tabor

A tabor, tabret, Tambour De Provence, or Tambourin (Provencal) is a portable snare drum typically played either with one hand or with two drumsticks. The word "tabor" is simply an English variant of a Latin-derived word meaning "drum"—cf. , It has been used in the military as a marching instrument, and has been used as accompaniment in parades and processions. Construction A tabor has a cylindrical wood shell, two skin heads tightened by rope tension, a leather strap, and an adjustable snare. The single snare can be made from gut, silk, or rough hemp. Each tabor has a pitch range of about an octave: the larger the tabor, the lower the pitch. It is played by just one short conical stick, made from bone or ivory, which usually strikes the snare head. The tabor is suspended by a strap from the forearm, somewhere between the elbow and wrist. When played, the shell is virtually parallel with the ground. In Spain, a deep drum is used for a tabor by pipe and taborers, and in England a shallow tom tom is sometimes used, although medieval icons of pipe and tabor usually display a large shallow tabor similar in shape to a bodhrán. Usage The tabor is most widely known as accompaniment for the pipe and other small flutes, such as the flageolet, and most famously as the percussive element in the "pipe and tabor" one-man band configuration. The tabor is beaten on the snare side. Georges Bizet scored for the tabor drum in his L'Arlesienne Suite No. 2, and Aaron Copland calls for it in his Appalachian Spring and El Salón México. Darius Milhaud has been named one of the foremost composers of modern (mid-20th century) music for the tabor by Morris Goldenberg. His Suite Provancale calls for tabor played along with two other drums by a single player. In classical repertoire the tabor is usually played with two sticks, as many pieces call for speeds that are unwieldy for a single hand. In many cases composers' scores have been mistranslated with the erroneous call for tambour de basque or tambourine when the piece was originally intended for tabor. Parts written for tabor are usually very simple and feature straight eight notes or another easy repetitive pattern.