Tabor (instrument)

A tabor is a small, portable drum with two skins. People often use it to keep rhythm while someone plays a tune on a pipe. You usually play it with one stick in your right hand. This pair of pipe and tabor has been used for centuries to make music and add fun to events.

The tabor has different names in different places. It is called tabour, tabret in Welsh, tambour de Provence or tambourin in Provençal, and tamborí in Catalan. The word "tabor" comes from the Persian word tabīr, which also means "drum." Similar words appear in many languages, like tambor in Catalan, tambour in French, and tamburo in Italian.

Besides music, tabor drums have been used in military settings as a marching instrument. You can hear them during parades and processions, helping to keep the beat and add lively rhythm.

Construction

A tabor is a small drum with a wooden body and two skin heads stretched tight by ropes. It also has a leather strap and a snare that can be made from gut, silk, or rough hemp. The larger the tabor, the lower the sound it makes. Players use a single short stick, often made from bone or ivory, to hit the snare head. The tabor is held by a strap worn on the arm, keeping the drum parallel to the ground when played. In Catalonia, the tamborí has been used since the Middle Ages, usually played together with a flabiol or pipe by the same musician. In Spain, a deep drum is used for this purpose, while in England a shallow tom tom is sometimes used, even though medieval pictures often show a large shallow tabor similar to a bodhrán.

Usage

The tabor is most often used to add rhythm to music played on a pipe or small flutes like the flageolet. It is a key part of a "pipe and tabor" one-man band, where one person plays both instruments. The tabor is played on its snare side.

Famous composers like Georges Bizet, Aaron Copland, and Darius Milhaud have used the tabor in their music. In classical music, the tabor is sometimes played with two sticks for very fast rhythms. The music written for the tabor is usually simple, with repeating patterns of notes.

History

The tabor is a type of drum. It belongs to a group called membranophones. It first appeared in Europe during the Medieval period. Early drawings and writings show that these drums were about 11 to 12 inches wide and 4 to 10 inches deep. Over time, the shape of the tabor changed.

These drums were made from wood with skin stretched over them. They were often used outside and were an early version of what we now call a side drum. People usually played the tabor together with a pipe. This made it seem like one person was playing a whole band. This combination was popular for dancing events and was especially used in the Cotswold tradition of Morris folk dancing.

At first, a horn was sometimes played with the tabor. Later, the pipe and tabor became a common pair. Between the 13th and 16th centuries, this duo was often used by noble people in musical shows. The tabor could also be played alone. By the 15th century, tabors got bigger, and players started using two sticks instead of one. The bigger version with two sticks was mainly used in military music. The smaller one with a single stick stayed popular for dance music. Use of the tabor slowed down by the mid-17th century, but it kept changing through the 19th and 20th centuries. Today, a similar style is still used in the tambourin de Provence.