Snare drum as a means of communication

The snare drum or side drum is a widely

used unpitched percussion instrument. It is often used
in orchestras, marching bands,concert bands, drum
corps and many other applications.

The snare drum is almost always double-headed,
with rattles (called snares) of gut, metal wire or
synthetics stretched across one or both heads.

Pronounced as: tay-bur.

Medieval Europe around 1300.

doubleheaded drum that had a single snare strand called
a Tabor.

In the Middle Ages the tabor was often played in unison
with a three-holed pipe flute.

German tambur, French tabour, tambour
A drum with a single gut snare strung across the bottom. It
is a bit bigger than a medium tom.

first used in war.

often played with a fife or pipe.

the player would play both the fife and drum.

Tabors were not always double headed and not all may
have had snares.

The origin of the snare drum can be traced to the medieval tabor, which
is clearly represented in early thirteenth and fourteenth century art as a
rope-tensioned drum with one or more snares, usually on the head that
was struck.
The chief function of the pipe and tabor was to provide
music for dancing.

Dance music was always the pipe and tabors principle
function, as is shown by many old miniatures.

Used to provide music for jugglers and performing
animals, and being played in the military bands of
nobleman at tournaments and other occasions; the
tabor is often clearly shown being beaten on the snare.
Both the pipe and tabor and the fife and drum are
mentioned separately by Tabourot in his Orchesographie et
Traicte en Forme de Dialogue par Leguel Toutes Personnes
Peuvent facilement apprendre & Practiquer lhonneste exercise
des dances.

Generally speaking, the fife and drum was associated with
military functions.

In the 14th century the practice of one man playing both pipe
and drum ended, the instruments being played henceforth by
two musicians.

This situation required two performers instead of one, which was
the case with the pipe and tabor.
The relatively soft-sounding tabor was made larger to increase its
volume, which was a requirement particularly of military music. The
result was the side or field drum.

Historically, snare drums have been used in military and
parading contexts to produce drum cadences which is
different today. Today in popular music, especially with
rock drum kits, the snare drum is typically used to play
a backbeat pattern.

A drum cadence or street beat is a work played
exclusively by the percussion section of a modern marching
band. It is stylistically descended from
early military marches, and related to military cadences, as
both are a means of providing a beat while marching.


Cadences, are also: 'a chant that is sung by military
personnel while parading or marching'.



To acquire a knowledge of the true nature of the
[snare] drum, it is absolutely necessary to study
military drumming, for it is essentially a military
instrument and its true character cannot be brought
out with an incorrect method. When a composer
wants a martial effect, he instinctively turns to the
drums".

-The Art of Snare Drumming,Sanford A. Moeller
The use of a snare drum in the military, probably came
directly from instruments that were used by the
powerful Ottoman Empire's armies in the 1500s.The
Ottomans possibly influenced Swiss drummers, which
in turn influenced their local drum builders.

The Ottoman cavalry Turkish Empire


Before the advent of radio and electronic communications,
the snare drum was often used to communicate orders to
the soldiers.

American troops were woken up by drum and fife, playing
about 5 minutes of music, including the well known Three
Camps.


Troops were also called for meals by certain drum pieces
such as "Peas on a Trencher," or "Roast Beef." A piece called
the "Tattoo" was used to signal that all soldiers should be in
their tent, and "Fatigue Call" was used to police the
quarters or drum unruly women out of the camp.

Also know as the Side Drum/Soldier Drum.
In the course of the 15th century the drum that was struck
from the side became ever larger and ever louder to meet
the changing requirements of military bands.

It became too large to be hung over the forearm and was
now attached to a strap over the drummers shoulder or
tied to a belt around his waist.

The widely known Swiss drums became the model for
drum-makers all over Europe.
It became very popular in the 1400s with the fife-and-
drum corps of Swiss mercenary foot soldiers for
relaying signals.

This version of the drum was a very big instrument
that was carried over the player's right shoulder,
secured by a strap.

The drum heads were tensioned by pulling a rope, very
much like lacing a shoe. The method was to lace a cord
in a W or Y pattern around the shell.

Around the same time frame the European version of
the snare drum spread to other countries. England had
similar drums by the 1500s, although the name tabor
was replaced with drome or drume.

. Fife and drum symbolized the common foot
soldiers, while trumpets and kettledrums represented
the cavalry.

The widely known Swiss drums became the model
for drum-makers all over Europe.
In the 1600s, new methods of tensioning the drum
were developed. This allowed the snares on field
drums to be tightened more securely with screws. The
former loose rattle sound of the snare's gut was now
more of a tight snap.

The increase in the tension on the drum heads allowed
drummers to play faster and more complex rhythms.

By the mid 1800s, snare drums were being built from
brass and reduced in size for a higher pitched, crisper
sound popular in symphony orchestras.

Classical music added the snare drum to provide color,
or timbre, for march-like segments of music. In the
19th century it replaced the tenor drum of military
bands. The sound of a marching snare is a classic
military sound.

100 years later than the timpani in the second half of
the 18th century the side or field drum appeared in
the orchestra for the first time, under the
name tambour:

Because the drum had often been used in the midst of
battle its first tasks in the orchestra were to evoke a
military atmosphere.
In 1837 the Englishman Cornelius Ward was a central
figure in the invention of screw tensioning, which
rapidly replaced rope or cord tensioning. This
innovation meant that the snare drum could now be
even flatter: the shell depth was reduced to 20 cm, in
some instances even to 10 cm.

At the beginning of the 20th century this small version
became generally known as the snare drum or side
drum.
According to James Blades, the tabor began to appear in
larger forms during the thirteenth century.

The association of the fife and drum is recorded as early as
1332 in the Chronicles of Basle

In the 14th century the practice of one man playing both
pipe and drum ended, the instruments being played
henceforth by two musicians.

By the fifteenth century, the enlarged tabor along with the
fife, had formed the first organized type of military band in
England.

By the 15th century, the size of the snare drum increased and had a
cylindrical shape.

This simple drum with a simple snare became popular with the Swiss
mercenary troops who used the fife and drum around the 15th-16th
century.

The drum was made deeper and carried along the side. Further
developments appeared in the 17th century, with the use of screws to
hold down the snares, giving a brighter sound than the rattle of a loose
snare.

The first written rudiment was in Basel, Switzerland in 1610. Rudiments
with familiar names are listed in Charles Ashworth's book in 1812 such
as the (single) paradiddle, flam, drag, ratamacue, the roll (a double
stroke roll, also called the "ma-ma da-da" roll), among others.

During the 18th century, the snare drum underwent
changes that would improve its characteristic sound.

During the late eighteenth and nineteenth century, the
military bugle largely supplanted the snare and fife for
signals. Most modern militaries and scouting groups use
the bugle alone to make bugle calls that announce
scheduled and unscheduled events of the organization

Snare heads originally were of calf skin. The invention of
the plastic (mylar) drum head is credited to Marion
"Chick" Evans, who (apparently) made the first plastic
drum head in 1956.

Metal snares appeared in the 20th century.

Today the snare drum is used in pop music and
modern orchestral music.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snare_drum
http://www.drummuffler.com/history-of-the-snare-drum.php
http://www.pas.org/Libraries/PASIC_Archives/Gauthreaux.sflb.ashx
http://www.vsl.co.at/en/70/3196/3211/3212/5783.vsl
http://randyholland.hubpages.com/hub/The-Snare-Drum-Medieval-to-
Modern-Day
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottoman_Empire
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