Miss Jacobson's Music: PERCUSSION: TAMBOURINE

TAMBOURINE

"Gypsy Girl with a Basque Drum"

by William Bouguereau

(This instrument is a tambourine)

How To Play Tambourine

Roland Muzquiz, percussionist with The Dallas Wind Symphony,

explains various techniques of playing the tambourine.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=xahuPRRNtIM

WHAT IS A TAMBOURINE?

The tambourine is a shallow, handheld drum made of a circular wooden frame with a calfskin or plastic drumhead stretched across the top. The tambourine has small discs called jingles set into its circular frame which produce sound when the tambourine is shaken, rubbed, or struck on the drum head with the knuckles. Early tambourines used in ensemble music were played by Turkish army musicians (a military band) in the mid 18th century known as "Janissaries" ( meaning "new soldier").

An Ottoman Mehter Band

This music style became highly popular at the courts of European princes and brought the tambourine (and also the cymbals, bass drum and triangle) to the attention of a wider audience. It was around this time that the instrument began to be known as the tambourine.

http://www.dsokids.com/listen/instrumentdetail.aspx?instrumentid=11

http://www.vsl.co.at/en/70/3196/3211/3215/5813.vsl

Emile Vernon: The Tambourine Girl

"A Neapolitan Dancer"
by John Bagnold Burgess

"A Little Spanish Gypsy" 1868
by John Bagnold Burgess

Among the first orchestral works to feature the tambourine were:

Christoph Willibald Gluck’s Echo et Narcisse (1779)

and

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Deutsche Tänze (1787).

Antoine Pesne

François-Alfred Delobbe

The tambourine actually dates back to antiquity and was known at different times under the various names of timbrel or tabret, tympanon or tympanum. Originating in the Near East, they came into being when bells and other rattles of various kinds were attached to the shell of a frame drum. Initially though, frame drums without bells were also commonly referred to as tambourines [tambourine:(small drum), a derivation from the French word for drum, tambour]. The instrument was already known to the ancient Egyptians and Assyrians: in Egypt it was used in religious ceremonies by female temple dancers. Women were the principal players of tambourines in other early civilizations, too.

Apart from being used to accompany dances, tambourines were also

played in processions, at festivities and at funerals.

In the Middle Ages the tambourine was already common all over Europe. In medieval

Britain it was known first as the tymbre, and until the 18th century as the tabret

ortimbrel. In France, Spain (where it is called the pendereta) and

in southern Italy its importance as a folk instrument has never diminished.

But the tambourine as a part of folk entertainment is not confined to Europe; it is also found in

many other cultures, for instance in China, India, Peru, Greenland,

the Caucasus and central Asia.

http://www.medieval-life-and-times.info/medieval-music/tambourine.htm

http://www.vsl.co.at/en/70/3196/3211/3215/5813.vsl

"Muse with Tambourine" 1561
by Paolo Veronese

Рейксмузеум: часть 2 - Kruseman, Cornelis -- Een van zin, 1830

Cornelis Kruseman

Song of Praise

LINKS

http://www.kydrum.com/dop/dop09/Tambourine%20FUNdamentals.pdf
http://pcasacas.org/SiPC/33.2/hamelman.pdf
http://www.dsokids.com/listen/instrumentdetail.aspx?instrumentid=11
http://www.medieval-life-and-times.info/medieval-music/tambourine.htm
http://blog.thedrumworks.com/2012/11/rockin-it-tambourine-style.html
http://www.vsl.co.at/en/70/3196/3211/3215/5813.vsl
http://www.bluzkat.com/tambhist.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tambourine
http://www.liveinternet.ru/users/2230341/page3.shtml
http://www.ehow.com/about_5141969_history-tambourine.html
http://www2.si.umich.edu/chico/instrument/pages/tmbrn_gnrl.html
http://www.maryellendonald.com/MEPercussionInstruments.htm
http://dshi110melenki.ucoz.ru/blog/muzykalnye_instrumenty_buben/2012-10-04-15
https://rceliamendonca.wordpress.com/2011/10/page/2/

http://www.wikihow.com/Phttp://www.dsokids.com/listen/instrumentdetail.aspx?instrumentid=11lay-a-Tambourine
http://www.kiwicrate.com/blog/tag/instruments/

"Dancer with Tambourine" by Edgar Degas

Charles-Émile-Hippolyte Lecomte-Vernet (French, 1821–1900) The Tambourine Player oil on Canvas

Charles-Émile-Hippolyte Lecomte-Vernet: "The Tambourine Player"

"Mr.Tambourine Man"

by Bob Dylan

Hey! Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me

I’m not sleepy and there is no place I’m going to

Hey! Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me

In the jingle jangle morning I’ll come followin’ you

Though I know that evenin’s empire has returned into sand

Vanished from my hand

Left me blindly here to stand but still not sleeping

My weariness amazes me,

I’m branded on my feet

I have no one to meet

And the ancient empty street’s too dead for dreaming

Take me on a trip upon your magic swirlin’ ship

My senses have been stripped, my hands can’t feel to grip

My toes too numb to step

Wait only for my boot heels to be wanderin’

I’m ready to go anywhere, I’m ready for to fade

Into my own parade, cast your dancing spell my way

I promise to go under it

Hey! Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me

I’m not sleepy and there is no place I’m going to

Hey! Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me

In the jingle jangle morning I’ll come followin’ you

Though you might hear laughin’, spinnin’, swingin’ madly across the sun

It’s not aimed at anyone, it’s just escapin’ on the run

And but for the sky there are no fences facin’

And if you hear vague traces of skippin’ reels of rhyme

To your tambourine in time, it’s just a ragged clown behind

I wouldn’t pay it any mind

It’s just a shadow you’re seein’ that he’s chasing

Hey! Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me

I’m not sleepy and there is no place I’m going to

Hey! Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me

In the jingle jangle morning I’ll come followin’ you

Then take me disappearin’ through the smoke rings of my mind

Down the foggy ruins of time, far past the frozen leaves

The haunted, frightened trees, out to the windy beach

Far from the twisted reach of crazy sorrow

Yes, to dance beneath the diamond sky with one hand waving free

Silhouetted by the sea, circled by the circus sands

With all memory and fate driven deep beneath the waves

Let me forget about today until tomorrow

Hey! Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me

I’m not sleepy and there is no place I’m going to

Hey! Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me

In the jingle jangle morning I’ll come followin’ you

http://www.bobdylan.com/us/songs/mr-tambourine-man#ixzz2ZK0p3F5B

 http://web.cs.dal.ca/~johnston/poetry/tambourine.html




François-Hubert Drouais: Child with a Tambourine, 1772

Painter: Cornelis Kruseman, 1830

HISTORY

INFORMATION FROM: VIENNA SYMPHONIC LIBRARY
http://www.vsl.co.at/en/70/3196/3211/3215/5813.vsl

Antiquity

Tambourines originated in the Near East. They came into being when bells and other rattles of various kinds were attached to the shell of a frame drum. Initially though, frame drums without bells were also commonly referred to as tambourines. The instrument was already known to the ancient Egyptians and Assyrians: in Egypt it was used in religious ceremonies by female temple dancers. Women were the principal players of tambourines in other early civilizations, too. Apart from being used to accompany dances, tambourines were also played in processions, at festivities and at funerals.

Although the size of the instrument and the shape of the jingles have undergone numerous changes over the centuries the structure has always remained the same; the tambourines used by the Greeks and Romans looked very much the same as the modern instrument.

The instrument of angels and traveling entertainers

Frame drum according to Praetorius

(Syntagma musicum, 1620)

In the Middle Ages the tambourine was already common all over Europe. In medieval Britain it was known first as the tymbre, and until the 18th century as the tabret ortimbrel. In France, Spain (where it is called the pendereta) and in southern Italy its importance as a folk instrument has never diminished. But the tambourine as a part of folk entertainment is not confined to Europe; it is also found in many other cultures, for instance in China, India, Peru, Greenland, the Caucasus and central Asia.

The medieval tambourine consisted of a rectangular or round flat wood frame with a single head; the underside was open. Four or more pairs of jingles were let into the shell at regular intervals. These jingles were somewhat larger and thicker than today’s. In addition to or instead of the jingles small bells or other objects that produced a rattling noise were fixed to the frame. The tambourine was struck either with the flat of the hand or with the fingers in the same way as its ancient predecessor.

Medieval paintings and carvings, as well as religious manuscripts, often portray the instrument being played by angels. On the other hand, the tambourine was also a favorite instrument of itinerant entertainers and minstrels. But not only early forms of the tambourine were known as timbrels; the name was applied to other kinds of frame drum as well, for instance the frame drum with one or two heads and a model with a closed wood bottom. These drums were struck either with the hand or with wooden sticks. Some illustrations show still other drums with a single snare across the head; it may be that this string was plucked to produce a tone

The tambourine in the orchestra

Tambourine

("Mohrenpäucklin" from: Praetorius, Syntagma musicum, 1620)

The timbrel was already being played in concert with other instruments on special occasions in the late Middle Ages. The tambourine’s admittance into the orchestra was initiated in the mid 18th century by Janissary music, which enjoyed huge popularity at the courts of European princes and brought the tambourine – and the cymbals, bass drum and triangle – to the attention of a wider audience. It was around this time that the instrument began to be known as the tambourine (small drum), a derivation from the French word for drum, tambour. Among the first orchestral works to feature the tambourine were Christoph Willibald Gluck’s Echo und Narziss (1779) and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Deutsche Tänze (1787).

The inconsistent spellings tamb(o)urin and tambourin(e) in scores repeatedly leads to confusion, the tambourine being mistaken for the tambourin, the Provençal tubular drum. The latter is a drum played with one hand and is made of particularly light wood, is about 70 cm deep and has a single head. It is used for example in George Bizet’s Arlésienne-Suite No. 2 (and therefore also in the ballet sequence in Carmen). It is still used today in folk music in the south of France. Carl Maria von Weber used the tambourine in his incidental music for Preziosa (1821) to represent the gypsy life. Apart from this, the tambourine stands for folk entertainment, dance and, since George Bizet’s Carmen (1875), epitomizes Spanish flair. It is for this specific function, and also to accentuate the rhythm and create a bright musical background, that the tambourine has been used in orchestral works since the mid 19th century.