A percussion instrument with a skin (or plastic) head stretched over a frame or body shell of wood, metal, earthenware or bone. It is known in almost every age and culture. Drums are sounded in three ways: percussion, where they are struck with the hands or with beaters, or shaken; friction, where the membrane, or a stick or cord in contact with it, is rubbed; and plucking, where a string knotted below the membrane is plucked so that its vibrations are transferred to the skin. Most drums are struck. These have various shapes: kettledrums, which are bowl-shaped; tubular drums, which may be cylindrical, barrel-shaped, double-conical, hourglass-shaped, conical or goblet-shaped; and frame drums.
Drums were among the earliest instruments. In many areas they are used as message drums or served sacred or ritual purposes. They are represented in the art of ancient Egypt, Assyria, India and Persia. They were known to the Greeks and Romans; small kettledrums and tabors of Arab or Saracen origin came to Europe during the 13th-century crusades. Larger kettledrums reached the West from the Ottoman Empire during the 15th century.
In the orchestra, membrane drums are either of definite pitch (timpani) or of indeterminate pitch (bass, side and tenor drums). The bass consists of a cylindrical shell of wood with two heads. The bass drum is normally played from a standing position, supported on a stand or suspended in a frame. For the normal single stroke it is struck with a large felt-headed stick. The bass drum was rare in Europe until the 18th century when the imitation of the Turkish janissary bands became fashionable: Gluck seems to have made the earliest use of it; he was followed by Mozart (Die Entführung aus dem Serail, 1782), Haydn (‘Military’ Symphony, 1794) and Beethoven (Ninth Symphony, 1824). Romantic composers such as Berlioz, Liszt (credited with introducing the roll), Wagner, Verdi and Sibelius used it extensively. Stravinsky's use of it in the finale of The Rite of Spring remains one of its finest moments.
The side (or snare) drum, so called because the original military instrument was slung from the shoulder and worn angled at the player's side, consists of a cylindrical shell of wood or metal covered at each end with a head of calfskin or plastic. They range from 10 to 30 cmin depth and are 35-40 cmin diameter. Across the lower head are stretched snares, eight or more strings of gut, wire, wire-covered silk or nylon, whose vibration gives the drum its characteristic crisp timbre. It is played with tapered wooden drumsticks with acorn-shaped ends. The foundation of side-drumming is the ‘roll’, with such patterns as the ‘paradiddle’ and embellishments as the ‘flam’, ‘drag’ and ‘ruff’. The earliest known side drum is the medieval tabor, represented in early 13th- and 14th-century art as a rope-tensioned drum with snares. Such music as was written down is military, consisting mainly of instructions for signalling and pace-making. The association of drum and fife, first recorded in 1332, continued for many centuries, as important to the foot regiment as the trumpets and kettledrums to the cavalry. By the 19th century composers, notably Rossini (La gazza ladra), made increasing use of the side drum; it is prominent in works by Rimsky-Korsakov, Elgar, Ravel, Nielsen, Bartók, Shostakovich, Britten, Sessions and Carter, some of whom have exploited its rhythmic resources and numerous tone colours.
The tenor drum is cylindrical, larger in diameter (c 45 cm) than depth (c 36 cm). Tonally it is between the bass drum and the unsnared side drum; it is played with hard or soft sticks. In England, France and Germany it appeared in the military band during the 19th century. Berlioz used a tenor drum in his Grande messe des morts; Wagner wrote for it in Rienzi, Lohengrin, Die Walküre and Parsifal, and Strauss in Ein Heldenleben.
