16TH CENTURY: THE ORIGINAL MUSIC OF DRUM AND FIFE

 THE SOUND OF  DRUMS AND FIFES AROUND 1520

Many of us have wondered what the drum and fife sounded like at the beginning of the 16th century. Here's an example: we've simply replaced the fife with a sopranino flute, with an almost identical timbre, which was also in use. This sound was contemporary with the wars in Italy between the French, Swiss Reisläufer, Landsknechts, Italians, and Spanish.

 

The fife usually accompanied the drumming of the drums. However, the drumming was the most important thing; the piccolo entertained the men with familiar songs, which the flute players often improvised over the drumming of the drums.

This popular melody, which is part of a lute book, was adapted to lute tablature, but in it it is cited as "Fife March." It is a popular melody, both German and Swiss, used by soldiers, arranged with a drum ordinance. I have used a Swiss drum ordinance that has been preserved, practically identical, in four places: Basel Carnival (Switzerland), the Vatican Swiss Guard, the Hellín Tamborada (Spain), and even in Texas (USA).

 

Here comes a determining factor: these musics from the past have survived as popular music (Carnival or Holy Week Drum Parade), completely devoid of their original military function, while in other places they retain all or part of that original function. Judge how the authentic melody of 1522 fits with that drum ordinance.

 

Regarding Spain, we have this fife-drum association in the fresco of the Mozarabic Chapel of Cardinal Cisneros (Toledo Cathedral).

 

From this Oran campaign of 1509, we have testimony from the war chests of Colonel Diego García de Paredes (1468-1533), who participated in this North African campaign[1]:

 

“…And when the time came, I divided the people into five groups and began to tune the drum cases…”

 

 

Source: Antonio del Carmen López Martí Archive. Siege of Oran, Oil Painting Section, by Juan de Borgoña (1514). We can see Cardinal Cisneros with Commander Pedro Navarro holding a drum (detail).

 

Thanks to Colonel Thierry Bouzard, a French army colonel specializing in French ordinance music, for sharing it with me. The fife score was also transcribed by Markus Estermann. Together, we reconstructed this military musical heritage shared by France, the Swiss Cantons, and Spain.

 

With this piece, we can get an idea of ​​what the music of the soldiers at the Battle of Pavia (1525) sounded like, as seen in this painting:

See detail of the Battle of Pavia, drum and fife, anonymous ca. 1530. Birmingham Museum. Source: Wikipedia.

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 [1] Cardinal Cisneros's idea was to establish a new crusade against Islam that would cross North Africa, capture Jerusalem, and reconquer the Holy Places. They managed to capture Oran, Algiers, Tunis, Bugia, and Tripoli. However, this campaign or crusade was ultimately abandoned to focus on the wars in Italy. However, Oran remained in Spanish hands for 300 years.