The Dance Epidemic - and other stories of the historical tambourine

Written by Jet Kye Chong, historical percussion specialist, composer and researcher, and guest artist for HIP Company concert, Let Us Dance.
13 April, 2021.

“Yeah, I’ve got a gig tonight.”
“Ah, you’re a musician? Cool, what are you playing?”
“Tambourine….”
“Uhh…”
“...influenced by traditional Italian regional styles and rhythmic practice of the late Renaissance into the Baroque.”

Despite me having killed more than one conversation this way, a historical lens on percussion opens a delightful world of music, culture and character for those with the curiosity and patience to explore. Unbeknownst to the layperson today, and even surprising to many musicians, the history of some humble Western percussion represents music as lived and breathed by the toiling European commoner and the royalty of the warring kings and sultans alike. Depending on who you were, the sound of the drums could represent dance or death.

Today I’ll tell but a tiny glimpse of the story of the Western tambourine.

The tambourine holds an ancient history, but its life in Renaissance Spain belonged largely to the working class. Historical writing refers to its use in accompanying frenzied and raunchy dances among the common folk - dances like the chacona and zarabanda, which later transformed into the elegant chaconne and sarabande of Bach and beyond. However at the time, such licentious behaviour was met with strong condemnation from the Church, and despite attempts to ban such dancing on the grounds of “irredeemably infectious lasciviousness”, the dance craze proved too viral to be contained.

The dances spread to Italy through touring theatre, and while the three-chord tunes were adopted in the hands of amateur guitarists, the little be-jingled drum found a new home. Writers composed the tambourine into poetry representing seductive romance, and the exaggerated depictions of dances with tambourines and castanets featured in the theatrical commedia dell’arte that toured France and Britain. There they caught the further attention of the increasingly wealthy, and before long, King Henry VIII had four tambourine players among his court musicians. Yet for all of the cathartic relief it gave to the common folk, the entertainment it gave to the middle class, and the income it gave to the King’s players, so little is known about the instrument and music itself. No instruments of the era survive today, and no music was notated for it at the time.

Thankfully, we have only traced a section of one of its many lineages. In fact, traditional tambourine playing is still prevalent in Italian culture today, particularly in dances like the tarantella, the pizzica and the saltarello, where the vivacious and trance-like movements live on. Does this modern tradition faithfully replicate playing of the past? Definitely not - we can even trace the origins of some modern techniques to particular virtuosi. But many aspects of traditional Italian tambourine playing match visually with artwork depictions from the 15th and 16th centuries, concur with rhythmic sensibilities documented in dance treaties, and moreover, make perfect musical sense with dance music of the Renaissance and Baroque.

Piece by piece we reconstruct not “how the tambourine was played in the past” - for that we may never know - but rather “how the tambourine might have been played.” We study the old canvases and technologies - the skins, woods and metals - to build a tambourine as it may have sounded back then. We position our hands as painted by Angelico centuries ago and discover fluid movements we have never tried. We add the tambourine to the ensemble and there, in the music, we find a vibrant and tantalizing new character waiting for us.

Let us dance.

About Jet:

Jet Kye Chong is a Perth-based composer, percussionist and researcher, whose music has been performed throughout Australia, Asia, Canada and the USA. Chong won the 2018 Ransom Prize in orchestral composition, and the 2018 Scarlet’s Fund award for his string quartet Umbral Orbits. He has been selected for collaborative programs with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra, Flinders Quartet (VIC), and the Australian Youth Orchestra, plus a composition residency at All That We Are (TAS).

As a percussionist, Chong has performed with Nigel Westlake, Joseph Tawadros and Lior, and abroad with Jan Lisiecki (Canada/Poland), Aiyun Huang (Canada) and Emmanuel Séjourné (France). He held the Principal Percussion position in the 2019 Australian Youth Orchestra International Tour (Europe/China), and the Momentum Chamber Ensemble performances across the country. He has recorded with the Australian Baroque, and been heard on ABC Classic. Chong won the 2017 Malaysia Percussion Festival Performance Prize with his own work Rev 3, and is a two-time winner of the People’s Choice Award for the Vose Memorial Concerto Prize.

One may also find Chong performing at events and festivals around the state with Taiko On (Perth’s leading Japanese drumming group) or as bodhran player in his Irish band The Fiddlesticks.

Follow his work at: www.jetkyechong.com