the lute barbaṭ , the kettle drum naqqāra (Pl. Naqqārāt , Berber: nuqqāirāt ) and other musical instruments to the Iberian Peninsula from the 8th century , although the first indications of the use of these Arabic instruments in Europe came later Time available.
As an intermediate step from ṭabl to tambor , another Persian word, ṭunbūr (Pl. Ṭanābīr ), which otherwise denotes string instruments ( tanbur ), is said to have assumed the meaning of ṭabl and to have become the starting point for part of the European drum names. The other part found with the Arabic article in the spelling aṭ-ṭabl and the meaning “kettle drum” into Spanish as atabal , into Italian as ataballa , into Old French as attabal and up to the war drum ettebel of the North African Tuareg .
Design and distribution
Before the large kettle drums and the small kettle drum pairs (French nacaires , from naqqāra ), the cylindrical tabor was the most popular drum in the European Middle Ages. Their shapes ranged from small cylinder drums that were beaten on both sides and carried across the chest on a collar, to frame drums whose frame height was smaller than their diameter, to large drums that hung at an angle on the thigh and were beaten on one side on the upper skin . The membrane on the hit side was always provided with a snarling string made of gut, the lower membrane sometimes also had a snarling string.
From the 11th to the 16th century, the tabor is often depicted on paintings and stone reliefs. On Matthias Grünewald's painting The Mocking of Christ (c. 1503–1505) a small tab with string tension can be seen on the left edge of the picture , which is struck with a straight clapper while the player blows a long flute which he holds with his left hand. This combination was common at the time and is still part of jig and other folk dances in Great Britain ( whittle and dub , synonymous with pipe and tabor ) as well as in southern France ( galoubet et tambourin ), Spain ( fluviol e tamboril ) and Portugal.
Under the figure reliefs of the " Angel Choir " (1256–1280) of the Gothic cathedral in Lincoln there are angels seated on the walls of the triforium zone with banners, books and mainly with musical instruments: various harps, fiddle, guiterne, busine, double flute , lyre etc. a seated angel who beats a vertical frame drum next to his left thigh and blows the flute at the same time is the Angel with pipe and tabor . The tabor hangs on his left arm by a ribbon, it is a flat, double-headed drum with a zigzag cord tension and leather loops; a single snare string is visible. The mallet in his right hand consists of a sturdy cylindrical handle. The clearly separated head of the mallet is round and, as one can assume, covered with a soft material and wound into a spherical shape.
In addition to the rather small instruments of the angels, which live on in folk dance music, larger tabor were also depicted in military contexts. The church scholar Thoinot Arbeau described such a military drum in his Orchésographie from 1589. He called it la tambour; grand tambour . Length and diameter were each about 80 centimeters. The picture shows a drum with string covering in 14 lanes with knotted strings, it has neither pressure rings nor snare strings. He called the other cord drum described and illustrated tabourin à main . Their length was 60 centimeters with a diameter of 30 centimeters. Both membranes were equipped with a snare string. From this the stirrer drum used in marching music developed . The interplay of military drums and wind instruments is mentioned in the chronicle of the city of Basel for the year 1332. Swiss drummers were highly regarded in Europe at the time, which is why the English King Henry VII employed two Swiss Tabor players, according to a statement of his private expenses from 1492. The Basel drum is a marching musical instrument in this tradition.
Style of play
Since the 12th century, the flute-and-drum player has been the simplest form of a dance band. Playing both instruments at the same time requires that the drum rhythm produced with one hand must be correspondingly simple. It is best for the player to hit the snare string running over the membrane close to the edge and directly in order to achieve an even snarling sound. Regardless of the time signature, the first beat of the rhythmic pattern is emphasized. Many pieces of Renaissance music are set in 3/4 or 6/8 time and switch to the other rhythm several times for a short time while playing, occasionally the ensemble members hold both rhythms side by side.
In a similar way, in the Middle Ages and in the Renaissance, a musician played the tambourin de Béarn in addition to the one-handed flute instead of the tabor . This string instrument in the shape of a drone zither was and is in the folk music of the French Basque Country under the name ttun-ttun like the drum is struck with a stick. The Basques also play the tabor , called danbolin in Basque, together with a one-handed flute at parades and other popular festivals .
literature
- Anthony C. Baines, Hélène La Rue: Pipe and Tabor. In: Grove Music Online , 2001
- James Blades, Jeremy Montagu: Early Percussion Instruments. From the Middle Ages to the Baroque. Oxford University Press, London 1976, pp. 5f, 31-37
- Wim Bosmans: Eenhandsfluit en Trom in de Lage Landen. Alamire, Peer 1991 Walter
- Walter Salmen: On the spread of the one-handed flute and drum in the European Middle Ages , yearbook of the Austrian folk song work 6 (1957) 154–161.
- Dagmar Hoffmann-Axthelm: On the iconography and history of significance of the flute and drum in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance , in: BJbHM 7 (1983). Pp. 99-118
Web links
- Alice Little: The Whittle-and-Dub. Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford
Individual evidence
- ^ Curt Sachs : Real Lexicon of Musical Instruments. At the same time polyglossary for the entire instrument area. Julius Bard, Berlin 1913, p. 372
- ^ Raja Tazi: Arabisms in German: Lexical transfers from Arabic into German. Gruyter, Berlin 1998, pp. 143f, ISBN 978-3110147391
- ^ Blades, Montagu, 1976, pp. 5f
- ^ Blades, Montagu, 1976, pp. 31, 36
- ↑ Sabin Bikandi Belandia: Danbolin. In: Laurence Libin (Ed.): The Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments. Volume 2, Oxford University Press, Oxford / New York 2014, p. 12