The origin of the military drum in Spain (IV). Medieval drums and their military use. The transition to the ordinance drum.

 

15th-CENTURY DRUMS:  CONSIDERATIONS ON MEDIEVAL DRUMS.

Were drums used to transmit clear and precise battle orders before the arrival of the large Swiss cylindrical war drums in the late 15th century?

All sources and research seem to indicate NO.

There's no need to repeat the research of excellent medieval percussion specialists, such as Mauricio Molina, who already tells us this in one of his popular works: In SCHERZO magazine, No. 343 September 2018, on medieval music, specifically in the section entitled "Cum recta percussione" (pp. 106 ), Molina writes that:

"Large cylindrical drums do not appear on record until at least the late 15th century and, therefore, belong to a different era and musical aesthetic."

 

Clearly, these drums were used to transmit ordinances. What's more, they were invented for military use.

 

Percussion instruments were not used in warfare among the Christian armies of the Iberian Peninsula until the late 15th century. At the end of the Middle Ages, if we look closely at battle tapestries, we still find no drums; for example, in the Pastrana Tapestry (Siege of Arcila, 1471), there are only straight trumpets. These are essential iconographic documents for reconstructing the weapons of war of this period.

 

Tapestry of the Siege of Arcila, 1471, in the Parish Museum of Pastrana (Guadalajara). In this series of Portuguese tapestries contemporary with Valturio's book, no war drums are seen, only straight trumpets. On the contrary, it is an essential document for reconstructing the weapons of war of this period. Source: Wikipedia.

Nor are they mentioned in antiquity, as in Flavius ​​Vegetius's De Re militari (in antiquity, brass instruments were associated with warfare); nor are they mentioned in Christine de Pisan's 1410 work, Faits d'armes et de chevalerie. Not even the influential Roberto Valturio, in his 1472 work, Opera dell'arte Militare, mentions anything resembling a cylindrical box. At the end of the 15th century, Valturio speaks of "other instruments, such as hollow ones that resonate" (Chapter III, "On Music and in What Things They Are Combined with the Military Art, if Appropriate"). These are ATABALES.

We don't even see them in the engravings of the Battle of Guinegatte (1479)...

 

They only appear portrayed, and on numerous occasions, in Spiezer Schilling's Chronicle, Bern, illustrated by Diebold Schilling the Elder, around 1480. A Swiss document in which we even find a song that mentions drums and fifes:

“21. Afterwards there was a song that was composed by him

5. You can hear the Fifes and drums. Say that you are brave; …” [1]

Excerpt from the Lied of 1468.

Bern,_Burgerbibliothek,_Mss.h.h.I.16,_p._207_–_Diebold_Schilling,_Spiezer_Chronik

  

As we mentioned in a previous article, the key to military rhythm lies in the Swiss soldiers, or Esguízari, who provided important service in foreign armies from the Late Middle Ages to the Enlightenment. They were the most sought-after mercenary troops in the world for their proven military capability and supremacy. In the Kingdom of Spain, the Catholic Monarchs experienced their enormous effectiveness and success in the 1970s, when the Reisläufer (Swiss infantry) defeated the Burgundian cavalry in the battles of Granson and Morat (1476) and the Siege of Nancy (1477), where they gave the Europeans a lesson in strategy. With them, a new form of warfare began, far removed from medieval methods, which relied on heavy cavalry for attack. For this reason, they are already mentioned in the Incomplete Chronicle of the Catholic Monarchs: drums, timpani, and other instruments of war. Let's see: [2]

 

TITLE XXXI. How the king ordered them to leave his camp and follow the road to Toro, and how powerful he was, and who were the nobles who came there to serve him. July 16, 1475.

“…Who will say they have never seen flowery fields with such a splendid people? There, with the battles of the men-at-arms, the bastard trumpets and the drums with various instruments, and, with the horsemen, the Italian trumpets, and with the peonage, the drums and tambourines…”

TITLE XXXIII. How the king and his royal army went to Toro and how the royal army settled half a league from Toro, and how with those people it seemed they would rule the world.

“…There, the sharp sound of the bastard and Italian trumpets, and the tasligas and shawms and bugles, drums, timbrels, tambourines and various instruments kept their ears so busy that, even if some turned away from the battles, they always carried the tone of the various sounds in their ears.

This Chronicle is also very interesting because it mentions the musical instruments of war from 1475: bastard trumpets, Italian trumpets, drums, tabor and tambourines.

It doesn't seem that these sounds at the Battle of Toro in 1475 served to transmit little more than signals, but not clear and concise orders for tactics and the movement of pawns. The chronicler says that "they always carried the tone of the various sounds in their ears" and that they always had their ears occupied, even after leaving the battles. In my opinion, there are no orders there; I interpret it as a superposition of diverse music, melodies, and rhythms, creating effects of aural tumult. I interpret the tones of the various sounds as tinnitus due to overexposure to the aural tumult of the music of those instruments mentioned.

Álbum de la Infantería española desde sus primitivos tiempos hasta el día por el Conde de Clonard. 

Madrid, 1861, Imprenta y litografía militar del atlas. San Bernardino 7.

We see in plate 23 Clonard's interpretation of the 1488 drum, after its inclusion in a Company by Royal Decree of the Catholic Monarchs of January 15.

 

The transmission of clear and concise orders was reserved for the large infantry war chests, which were already changing the art of warfare in the hands of the Swiss, along with the new use of weapons such as the pike, or in popular Spanish "chuzo", in combination with arquebuses and rodeleros.

Thus, from the end of the 15th century we already have in written and iconographic sources the presence of Swiss war chests: their way of waging war is mentioned, with tall and unwieldy pikes that advance without losing formation to the rhythm of the drums.

In Spain, drummers were already included in a company, or captaincy, in 1488, the year in which one of these instruments appeared for the first time in the lower choir stalls of Granada Cathedral, as we have already shown. In the Royal Decree of the Catholic Monarchs of January 15, the troops of the Holy Brotherhood were reorganized for the war in Granada: 10,000 men divided into twelve captaincies, and each captaincy (or company) would be made up of 833 men: 720 lancers, 80 musketmen, 24 squadron members, eight drummers, and a standard-bearer. The captains and squadron members were appointed by the King and Queen. The army was commanded by a captain general who had at his service an alcaide, an accountant, and a treasurer. Several captaincies formed a Batalla, which could be of infantry or cavalry, although they were usually composed of both [3]. I recommend looking at the photo of the drum of chair number 12, taken from Mojácar, in Toledo Cathedral, which appears at the top of this website.

By the way, that year, 1488, in May, Juan Valencia, a mayor of the Hellín fortress, who had already fought in the 1487 campaign of Málaga in the Fourth Battle of Footmen, was mobilized:

"Para que no traigan armas los de la fortaleza de Hellín" salvo el alcaide Juan de Valencian

 Archivo General de Simancas, RGS, LEG,148805,79

Hellín paid 27,260 maravedis[4] for that year of 1487, 30 maravedis per day and for 80, which made a total of at least 10 men mobilized, plus Major Juan de Valencia. [4]

In 1488, Thirty thousand, as we can see in the following document: "To you the council of the town of Fellyn [Hellín] thirty thousand maravedis"

In this regard, there is a source, which I consider highly relevant, which records that, in order not to break formation, the pikemen advanced to the sound of a drum. Quirini ^[5]  tells us how the Swiss-style clash of pikes took place:

"All that's needed is for the infantrymen of the squadron to approach the enemy. When they are within shotgun range, the captain orders, with the beat of a drum, that everyone, with a loud shout, charge without disorder until the clash."

 

Example from 1496, taken from Philipp Mönch's Kriegsbuch for Philip the Candid, Count Palatinate of the Rhine (1476-1508). We can see the attack formation with pikes advancing with the musicians behind. Source: Heidelberg University Library, Cod. Pal. Germ. 126, 42r. Wikipedia

This tactic would be perfected in the early 16th century by the Spanish, specifically by Gonzalo de Ayora, as we will see in a future entry on this website.

And a question immediately arises: what would the drums mentioned in the Incomplete Chronicle of the Catholic Monarchs have been like, and, above all, how would they have sounded? A possible answer can be found in the video at the beginning of this article. As we can see, the instrument's low volume makes it difficult to use in the heat of battle, let alone transmit clear and precise orders to the troops.

This medieval frame drum was known by the generic name "Atambor," an ambivalent name used to designate any type of membranophone in the Middle Ages in sources written in Castilian, the Romance language. Among these various types of medieval drums, some were also used in warfare, as we have written in other articles, especially by Muslims. However, it should be noted, and this is very important, that all the medieval Muslim instruments cited by Christians as "atamores" or "drums" were actually "mother-of-pearl drums" or "atabales." And we have no record of what kind of orders these mother-of-pearl drums and atabales conveyed, if any. Christian sources, on the other hand, tell us about the noise the instruments made while the men shouted.[6]

 

In contrast, the 15th-century Swiss drum is a two-pronged, cylindrical war drum, played with mallets, and is often associated with the fife. This drum, as we've already mentioned, is a war drum, and was defined as such by Sebastián de Covarrubias in 1611. It was primarily used to convey orders, as we will see, and especially hear, in the following articles.

 

This is what we're here for: What orders did Renaissance war drums convey and what did they sound like? Coming soon to this website.

(C) Antonio del Carmen López Martí

[1] Die Berner-Chronik des Diebold Schilling 1468-148. Erster Band. Seite 29.  Im Auftrage des historischen Vereins des Kantons Bern herausgegeben von Gustav Tobler.Bern Druck und Verlag von K. J. Wyss 1897 

21. Hienach stat ein lied, das von disem zuge gemacht wart (1468)

[5] QUIRINI, V.  (1507) Relazione di Vinzenzi Quirini, en AAVV (1862): Relazioni degli ambasciatori veneti al senato durante il secolo decimosesto, S. I. Vol VI. Firenze: Societá editrice Fiorentina, pp. 21.

[6] Cantar de mio Cid (ca. 1140)

“¡Que priessa va en los moros!; e tornaronsen a armar, 695

    ante roido de atamores la tierra querie quebrar”. 696

("How fast the Moors are going! And they armed themselves again. 695

 Before the earth, with the sound of the drums, tries to break") 696

Primera crónica  general estoria de España que mandó componer Alfonso El Sabio y se continuaba bajo Sancho IV en 1289.  Ramón Menéndez Pidal, Edition 1906. AGENCIA ESTATAL BOLETÍN OFICIAL DEL ESTADO MADRID, 2022. .

Chapter 1043: Chapter of the Axes of Abenhut and the Ordinance of the Christians, and how Don Aluar Pérez (de Castro) ordered the beheading of the Moors who brought the captives. (Historical event of 1225)

“And the voices and shouts of the Moors, and the noise of the drums and trumpets were so loud that it seemed as if heaven and earth were collapsing.” Page 754

 Capitulo 1043: Capitulo de las azes de Abenhut et del ordenamiento de los cristianos, et de commo don Aluar Perez (de Castro)  fizo descabezar los moros que trayen catiuos.  (Hecho histórico fechado en 1225)

“Et las bozes et los alaridos de los moros, et los roydos de los atanbores et de los annafiles eran tan grandes que semeiaua que zielo et tierra todo se fondia”. Pp. 754