THE SQUARE DRUM - Part 3 by Daniel García de la Cuesta

THE SQUARE DRUM - Part Three by Daniel García de la Cuesta

It seems that for almost two thousand years of Egyptian dynasties, where there were many musical performances, there is no presence of the iconography of tambourines, even though their Sumerians neighbours even wrote the names of some of them.
It is noteworthy that almost no visual references in the East, from very ancient times, until almost the 12th century.
For example, in Poitiers, France, we can see one of the first representations of the 12th century, where he is the square tambourine beaten with a stick in the style of taps used in place of the Iberian Peninsula, such as El Rebollar in Peñaparda, Salamanca.

Player with beaten tambourine. 12 th Century . Poitiers.

Also some panderos square iconography of the 12th century and later appear in Asturias and Galicia, as in the Romanesque church of San Esteban de los Caballeros, in Aramil. In Galicia, in Chantada, Lugo. Since then, it is more common to find these images in different European iconography.

Pandero in San Esteban de los Caballeros. 12th Century .


Pandero . 12th century, San Miguel de Chantada, Lugo. Galicia.

Other examples can be found in representations of medieval square tambourines in the Collegiate Church of Santa Maria, in Toro, Zamora, 12th Century, and the Romanesque church of Yermo, Cantabria, in the year 1203.

Further details of the church in Yermo, on the page:
www.claustro.com/OtrosTemas/Danza/Webpages/Catalogo_Danza.htm

http://www.claustro.com/OtrosTemas/Danza/Webpages/Cantabria/Danza_Yermo_I.htm

The beating this type of percussion either square as round, has been from ancient times until today, in almost exclusive use of women, especially in the northern peninsula.
A square and hanged tambourine, appears in the Syntagma Musicum works of Michael Praetorius, edited in 1619. Interestingly, tambourine called Moscovite.
Some Renaissance prints in the Iberian Peninsula, depict dancing courtesans and a square tambourine played by a woman.According to data from the page: www.funjdiaz.net/museo/ficha.cfm?id=34

On this period the instrument is due to cross the Atlantic and appears today in the Mexican Huasteca region, along with other instruments such as harp, in the hands of clergymen.

We provide this data with the help of dear friend, researcher and Mexican folklorist, Francisco Camacho :
www.uv.mx/popularte/esp/mfoto.php?phid=1738