(Fr. tambour; Ger. Trommel; It. tamburo; Port., Sp. tambor). A Membranophone (or occasionally an Idiophone), usually with a resonating cavity, sounded by percussion (more rarely by friction or plucking). It has been made in many varieties and has been known in almost every age and culture.
JAMES BLADES/JANET K. PAGE (I, with EDMUND A. BOWLES (2(i)), ANTHONY KING, MERVYN McLEAN (2(ii)(c)), MARY RIEMER-WELLER (2(iv)), ROBERT ANDERSON (2(vi))), JAMES BLADES/JAMES HOLLAND (II)
Most drums are membranophones composed of a skin or skins (or plastic material) stretched over a frame or body-shell of wood, metal, earthenware or bone. (Certain instruments incorporating ‘drum’ in their names, notably Bronze drum, Slit-drum and plucked drum (see Variable tension chordophone) belong to other classification categories.) Drums are sounded in two ways: percussion, where they are struck with the bare hands or with beaters, or shaken as in the case of rattle drums in India and Tibet; and friction, where the membrane, or a stick or cord in contact with it, is rubbed or the drum is whirled on a cord. Most drums, however, are struck, and may be classified according to the shape of their body-shell as follows: kettledrums, where the body is bowl-shaped; tubular drums, subdivided into those with cylindrical, barrel-shaped, double-conical, hourglass-shaped, conical, spherical or goblet-shaped bodies (the term ‘cylindro-conical’ is used to indicate drums whose sides are parallel for most of their length but taper at one end); and frame drums (see figs.1, 2, 3, 4 and 5). Tubular drums may be further subdivided into those which have a single skin and are open-ended, a single skin and are closed, or a double skin. The membrane in each case may be glued, nailed, pegged, laced or lapped to the body of the drum, or attached by a combination of these methods. In kettledrums and tubular drums the body-shell acts as a resonator.
In many areas, in addition to their use as message drums and rhythm instruments, drums serve numerous sacred or ritual purposes and are credited with magical powers. The drum has been and still is indispensable in many parts of the world, and remains the most compelling and significant of all percussion instruments. In the most ancient civilizations the popularity of drums is established by numerous representations of the instrument in a variety of shapes and sizes in the art of Egypt, Assyria, India and Persia. Membrane drums in the form of the Tympanum, the tambourine and other frame drums were known to the Greeks and Romans, and cylindrical drums were known in South Asia by the 2nd or 1st century bce. Small kettledrums in pairs (hemispherical or egg-shaped) were being used in Spain by the Moors in the early 8th century.
Drum, §I, 2: Overview: Drums struck directly
A kettledrum has an egg-shaped or hemispherical body acting as a resonator (for comparative illustration of drum shapes see figs.4 and 5 below). The single skin is tensioned over the open end of the body by various means. Material for the body ranges from tortoise shells and kettle-shaped hollow tree-trunks to clay or metal bowls. Kettledrums are known in Europe, the Middle East, Central and South Asia, the Far East, East and West Africa and South America.
While the terms ‘kettledrums’ and ‘Timpani’ have been considered synonymous in Western music, the timpani – parabolic in shape and tuned to specific pitches, with the drumhead lapped over a hoop and tensioned with threaded screws or bolts – are only one form of kettledrum. Non-Western kettledrums have existed in a variety of shapes and sizes, including small ceramic instruments of central Asia (called diplipito in Georgia); the clay duggī of Uttar Pradesh; the shallow conical Araucanian Kultrún of Chile and Argentina; and the large metal drums of Pakistan (bher), Bihar (nagara) and Nepal (nagārā). Kettledrums, most often of wood and with laced or pegged heads, are widespread in Africa, where they have often served as emblems of power (see Tambari).
A ritual text of c650–300 bce on tablets found at Uruk (now in the British Museum) and dealing with priestly instructions for the preparation of a bull’s hide for use on a large drum may concern a covering for a bronze drum rather than a drumhead. However, the Chinese history Shiji (1st century bce) reports the use of kettledrums and trumpets by the Huns in the 3rd and 2nd centuries bce; and the wood-bodied rhoptron used by the Parthians to strike fear into the Roman army may have been a kettledrum-like instrument with snares.
Large kettledrums used in pairs had been an integral part of Mongolian, Turkish and Muslim instrumental ensembles long before the era of the Crusades (the late 11th century to the late 13th), when their use both terrified and fascinated the Christian forces, leading to their adoption by European ensembles. The Eastern ensembles consisted of some combination of trumpets, oboes, drums and cymbals; the kettledrums also served as a rallying point and their capture by the enemy was seen as a grievous loss (see Janissary music and Naqqāra). This type of drum and the method of thong tensioning were still used by various peoples of the Middle East at the end of the 20th century, and one such drum, the kabaro, had an important place in Ethiopian liturgical music, where it was used to emphasize the rhythm of the chanting (see Ethiopia, §II). Smaller Arab kettledrums were also exported to Europe, where they became known as Nakers; these drums, like the larger ones, were usually used as a pair. In India, a small thong-tensioned kettledrum constitutes the lower drum of the Tablā.
Drum, §I, 2: Overview: Drums struck directly
Drums in conical or cylindrical shape are found in most parts of the world (they were not traditional among the Inuit, nor in Australia, and there are few in China and Japan). They exist in a wide variety of types. The tall drum, a cylindrical, cylindo-conical or hourglass shaped drum usually made of wood, often of a hollowed out branch, and either single or double headed, is found in many parts of Africa. Such drums may be stood or leaned on the ground, set on built-in feet, laid horizontally on the ground, slung across the shoulder or balanced on the lap or the knees. Most are played with the hands. Shorter cylindrical drums are also common in South-east Asia: some forms of the gendang (used in ensembles in Malaysia and Indonesia) are double-headed drums in this shape (one or both heads played with a stick), and the kendang oncer is slung across the player’s shoulder and played while dancing (see fig.1d). The European tambourin (see Tambourin (ii)) also has this shape. Some cylindrical drums are closer in proportion to the Western tenor drum and side drum. These, often played with sticks and sometimes provided with snares, are found in Europe, throughout South-east Asia and in the Americas, and include the Ganga of West and North Africa and the Tabl of the Middle East. In Africa and also in South America cylindrical and especially conical drums are often played in sets of varying sizes and pitches: the conical atabaque of Brazil (single-headed) and the bata of Nigeria (double-headed) are played in sets of three, while the Afro-Cuban Bongos are joined in a pair. In larger sets the drums may be a variety of shapes: in the ingoma ensemble of Rwanda (played in sets of up to 25; see Ngoma) the drums vary from cylindrical to conical. Large, cylindrical drums with a narrow shell include the Lambeg drum of Northern Ireland and the Davul of the Middle East.
Drums distinguished by having a larger diameter at the middle than at the ends. The barrel drum has a curvilinear body while the double-conical drum has an angular profile (fig.4). Barrel drums are known in West and East Africa and in Latin America (see Conga drum), and they are among the characteristic drums of South-east and East Asia, where they exist in a variety of forms. Shallow barrel drums include the trống nhạc of Vietnam, used in the đai nhạc ensemble, and the Japanese shimedaiko. Deeper types include the bedhug, an instrument of the Javanese gamelan suspended and beaten with a mallet, the Afro-Cuban agbosí, the Japanese daibyōshi (in some traditions suspended from the shoulder and played while dancing) and ōdaiko (on which a large variety of effects is created through the use of many different drumsticks), the large Dhol (India) and duhl (Pakistan) and the smaller Dholak, the Korean yonggo and the tang gu of the Hán Chinese. Very large barrel drums, which may be mounted on a stand, are used in religious ritual; the double-headed Korean chin’go (about 155 cm in length, with heads 110 cm in diameter) is played at the half-yearly sacrifice to Confucius and other important ceremonies.
The best known double-conical drum (some types are barrel-shaped) is the Indian Mrdangam, a tuned, finger-played, double-headed wooden drum of asymmetrical shape used in hindustani and karnatak music. Drums of this type have sophisticated composite heads designed to allow the production of a large variety of tone colours. On the pakhāvaj (northern mrdangam), the two heads are of different thickness, the right thinner than the left. Over each is stretched a second skin, cut away to leave a circle of the lower skin exposed. A circle of permanent tuning paste (iron oxide in a glue of boiled rice) is applied to the centre of the right head; a pancake of dough is applied to the left head to tune it. The southern mrdangam is similar, but with split reeds inserted between the membranes of the right head to create a buzzing effect; it does not always have a dough patch.
Hourglass-shaped drums are found in a wide area stretching from about 40° north of the equator to 15° south, from Africa in the west to Japan and the Pacific islands in the east. They are perhaps the most distinctively shaped of all the tubular drums: the body of each instrument has a constricted waist and open cup ends (figs.4 and 5). The length of these drums varies from about 30 cm, as with the Yoruba kanango, to 90 cm or more in the case of the Korean Changgo, the largest of the family. The body may be made of wood, wood cased in metal, metal or earthenware. The drum may be single- or double-headed, and the skins may be glued, nailed, laced or lapped to the body. The kundu, a narrow, single-headed hourglass drum, is the characteristic membranophone of New Guinea and northern Island Melanesia.
The most complicated type is the hourglass pressure drum, also known as the variable tension drum. It is distinguished from the general family of hourglass-shaped drums by the lacing which attaches the skins to the body and at the same time controls the tension of the drumheads. It has two forms: a double-headed drum with hoops at either end and a continuous tensioning thong laced back and forth between the two skins at equal intervals around their circumference (see fig.2b); and a single-headed drum, similarly laced, with the tensioning thong threaded between the hoop and the skin at one end, and through holes drilled around the open cup of the body at the other. The hourglass pressure drum is a portative instrument; other hourglass-shaped drums may be portative or nonportative.
In Africa the hourglass pressure drum is characteristically hung from the left shoulder so that it lies in an almost horizontal position under the left arm (e.g. the Hausa Kalangu). The player is able to alter the skin tension, and thus the pitch of individual drumstrokes, by the pressure of an arm or hand on the central lengths of the tensioning thong. If only a single pitch is required, the drum may be tuned by tying a belt around the lengths of the tensioning thong at the instrument’s waist. It may be beaten by hand, with a stick, or by hand and stick: if a stick is used, it is often a hooked beater with a flattened head at right angles to the main shaft; if it is beaten by hand, a snare or a central ring of tuning-paste, or both, may be added to the skin.
The West African hourglass pressure drum is often used as a ‘talking’ drum, and has been inaccurately described as the principal talking drum in an area where almost every instrument, including rattles, can be made to ‘talk’. Its tonal flexibility and its range of about an octave have made it increasingly popular since its first appearance from the north in the late 16th century. In many areas its use has superseded that of older more traditional instruments which survive in some cases as rural curiosities. The hourglass pressure drum is used as a solo instrument, or in a variety of combinations with such instruments as cylindrical drums, frame drums, kettledrums, bells, castanets, rattles, bowed and plucked lutes and wind instruments.
Strokes on the pressure drum lead to notes either level in pitch or gliding. A level note results from striking the skin without subsequently altering arm or hand pressure on the tensioning thong, while a gliding note results from striking the skin and increasing or decreasing pressure on the tensioning thong to produce a rising or falling glissando, or both. These tonal capabilities have made the hourglass pressure drum an ideal ‘talking’ instrument for tonal languages in which syllables are not only placed on individual pitch levels, but may also rise or fall from these levels. The use of the drum in this way to perform a Yoruba oriki (traditional praise text) is shown in ex.1, in which high-tone syllables are marked with an acute accent, low-tone syllables with a grave; mid-tone syllables are unmarked.
A number of hourglass pressure drums are used in South and East Asia. The hudukkā [huruk, udukkai], a wide-headed hourglass pressure drum of India, appears in various forms, some provided with jingles. The idakka, a temple drum of Kerala, south-west India, has drumheads about twice the diameter of the openings; the heads are mounted on hoops which are laced together and tightened by a central cross lacing. It is provided with a snare. The idakka has a large range and is sometimes played melodically. In Japan, hourglass pressure drums include the kotsuzumi (‘small hourglass drum’) and the ōtsuzumi (‘large hourglass drum’), which have lacquered wooden bodies and heads about twice the diameter of the openings and lapped to iron rings. The kotsuzumi is held on the right shoulder with the left hand, which squeezes the tension rope around the middle, while the right hand strikes the drumhead. It is capable of great tonal variety and plays more than 200 named patterns. The ōtsuzumi is held on the left thigh and has somewhat less tonal variety.
Single-headed goblet-shaped drums with a membrane head that may be laced, pegged or glued; the body of the drum may be of wood, metal or pottery. They are of particular importance in the Islamic world and its vicinity but most of all in the Arab countries (see Darabukka). The Iranian tombak or zarb is a virtuoso solo instrument, played with a range of beating methods and sonorities; it exists in two forms: an instrument with a wooden body, a skin drumhead covering the larger end and the smaller end open has been used in classical and popular music; and a larger earthenware version is used to accompany athletic exercises in the zur-khāne (gymnasium).
Goblet drums are used in many parts of Africa, especially East Africa, as royal or ceremonial instruments. In West Africa, the atumpan, the principal talking drum of the Akan people of Ghana, is goblet shaped with an open foot. In South-east Asia goblet drums appear in Myanmar (the ò-zi, about 3 metres in length), Thailand (where the klong yāō is used in ceremonial processions and the larger klong ae in Buddhist temples) and elsewhere. The dadabuan and the děbakan are used in the Philippine kulintang ensemble.
Drum, §I, 2: Overview: Drums struck directly
Drums of spherical or near-spherical shape, made of clay, as in the enya dukan and dikki of Nigeria and the mātā of Rajasthan, North India, or of a calabash, as in the Nigerian batta. A membrane is stretched over a hole or slit in the top or side. Such drums are rare; they are found only in West Africa and North India.
Drum, §I, 2: Overview: Drums struck directly
Percussion instruments making use of the special sound-conducting qualities of water. There are two types: a vessel floated upside down in water and beaten with a spoon or a stick (an idiophone: see Water-drum); and a single-headed drum of the Amerindians of North America and the Chaco of Argentina and Paraguay, having as a distinctive feature a hollow body containing water (see fig.3b). The volume of water is adjusted for tuning purposes, and, among the Iroquois and Ojibwa, the head is made wet before use, usually by inverting the drum. The body may be of wood, or may be an earthen or iron pot, or a kettle (the Seminole drum was a kettle with a buckskin head, played with a padded wooden beater about 25 cm long). Wooden drums may have a bung-hole in the side so that the quantity of water can be changed without removing the head. A padded wooden stick is generally used as a beater, but the Iroquois use an unpadded stick for their small ka’nohko’wah drum, and the Chaco of Paraguay sometimes use a gourd or the hand.
Water-drums have been found in eastern North America among the Chickasaw, Creek (tamamápka), Delaware, Cherokee, Iroquois (ohgiwe ka’nohko’wah), Seminole, Shawnee (now in Oklahoma, but formerly in the north-east) and Yuchi (dīdané). Elsewhere in North America the water-drum has a scattered distribution: it is found in the western Great Lakes region among the Ojibwa (miti’gwakik); on the Plains among the Omaha (ne’xegaku) and, more recently, in ceremonies of the Native American Church (Peyote drum); and in the southwest among the Apache (’ísal dádestl’ooni) and the Navajo (‘ásaa’yilghaalí).
Drum, §I, 2: Overview: Drums struck directly
A ground drum is made up of a series of poles stuck in the ground with a membrane stretched across them; the membrane is struck with a stick. The instrument is known in southern Africa, where it is called ingqongqo by the Xhosa.
Drum, §I, 2: Overview: Drums struck directly
Drums with one or two heads stretched over a frame or hoop. They have been played throughout Asia and the Middle East, in many parts of Europe, in East Africa, and in North and South America. The many types vary in shape, size, and method of attaching the skins, which may be pegged, glued or tensioned with a network of cords. Some types are fitted with a handle, notably a group of ritual drums of Central and northern Asia and North America. Others, such as the Irish Bodhrán, the tppumin of the Flathead people, Montana, and the hets of Mongolia, are held by wires, sticks or cords across the open back. Larger frame drums are generally beaten with a stick, usually on the head itself (see fig.2d) but sometimes on the frame, as among certain Inuit groups. Small drums are usually hand-beaten, principally with the fingers or knuckles: this is particularly true of the single-headed frame drums of the Middle East (see Bendīr; Daff; and Tār). The larger Mazhar is also hand-beaten. The European Tambourine (introduced from the Middle East) and the kaÃjīrā of south India are among the many examples of frame drum to have jingling devices such as metal rings, discs or pellet bells. The Arab Riqq, a small circular frame drum with ten pairs of small cymbals grouped in two small slits, is a virtuoso instrument on which a variety of tone colours is produced by striking and shaking alternately and in combination.
The earliest frame drums may appear in the ritual animal dances depicted on wall paintings at Çatal Höyük in Anatolia (6th millennium bce), where two of the dancers may be holding a round instrument. In Mesopotamia they are well attested in terracotta female figurines from Ur in the neo-Sumerian period (c2150–1800 bce); dancers now used the drum rather than clappers in ritual performances, and it flourished in western Asia until the end of the ancient era. The Egyptian frame drum was either round, or rectangular with concave sides. Both shapes attained popularity in the New Kingdom (1567–1085 bce), the rectangular being much used at banquets and always played by women. Archaeological evidence and ethnographic parallels suggest that the tuppim (the Hebrew plural of tof) mentioned in Genesis xxxi.27 may have been round frame drums without jingles. The instrument appears in English translation as tabret or timbrel and corresponds to the modern Arabic daff (for variants of this term see Daff). The Tof, as also the duff, was frequently played by women, as in Miriam’s song of triumph. Double-headed frame drums containing rice grains are mentioned in early Chinese writings; they are still used in Asia and were known to North American Indian peoples. Other double-headed frame drums included ancient Greek tympanon (see Tympanum (i)), the Caja of Spain and South America and the rnga of Tibet. (For further illustration see Mesopotamia, fig.5.)
Drums struck indirectly by pendants, pellets or similar objects. Such drums are known in South, East and inner Asia. The damaru, an hourglass pressure drum of South Asia, has cords threaded with pellets of wood, lead, clay, etc. attached to the centre of each head; the drum is twirled to and fro so that the pellets strike the skin (see fig.3c; see also India, §III, 6(iii)). The thad-rnga of Tibet is a damaru made from two skullcaps. The Korean nogo consists of two barrel drums mounted at right angles, each pierced by a shaft through the body, to which knotted leather thongs are attached; it is played by twirling and shaking. The Japanese furitsuzumi is similar to the nogo.
(Fr. tambour à friction; Ger. Reibtrommel, Brummtopf; It. caccavella, puttiputi; Sp. tambor de fricción, zambomba). Membranophones sounded by friction, either direct or indirect. The membrane on direct friction drums is rubbed either by the hand, which may be wet or rosined, by a leather ‘plectrum’ or by a stick which passes back and forth through a hole in the membrane. The membrane on indirect friction drums is made to vibrate by friction on a cord or stick in contact with the drumhead.
If a stick is used, the membrane is vibrated by rubbing the stick with wet or rosined fingers, twirling it between the palms or pulling it to and fro. Pressure on the stick varies the pitch. In the indirect method, the stick either stands upright, pinned or tied to the centre of the unbroken membrane (fig.6a), or it extends (and is secured) through a hole in the membrane into the resonating chamber and is vibrated from below (fig.6b). In other types (e.g. the Brazilian Cuíca) both direct and indirect friction are used; the stick itself is rubbed and is also used to rub the membrane (fig.6c). If a cord is used it is either threaded through the membrane and knotted (as in fig.6d) or tied to a small peg or disc (fig.6e), or threaded through one hole and out of another (fig.6f). The cord may be made of horsehair and may be waxed, rosined or rubbed by wet or rosined fingers (see String drum). In some types of drum the cord is fastened round the neck of a stick (as in fig.6g); when the instrument is whirled around, friction between the stick and the cord makes the drumhead vibrate.
The friction drum in its various forms has been found in Africa, South Asia, Europe and South America. Because of the rather unearthly character of its sound, it is often associated with religion, ceremony and similar rites, especially in Africa. Its connection with specific occasions in European traditions dates from the 16th century onwards: a Flemish friction drum, the rommelpot (‘rumble-pot’; see Low Countries, §II, 3, fig.5) is particularly associated with Christmas, as was the Maltese rumbaba; in Italy the caccavella is connected with vintage time; the Spanish zambomba and the German Brummtopf (‘growling-pot’), now better known as Reibtrommel, are also connected with festive occasions. In the Western orchestra occasional use is made of a friction drum; the Brazilian cuíca has been used in Latin American dance bands and in the orchestra. See also Bombo (ii); Dhāk; Dhol; Double-headed drum; Drum-chime; Kendang; Ngoma; Rebana; Tablā; Kumi-daiko; Talking drum; Tamboril; Tambour; Tom-tom and Acoustics, §V.
In the standard Western orchestra, membrane drums are either of definite musical pitch (for the most important member of this category, see Timpani), or of indeterminate pitch (the bass, side and tenor drums; see §§1–3 below).
Drum, §II: II. Non-tunable Western drums
(Fr. grosse caisse; Ger. grosse Trommel; It. gran cassa, gran tamburo). The largest of the orchestral drums of indefinite pitch, consisting of a cylindrical shell of wood with two heads (hide or plastic) lapped onto hoops placed over the open ends of the shell and secured by counter-hoops. The heads are tensioned by means of threaded rods which lie across the shell. (Rope-tensioning is now almost exclusive to regimental drums; fig.7.) This screw-tensioning is arranged in two ways: single tension, in which each rod runs from hoop to hoop and the heads are drawn up together; and separate tension, in which each head is drawn up independently. The single-headed bass drum known as the gong drum, popular for over a century (particularly in England), has become comparatively rare. It has a narrow shell open on one side, the other side being closed with a screw-tensioned drumhead. Despite its admirable resonance, a single-headed bass drum fails in certain respects, for unless the diameter of the head is exceptionally large, the instrument tends to give off a definite note (as do all single-headed drums). There is also a slight lack of depth in the tone produced from a drumhead mounted on a narrow open cylinder compared with that produced when a deeper cylinder is enclosed with two drumheads. However, the single-headed bass drum is ideal for certain works and situations. The double-headed bass drum used by most British and North American symphony orchestras has a head diameter of 90–100 cm, though smaller ones may sometimes be used. In Europe, probably for historical reasons, bass drums with a smaller head diameter (around 81 cm) but much greater depth (about 66 cm) have been popular; at the end of the 20th century these were sometimes used in Britain. The latter type tends to sound like a very low tom-tom, a quality not always desirable.
In the orchestra the bass drum is normally supported on a stand or suspended in a frame with a swivel attachment so that the drum may be played at any angle the player desires (fig.8). The mallets are usually large and felt-headed, with sufficient weight to extract the full tone. The orchestral bass drum should have a calfskin head on the playing side; the opposite head should ideally also be of the same material. (But plastic heads are a great asset to the marching band, being unaffected by the vagaries of the weather.) The head is generally struck with a glancing blow midway between the centre and the rim; in a marching band it is struck in the centre, with an audible ‘crack’ that gives the beat to those marching behind.
The beater is usually held in the right hand, the left hand (in the case of a single-headed drum) controlling the length of the note where required. With a double-headed drum, the fingers of the right hand ‘still’ the vibrations, while the left hand controls the reverberation of the opposite head. In a succession of short notes, the drum is struck in the centre to minimize the sonority. A tremolo is produced (as is the roll on the timpani) by single beats from hand to hand. Less bulky beaters, such as those used on the timpani, are frequently used for the roll; other beaters to suit particular purposes include those with heads of hard felt or wood. Occasionally, a sustained note is effected by means of a double-headed beater (formerly called a tampon). Here, a rapid oscillating movement of the wrist of one hand brings both heads of the stick into contact with the drumhead. (This effect was called for by Dukas in L’apprenti sorcier, and by Stravinsky in The Firebird.) A roll is produced with a double-headed beater when one player combines cymbals with bass drum; this orchestral practice infuriated Berlioz, who considered the result an ignoble noise, fit only for bands at tea-gardens.
In the East, ancestors of the Middle Eastern davul, a large thong-braced, double-headed cylindrical drum, were known in South Asia by the 2nd or 1st century bce. The davul (or tabl turki), the ancestor of the bass drum, was first recorded in the eastern Mediterranean in the 14th century. In Europe, the drum described by Isidore of Seville (c600 ce) as symphonia, ‘a hollow wood, covered with skin on either end, that the musicians strike with sticks from both sides’ suggests a form of bass drum. An early 16th-century painting by Carpaccio (fig.9) shows a Turkish musician playing a drum almost exactly the same shape and size as the modern military bass drum; the instrument was known as the Turkish drum until the early 19th century. A large cylindrical drum supported on the player’s chest is seen on a mid-16th-century German engraving.
The bass drum remained a rarity in Europe until the 18th century when the imitation of the Turkish Janissary bands became fashionable in European military bands (see Janissary music and Band (i), §II, 2(i)) and, on appropriate occasions, in orchestral music. Early experiments are seen in Freschi’s opera Berenice vendicativa performed in 1680, and in an early 18th-century work by Gottfried Finger entitled Concerto alla turchesta. Among the Classical composers Gluck seems to have made the earliest use of the bass drum, in Le cadi dupé (1761). He was followed by Mozart in Die Entführung (1782), by Haydn in his ‘Military’ Symphony (1793–4) and by Beethoven in his Ninth Symphony (1822–4). The drum used in the orchestra until well into the 19th century could have been the narrow Turkish type with one or two heads, or a double-headed drum with a cylindrical shell of wood, longer from head to head than was its diameter which was approximately 50 cm. This instrument was known in England as the long drum. It was rope-tensioned in the manner of many medieval drums; the cord passed through holes in the counter-hoops and across the shell in ‘V’ formation, and was tightened by leather braces known as buffs or tug-ears. Since the time of Haydn and Mozart a long drum has frequently been illustrated as being struck in the oriental fashion, that is with a stick on one side, and a switch of twigs or a split-rod on the other side, or at times the switch striking the frame of the drum; this effect was indicated in the notation by the use of both up and down tails, the upward tails being for the switch. The long drum continued as an instrument of the military band and elsewhere throughout the 18th century and the early part of the 19th. It was eventually displaced by the ‘military’ bass drum, a rope-tensioned drum with a narrow shell. Screw-tensioning was applied to instruments of this type before 1850. Kastner in his Manuel général de musique militaire (1848) illustrated a grosse caisse – nouveau modèle with 15 tensioning rods.
In 1857 the British firm of Distin built the ‘world’s largest drum’, a single-headed drum with a diameter of about 240 cm. There are now larger drums, such as the ‘Disneyland Big Bass Drum’ built in the USA in 1961. This instrument has a diameter of around 370 cm. While instruments of this description are rarely seen on the concert platform, it has become customary to use the largest available bass drum in Verdi’s Requiem, and consequently a large orchestral drum is often referred to as a ‘Verdi gran cassa’.
The bass drum appears frequently in orchestral scores from Gluck onwards, in early instances as a timekeeper. Berlioz, Liszt (who is credited with having introduced the roll in Ce qu’on entend sur la montagne, 1848–9), Wagner, Verdi and Sibelius used the instrument extensively. Berlioz in his Grand traité d’instrumentation (1843) referred to the gloomy and menacing sound of the bass drum if the instrument be well made and of large size. In the ‘Tuba mirum’ of his Grande messe des morts (1837) he asked that the grosses caisses be struck with padded drumsticks alternately on each side (‘avec deux tampons’). Wagner made effective use of the roll on the bass drum, as did Sibelius. In the latter’s En saga (1892) the timpani are silent, and the bass drum (played with timpani sticks) figures constantly in the manner expected of the timpani. The writing for the bass drum in Vaughan Williams’s Sinfonia antartica (1949–52) and his arrangement of the ‘Old Hundredth’ is exemplary. Stravinsky’s use of it in the finale of The Rite of Spring remains one of the instrument’s finest moments. In the revision of this work Stravinsky wrote a passage where the bass drum is played at the edge with a wooden stick. Britten specified the side-drum stick in Peter Grimes (1944–5). In Madama Butterfly (1904), Puccini wrote ‘colla bacchetta di ferro’ (with an iron rod). In the ‘Dies irae’ of Verdi’s Requiem the gran cassa is to be ‘well tensioned so that the off-beat comes out dry and very loud’. Composers have used, and continue to use, the bass drum descriptively, as for example did Beethoven in Wellingtons Sieg, Tchaikovsky in the Overture ‘1812’, and Prokofiev in Lieutenant Kijé.
In musical notation the lowest space on the staff is normally allotted to the bass drum. The bass clef is generally used, though strictly speaking no clef is required for instruments of indeterminate pitch. In symphonic works a single line is frequently allotted. The roll has often been signified as in ex.2. Composers usually designate the bass drum with its full title, or abbreviate it ‘B D’. In Italian scores, for example those of Rossini and Verdi, the term gran cassa (or cassa) could signify bass drum and cymbals, the bass drum alone being signified cassa sola. The playing of cymbals and bass drum by a single player (one cymbal fixed to the top of the drum, the other in the player’s left hand and the drum mallet in the right), once used as an economy measure, fell out of use as the sound of both instruments was less than satisfactory. The effect, however, was exploited by Mahler in his First, Second and Third Symphonies and by Stravinsky in Petrushka.
The bass drum of the Drum kit is much smaller than the orchestral instrument, with a head diameter of about 50 cm (though larger sizes were popular in the 1930s). The heads are of plastic and the instrument, which serves as a time keeper, is played with a foot pedal.
Drum, §II: II. Non-tunable Western drums
(Fr. tambour militaire, caisse claire; Ger. kleine Trommel, Militärtrommel, Schnarrtrommel; It. tamburo militare, tamburo piccolo). The side drum is so called because the original military instrument was slung from the shoulder and worn at an angle at the player’s side, a position maintained in marching bands (fig.10); the term snare drum is now more generally used. The instrument consists of a cylindrical shell of wood or metal covered at each end with a head of calfskin or plastic. The heads are lapped to hoops and secured by counter-hoops. Tensioning (single or separate) is effected by means of threaded rods or (occasionally) by rope bracing. The depth of the shell varies according to the purpose of the instrument. In regimental and similar marching bands a drum with a shell 30 cm deep is usual. Side drums of various depths ranging from 10 to 40 cm are used in the orchestra. These instruments and side drums generally are 35 cm or occasionally 40 cm in diameter. The upper (playing) head is known as the ‘batter’ head, the lower head as the ‘snare’ head. Across the lower head are stretched ‘snares’: strings of gut, wire, wire-covered silk or nylon (fig.11). The snares, eight or more in number, give the drum its characteristic timbre: when the upper head is struck the resonance is communicated to the lower head which then vibrates against its snares. These vibrations are doubled by being communicated to the snares themselves, resulting in a crisp sound which seems to be an octave higher than that of an unsnared drum. The tension of the snares is vital to the sound of the drum. They must lie evenly on the vellum and be taut enough to produce a crisp and immediate response to the stroke on the batter head. They are adjusted by a screw mechanism in which is incorporated a snare release, making possible instant release of the snares to obtain such effects as ‘muffled’, ‘muted’ or ‘tom-tom’, and equally important, to obviate the distressing snare ‘buzz’ caused (with snares on) by sympathetic vibration. The correct tensioning of the heads and their quality is equally important to the tone of the drum. Opinions differ as to the respective qualities of the calf and plastic head – the latter a form of polyethylene terephthalate (see Timpani, §1). In most cases the batter head (of either material) is slightly thicker and, in the case of a separately tensioned drum, occasionally less taut than the snare head. The heads are tensioned almost ‘board hard’ and further tone control is effected by the use of an adjustable damper to control the resonance of the playing head.
For normal orchestral purposes the side drum is supported on a stand which is adjustable for height and rake. It is played with wooden drumsticks varying in weight and style according to the choice of the player. The sticks are tapered with the playing end (the tip) shaped as an acorn. Various woods are used including hickory, lance-wood and ebony. The side-drum sticks are held in two ways: the ‘matched’ grip and the ‘traditional’ grip (fig.12). In the traditional grip the right-hand stick is held between the tip of the thumb and the first joint of the index finger. The left-hand stick is held in the crutch of the thumb and index finger resting on the middle joint of the third finger. This grip is used when the drum is played at an angle, as on the march. In the matched grip (which is employed on the timpani and such mallet-played instruments as the xylophone) the sticks are held identically: like the right-hand stick in the traditional grip. It is used when the side drum is played in a horizontal position – a style favoured by jazz and rock drummers and certain symphonic players. In each grip the sticks are held at a point about 10 cm from the butt, the distance varying according to the weight and length of the stick which generally measures in the region of 36 cm.
The foundation of the art of side-drumming remains the ‘roll’, together with numerous fundamental beatings known to the drummer as the ‘rudiments’, e.g. the ‘paradiddle’, and such embellishments as the ‘flam’, ‘drag’ and ‘ruff’. The roll consists of reiterating beats, free of rhythmical stress and sufficiently close to prohibit analysis. The (so-called) ‘legitimate’ roll is produced by recurring double beats known as ‘Mammy-Daddy’. To perfect a close and even roll necessitates long and arduous practice of the double strokes commencing slowly and accelerating to a minimum of 32 beats in a bar of 4/4 at a speed of 120 crotchets to the minute. In contrast to the legitimate roll there is the ‘single-stroke’ roll – a product of 20th-century drumming. Here a tremolo is produced by a rapid succession of single beats. Mastery of either roll imparts a degree of versatility which facilitates performance of the rudiments and the side drum generally. The better-known rudiments include ‘stroke’ rolls of varying lengths (5–15), the ‘paradiddle’ (single-stroke, flam and drag), and ‘ratamacue’, and such ornaments as the flam, drag and ruff whose names, together with ‘paradiddle’ and ‘ratamacue’, are onomatopoeic, as indeed is ‘drum’ (ex.3).
The earliest known side drum is the small medieval tabor which is clearly represented in art of the early 13th century and the 14th as a rope-tensioned side drum with a snare or snares, beaten either with two sticks or, by players of the Pipe and tabor, with one. The medieval tabor had no definitive form; sometimes the diameter was greater than the depth and sometimes less. It was a double-headed drum with one or more snares on the struck head. In the majority of cases the heads were tensioned with cords going diagonally to and fro from one head to the other, with thongs to close the ‘V’ formation and add tension to the vellums (a system of bracing known to the ancient Egyptians). There is some pictorial evidence for the use of a flesh hoop, but generally speaking artists portrayed the rope threaded directly into the vellum (fig.13). Sheepskin or calfskin was normally used for the heads of the tabor, but there is evidence of occasional use of other skins, such as pig or goat. During the 15th century the tabor appeared in a larger form, adopted with other customs by the armies of western Europe (particularly by the Swiss mercenary regiments) from their oriental foes. The association of drum and fife is recorded in the Chronicles of the City of Basle for 1332. The instrumentalists, who were incorporated in a guild, ranked as high officials and were an essential feature at all public festivals (fig.14). In England an early notice of the large tabor is contained in an entry in the Privy Purse expenses of Henry VII who in 1492 gave to ‘2 Sweches grete taborers’ the sum of £2. The small tabor continued its function as a folkdance instrument, particularly as a companion of the pipe (known in England as ‘whittle and dub’). The larger drum developed into an important military instrument. In England in the 16th century the name tabor or tabrett was displaced by ‘drome’, ‘dromme’, ‘drume’, etc. An ensemble providing dinner music for Queen Elizabeth I is said to have included side drums, kettledrums, trumpets, cornetts and fifes. Entries in the royal Privy Purse expenses show that Elizabeth paid her three ‘Drumsleds’ £18 5s. each yearly. (‘Drumsled’ or ‘drumslade’ is Old English, derived from the Dutch or Low German word meaning drumbeat, hence ‘dromslades’ are drum-beaters.) Like the tabor, the size of the side drum varied considerably. Arbeau in his Orchésographie (1588) described and illustrated a French side drum measuring (he said) two-and-a-half pieds in diameter and depth, closed at each end with parchment skins (secured by two hoops) bound with cords to keep them taut and played with two sticks. Unlike the tabor the side drum was invariably played with two sticks, and by the 16th century the snare was below the lower head (as on modern instruments), instead of above the upper head as on the tabor. Praetorius in his Theatrum instrumentorum (1620) illustrated a side drum 59 cm in diameter and depth (fig.15). This instrument had a single snare on the lower head.
Little music was written for the drum during the Middle Ages. Such drum music as still exists is military, and consists mainly of instructions for the instrument’s use in signalling and pace-making, little being said regarding its technique. Arbeau’s Orchésographie is the earliest important source of information. Arbeau set down certain rhythms presumably used by the French drummers of his period. He listed the sounds he gave to the various units in his tabulations as follows: minim, one tap of the stick – tan; two crotchets, two taps of the stick – tere; four quavers, four taps of the stick – fre. Mersenne in his Harmonie universelle (1636–7) spoke of the round beat (baton rompu); single beating (baton rond); single and double beatings (baton meslé); and of players who beat the drum at such a speed that it was impossible to follow each beat.
In addition to its use as a military instrument the side drum served a purpose in naval routine. On board ship (until 1865) it was concerned with action-calls, burial at sea, flogging and ‘walking the plank’. Shortly before his death (1596), Drake is reputed to have told his soldiers to hang his drum at Plymouth so that it could be beaten in time of danger to recall him; this side drum survives at Buckland Abbey, Devon, and is the subject of Henry Newbolt’s famous poem: ‘… an’ drum them up the Channel as we drummed them long ago’ (1897).
Francis Markham in his Five Decades of Epistles of Warre (1622) referred to the duties of military drummers in sounding the discharge or breaking up of the Watch. Randle Holme in his Academy of Armoury (before 1688) referred to such rudimentary drum beatings as ‘flam’, ‘dragge’, ‘roofe’, ‘diddle’ and the ‘rowle’. An Italian book, Il torneo, written in 1621 by Bonaventura Pistofilo, may be the earliest work in which military music is notated. The oldest surviving English document dealing with drum music and instructions to drummers is a warrant (c1632) of Charles I directing the revival of an old English march (ex.4). The warrant concludes ‘It pleased our late deare brother prince Henry [d 1612] to revive and rectifie the same ordayning an establishment of one certaine measure, which was beaten in his presence at Greenwich, anno 1610’.
The side drum continued to occupy a place of honour in the regiment in peace and war. Emblazoned on its shell were the regiment’s crest and battle honours. Throughout the 18th century and onwards it continued to be a constant companion of the fife, as important a combination to the foot regiment as the trumpets and kettledrums to the cavalry. During the 18th and 19th centuries, various manuals concerning drum routines were issued in Europe and the USA. Military drumming at this time was taught by rote and, in addition to the numerous rudiments, the drummer was obliged to commit to memory a great number of calls – solo, or as an accompaniment to the fife. Until superseded by the bugle, the drum conveyed the word of command to the troops. As with the earlier drum beatings of Arbeau, these signals were immediately recognizable (ex.5). In addition to its function in military circles, the side drum had numerous civil duties, some of which are maintained, for example the ‘town drum’ replacing the town crier’s handbell.
By the mid-19th century the side drum had changed structurally. Its diameter (and in some cases its depth) had been reduced, and in many cases the shell was now of brass. From 1837 onwards, due (it is generally conceded) to the inventive genius of the English maker Cornelius Ward, a method of applying tension by using screws was employed. By this time, composers, notably Rossini, were making increasing use of the side drum, which had already been used in a few 18th-century orchestral scores. Marais appears to have been the first composer to have used a form of side drum in the orchestra – in Alcyone (1706) he specified a tambourin (see Tambourin (ii)). Handel gave instructions for the use of side drums in the Menuet and Réjouissance of his Music for the Royal Fireworks (1749). Gluck specified ‘tambour’ in Iphigénie en Tauride (1779). In Wellingtons Sieg (1813) Beethoven used side drums with individual calls to represent the opposing armies. Rossini elevated the side drum to solo rank in the well-known introductory rolls in La gazza ladra (1817). This could perhaps have earned him his nickname of ‘Tamburossini’. Berlioz (not surprisingly) emphasized that several side drums played together are preferable to one alone. His ‘dream’ ensemble of 467 instruments (53 percussionists) included six tambours. In the Marche funèbre pour la dernière scène d’Hamlet (orchestrated 1844), Berlioz requested six tambour-voilés ou sans timbre (covered or unsnared). The side drum is prominent in the works of Rimsky-Korsakov, Elgar, Ravel, Nielsen, Shostakovich, Britten and Sessions. Ravel’s novel employment of the instrument in his Bolero (a two-bar phrase played 169 times) is well known, as is Nielsen’s use of the side drum in his Clarinet Concerto (1928), and in his Fifth Symphony (1921–2), in which the player improvises.
20th-century composers took full advantage of the rhythmic resources and the numerous tone-colours possible from the side drum, and it is no longer an instrument mainly concerned with the demarcation of rhythm, punctuation, or with strong characterization. The use of the side drum with snares released is common, as is the striking of the rim, and the use of wire brushes and sticks of various types. The ‘rim shot’ (in which the rim and head are struck simultaneously with one stick, or alternatively one stick, laid with its tip on the skin and the shaft on the rim, is struck with the other) is employed by Milhaud (La création du monde, 1923), Malcolm Arnold (Beckus the Dandipratt, 1943), Copland (Third Symphony, 1944–6), and Elliott Carter (Variations for Orchestra, 1954–5). Bartók made great use of the side drum, snared and unsnared, and also the contrasting tones from the edge and centre of the drumhead, in, for example, his Cantata profana (1930), the First Piano Concerto (1926) and his Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion (1937). Wire brushes (as used in jazz) were requested by Walton in the original version of Façade (1921–2). Challenging sequences for the side drum occur in many 20th-century compositions, for example Ives’s Three Places in New England (first perf. 10 Jan 1931), Berio’s Tempi concertati (1958–9) and Carter’s Concerto for Orchestra (1968–9). Literature for the modern percussion ensemble includes works for a ‘solo’ side drum. Rolf Liebermann’s Geigy Festival Concerto (1958) is a full-scale concerto for the side drum, embracing the individual technique of the Basle side drum. In orchestral music the part for the side drum may be written on a single line or (normally) the third space in the staff.
Drum, §II: II. Non-tunable Western drums
(Fr. caisse roulante, caisse sourde; Ger. Rührtrommel, Rolltrommel, Wirbeltrommel; It. cassa rullante). A cylindrical drum with a head about 40 cm in diameter (somewhat larger than the side drum) and a depth of 40–50 cm. In Britain the tenor drum is without snares, but equivalent instruments in other European countries may be snared or unsnared (e.g. the German Rührtrommel). Tonally the tenor drum is midway between the bass drum and unsnared side drum. The subdued tone of the tenor drum in comparison to that of the snared side drum has been likened to the contrasting voices of the sergeant-major and the chaplain. In appearance it resembles a large side drum and is similarly constructed with a shell of wood or occasionally metal. Originally a rope-braced drum, the tenor drum is now frequently rod-tensioned (fig.16). It is played with hard or soft sticks according to the required purpose. In the marching band it is slung from the belt or shoulder and supported on the left leg like the regimental side drum. In the orchestra it rests on a similar stand to that used for the side drum.
Technically, strokes on the tenor drum are less involved than those employed on the side drum, but they demand the utmost dexterity. In the drum corps (ensemble of drums, bugles and flutes) in which the tenor drum is an essential instrument, the performing of elaborate patterns is combined with stick flourishes, providing visual spectacles equal to that of the bass drummer. In the drum corps the tenor drum is normally played with felt-headed sticks (usually secured to the wrist). The sticks are held identically (like the right-hand side-drum stick) and the single-stroke roll employed. In the orchestra, the tenor drum is played with soft-headed sticks or side-drum sticks; side-drum technique is used.
Though
in principle one of the most ancient and universal of all drums, the true tenor
drum as known in military circles made a comparatively late appearance. In
England, France and Germany, it first appeared in the military band during the
early 19th century. Kastner illustrated rope-tensioned and rod-tensioned tenor
drums in his Manuel général de musique militaire (1848). Berlioz (who
contended that the instrument Gluck specified in Iphigénie en Tauride
was a tenor drum, or caisse roulante) scored for a tenor drum, tuned to
B
, in the Grande
messe des morts. Wagner wrote for tenor drum (Rührtrommel) in Rienzi,
Lohengrin, Die Walküre and Parsifal. Strauss used it in Ein
Heldenleben, and Elgar in his third Pomp and Circumstance march.
Other composers to write for the tenor drum include Stravinsky, Honegger,
Milhaud, Copland and Britten.
In musical notation a single line or a space in the staff (most often the second from the bottom) is allotted to the tenor drum.
The following drums, also used in Western music, are entered in this dictionary: Bongos; Boobams; Conga drum; Cuíca; Roto-toms; String drum; Tambour; Tambourine; Timbales; Timpani; Tom-tom; see also Drum kit; Electronic percussion; and Percussion.
BeckEP; BladesPI; SachsH
S. Potter: The Art of Beating the Drum (London, 1815)
J.A. Kappey: Military Music (London, 1894)
H. Balfour: ‘The Friction-Drum’, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, xxxvii (1907), 67–92
H.G. Farmer: Military Music and its Story (London, 1912)
J. Baggers: ‘Les timbales, les tambours et les instruments à percussion’, EMDC, II/iii (1927), 1684
P.R. Kirby: The Kettle-drums (Oxford, 1930)
E. Elsenaar: De geschiedenis van slaginstrumente (Hilversum, 1956)
H. Kuniz: Die Instrumentation, x: Schlaginstrumenten (Leipzig,1960)
E.B. Gangware: The History and Use of Percussion Instruments in Orchestration (diss., Northwestern U., Evanston, IL, 1962)
W. Kotoński: Instrumenty perkusyjne we wspólczesnej (Kraków,1963, 2/1981; Eng. trans., 1968)
M. Abrams: Modern Techniques for the Progressive Drummer (London, 1966)
H. Nixdorff: Zur Typologie und Geschichte der Rahmentrommeln: kritische Betrachtung zur traditionellen Instrumententerminologie (Berlin,1971)
L. Picken: Folk Musical Instruments of Turkey (London, 1975)
J. Montagu: ‘Early Percussion Techniques’, EMc, ii (1974), 20–24
J. Blades and J.P.S. Montagu: Early Percussion Instruments: from the Middle Ages to the Baroque (London, 1976)
S.G. Sandman: ‘Indications of Snare-Drum Technique in Philidor Collection MS.1163’, GSJ, xxx (1977), 70–75
J. Howard: Drums: from the Tropics to the Arctic Circle (Los Angeles, 1982)
T.D. Brown: ‘The Bass Drum Pedal: in the Beginning’, Percussive Notes, xxi/2 (1982–3), 28–32
D. Stockmann: ‘On the Early History of Drums and Drumming in Europe and the Mediterranean’, ICTM Study Group on Music Archaeology: Conference II: Stockholm 1984, 11–28
D. Stockmann: ‘Der Trommler von Catal Hüyük: zur Frühgeschichte der Perkussionsinstrumente und ihre Spielweise’, BMw, xxvii (1985), 138–60
Zupf- und Schlaginstrumente des 17. und 18. Jahrhunderts: Blankenburg, Harz 1986, ii: Schlaginstrumente
A.J. Bernet Kempers: The Kettledrums of Southeast Asia: a Bronze Age World and its Aftermath (Rotterdam, VT, 1988)
M.d.R. Alvarez Martínez and G. Rosselló: ‘Hallazgo de tambores de la España islámica (siglos X al XIV)’, RdMc, xii (1989), 411–21
E.A. Dagan, ed.: Drums: the Heartbeat of Africa (Montreal, 1993)
C. Myers: ‘The Drum-Dance-Song Ensemble: Women’s Performance in Biblical Israel’, Rediscovering the Muses: Women’s Musical Traditions, ed. K. Marshall (Boston, 1993), 49–67
H. Powley: ‘The Drum Tablature Tradition of American Military Music of the Early Nineteenth Century: Levi Lovering’s The Drummer’s Assistant, or, The Art of Drumming Made Easy’,JAMIS, xxi (1995), 5–29
V. Doubleday: ‘The Frame Drum in the Middle East: Women, Musical Instruments and Power’, EthM, xliii/1 (1999), 101–34