THE DRUM IN
THE NEW WORLD IN THE 15TH AND EARLY 16TH CENTURIES.
We have documented evidence of
the presence of drums and fifes in the New World practically from Columbus's
arrival.
Francisco López de Gómara already
illustrates the presence of a drum and fife to celebrate one of Columbus's
arrivals in the Americas, as we can see in this engraving:
As early as 1494, Antonio de
Herrera tells us about Columbus:
"He set sail, then, with his
banners unfurled and his squadrons formed, playing drums and trumpets; and in
the same manner, to gain favor with the Indians, he went in and out of the
towns, who, both by this and by seeing the horses, were astonished. He departed
from La Isabela on the twelfth of March, leaving his brother Don Diego Columbus
in charge of the city." Decade I, Book II, Chapter XI, p. 65.
This same author, Antonio de
Herrera, tells us that in 1497
"Having arrived on board,
the sailors played a tambourine, a flute, and other instruments, which greatly
pleased the Indians." Decade I, Book III, Chapter VI, p. 91
On May 29, 1512, King Ferdinand
issued a decree in the Laws of Burgos[1] which, among other things, established
the legal doctrine for the Conquest of the Indies. Regarding our study of the
drum, it stated: “…I have decreed that in each captaincy of 200 men there shall
be fourteen double-paying men, in this manner: eight corporals and one ensign,
one fife player, and one drummer…”
Thus, this engraving reconstructs
the scene of these musicians playing on the decks of ships in the port of
Seville to signal that an expedition of the Armada was departing for the Indies
or, conversely, arriving from the Indies, with the instruments sounding just
before disembarkation. As we can see, this music played a particularly
important role in all kinds of events to lend solemnity, or as it was said
then, to set the pace and simultaneously transmit orders.
Also of great interest is the
article by Juan Ruiz Jiménez, an academic at the Granada School of Fine Arts,
which enlightens us about the musical practices of the Spaniards who embarked
from Seville to the Americas:
https://www.historicalsoundscapes.com/en/evento/760/sevilla
Indeed, trumpets, drums,
tambourines, and other instruments played an important role: announcements
seeking crew, calls signaling the departure of expeditions, arrivals on land…
all actions were always accompanied by music. A reference to our instrument,
the drum, can be found in a document dated December 6, 1513, from the Casa de
Contratación de Indias in Seville (General Archive of the Indies, Panama, 233,
L.1, fol. 129v), in which 210 people, including 16 musicians, were hired for
the province of Castilla del Oro in northern Colombia. Among the musicians were
two drummers, Juan de Audinete and Miguel Bandaca, and a fife player, Martín
Solanao (in addition to other instruments and their players, such as trumpets,
drums, tambourines, bagpipes, and harps). The name of a cabin boy is even
mentioned:
“Juan Portugués, cabin boy for
twenty days [salary] on the caravel commanded by Pedro de Ledesma until the
governor [Pedro Dávila] took him to play the drum for a salary and upkeep of
six hundred and twenty maravedís.”
Drums played an important role in
the conquest of what would become known as the Kingdom of New Spain
(present-day Mexico) between 1517 and 1521, as we can read in the account of
Cortés's captain, Bernal Díaz del Castillo, entitled *True History of the Conquest
of New Spain*, which began circulating in manuscript form around 1560. In that
work, one of Cortés's drummers is even mentioned:
“Cortés ordered Canillas, for
that was the name of our drummer, to play the drum, and Benito de Veguer, our
fife player, to play his tambourine.”[2]
In this case, for Díaz del
Castillo, the drum is the one who plays the tambourine, demonstrating that
"drum" and "tambourine" are interchangeable in linguistic
usage.
This is a kind of metonymy that changes the name of what is played (the drum) to the one who plays it (the tambourine); they are interchangeable names, as we have seen and demonstrated in this article.
More details about drums
regarding Cortés in the Conquest of Mexico where drums are mentioned, work by
Agustín de Vetancurt (1698):
Source: Google Books
Reflecting on the music brought
by the Spanish to the Americas, another interesting study is that of the
Venezuelan Mariantonia Palacios, in which she tells us about a sung mass upon
arrival in the city of Coro (founded by the Spanish under the command of the
German Nicolás Federmann in 1536) in which a Te Deum was performed with the
accompaniment of drums and trumpets[3]:
We quote again from the General
History of Castilian Deeds in the Islands and Mainland, by Antonio de Herrera y
Tordesillas.
We can see a drum in the Battle
of Cajamarca, 1536, for the capture of Cuzco:
In the 1720 reissue of Herrera's
book, we have more relevant information about drums. [4]
The Tlaxcalans' use of a
drum-like percussion instrument is also very interesting, as we can read in:
Chapter XV: On the Religion, Rites, Customs, Uses, and Laws of the Tlaxcalans: "and then with great rejoicing they began the solemnity, with trumpets, drums, horns, and conch shells." Decade II, Book VI, pp. 162, year 1519.
Similarly, Antonio de Herrera
cites the 1520 episode of Cortés where the drummer Canillas appears when he
orders an attack on Narváez to capture him and force his army to surrender:
"The order that Cortés gives
to attack Narváez:
Cortés ordered Gonzalo de
Sandoval to march with his troops toward Narváez, a good choice, because he was
a very skilled captain, and the others to guard the flanks to prevent any
reinforcements from arriving. Sandoval ordered the drummer Canillas not to play
until he gave the command, and he led him ahead of him." Decade II, Book
X, Chapter III, p. 255.
Finally, the Mexican Manuel de
Rivera tells us about:
“ALVARO MANRIQUE DE ZUÑIGA,
SEVENTH VICEROY. The Marquis of Villa-Manrique did not forget to send resources
to Spain, dispatching a ship from Veracruz with 1,156 gold marks, a large
quantity of coined silver, and various other precious items. Around this time,
the pirate Cavendish captured a merchant ship near California, and the
privateer Drake, famous for the capture of St. Augustine, Florida, was ravaging
our Pacific coasts. This prompted the mobilization of the militias and the
order for the ships anchored in Acapulco to be ready for battle against the
English, thus disrupting the tranquility that New Spain had enjoyed for the
past two years. It can be said that this period marked the beginning of the
notoriety of pirates and privateers in the seas of America, whose excesses
would later increase significantly during the time of the filibusters.” He
ordered troops from Guadalajara to come to the aid of the southern coasts, gave
orders for all vessels detained in Acapulco to be prepared, and raised militia companies
as a result of levies he ordered to be carried out.” [5]
Just as was the case on the
Iberian Peninsula (see the article on this blog, "The Origin of the
Military Drum in Spain (III). The Kingdom of Murcia at the End of the 15th
Century"), the militias of New Spain used drums and fifes for their own purposes
and for transmitting orders. And it is precisely in Mexico where a military
drum call from these old New Spanish militias has been preserved, as we will
see in a future article.
(C) Antonio del Carmen López
Martí
[3] PALACIOS, Mariantonia: Noticias musicales de los cronistas de la Venezuela de los siglos XVI-XVIII. Fundación Vicente, Emilio Sojo, Fondo de Humanidades y Educación. Universidad central de Venezuela.
[4] HERRERA, Antonio, Descripción de las indias occidentales. En Madrid, en la Oficina Real de Nicolás Rodríguez Franco.
[5] RIVERA, Manuel: Los gobernantes de México. Tomo I. Biblioteca de México, Imprenta Aguilar Ortiz
