Pipe and Tabor

[Tim2723]

Anyone else here play pipe and tabor? I have a set I bought years ago from Lark. My pipe is a very nice low D from Ralph Sweet. My tabor is one of those, umm...folksey rope-tensioned goatskin drums from Lark that looks like it was outsourced by Pakistan to some really impoverished country. I bought it back in my Ren Faire days and pick it up once in a while.

So, how many players here?

[Yuri]

Well, I'm not a player as such, but I'm a maker. I can play them, of course, just prefer other instruments for myself. (pics on my website, if interested)

[Whistling Archer]

Seems we like some of the same things. I just did a search and found this old thread. I am thinking about taping up some holes and playing some tonight. I have a drum already, that I used to record accp. for my indian musc.
You still playing yours?

[Tim2723]

Hi Steve,

Thanks for digging this old thing up. I'd forgotten all about it. Funny, I figured there would be a number of players here.

Yes, I take it up once in a while just to keep my hand in it, but it's not as big for me as it was years back. Still a lot of fun and an interesting instrument though.

[Innocent Bystander]

I'll add my name to the muster. I made one from Walden's instructions. I don't play it much, but I'm resolved to practice the instruments I've neglected.

[sean an piobaire]

O YE Whittle and Dub "Pipers" !
Have you heard of Dick Bagwell of Berkeley, California ?
He played "Will Kemp" at the "Original" Ren-Faires, at
Agoura/ Los Angeles and Novato / SF Bay area, starting in
1973..... and a more dedicated Tabor and Pipe player, you
never would see .....anywhere, outside of Europe.
I bought my first "Pipe" at Cecil Sharpe House in London,
that same year (73), after I had met up with Bruce Watson,
who lived near Marble Arch. Bruce also played Northumbrian
Small Pipes. The "Pipe" he was playing was made by Jim Jones,
who lived in the Forrest of Deane. Bruce told me there was one left at Sharpe House, so I hurried out there and got it for 10 quid.
These "Pipes" were made of heavy brass with a tunable top section
(the section with the Fipple).
It's in D.... and LOUD !!!
The Drum I bought has a Bisquit-Tin body,painted White,
with Red wooden Rims and rope tension.
Over the intervening years....I have collected a Black plastic Basque Txistu, a "G" Pipe by Ralph Sweet, and a Gobulet by Bryan Tolley.
When I bought my Xeremie from Mallorca in 1999, I HAD to
buy the Fabiol with it, as it is tradition to play as a 2 man,
Xeremie (Bagpipe) and Fabiol y Tambor team.
If anybody would like to play Fabiol y Tambor with me, look me up,
part of the time I'm in central California, and some times,
I'm in Southern Illinois !
So.....Tweet-Tweet...... Boom-Boom !
Sean Folsom

[pete stewart]

. The "Pipe" he was playing was made by Jim Jones,

I have two Jim Jones pipes that I bought around 1971, but mine are stainless steel; G/D and C/G. I have three drums, one 'dub' bought from CSH in 1971 and one made by a Civil war re-enacter and one (bigger) made by bagpipe-maker Julian Goodacre. I also have two brass pipes from CSH at the same time; these were not Jim Jones, but I cant remember who made them; it might have been Bruce himself? The Jim Jones pipes are the only ones I've seen (which is not many, sure) that are loud enough to play with the Lowland bagpipe, which we did in Andorra at the Ordino festival this summer.
Yep, bagpipe and pipe and tabor is an authentic Scottish tradition, though not since the 17th century I think; there was a teacher in Banffshire in the 19th century though. the Scottish word is 'tabrounar'; the drum is a 'Swasch' and the pipe is called 'quhissil' but 'pipe and swasch' is a common usage too ...

tootle pip

pete stewart

[sean an piobaire]

Hi Pete !!!
Thanks for adding the info about quhissils and tabrounars,
playing along with LOWLAND PIPES !!!
It's my understanding that the BIG "side" Drums
(played with 2 sticks) were popular in Switzerland,
in the early 1500s, along with the very famous
FIFE (A.K.A. the "Almain whistle").
These big Drums were made in those high Alps, and exported
to Scotland, where they were called SWISS DRUMS.
After a while, the end word "DRUM" was dropped,
and "SWISS" morphed into "SWASH"....hence someone
who buckled on a drum was a "SWASHBUCKLER".
The shipboard Drum/SWASH was a big part of getting the Marines
out on deck, with all the different beats (like different Bugle calls)
as an aid to communication between the Captain and the troops.
I also understand that they would keep 3 or more SWASH(s) "rolling"
to drown out the sounds of men being flogged......
In the Lowlands of Scotland, the Town Pipers and Swashers
were legendary characters......always being hauled in front of
the court of assizes and being fined for,
"Tonkering of the Drum, upon the Lord's Sabbath" etc.
When the towns all got clocks (by the 1850s ?) these PIPERS
and SWASHBUCKLERS were made "Redundant".....
("DOWN-SIZED", in American parlance).
So Pete, is there any historic accounts of
"Fife and Pipe" combinations ?
Your TWEET-BOOMER....Sean Folsom

[pete stewart]

Hi Sean,
There are lots of treasurers accounts records of various 'tabrounaris'
but it is speculation to say what kind of whistle was played. There is the famous Aberdeen record for the player of the 'Almany Whistle' which is perhaps what you referred to. Here's part of a reference to pipe and swasch from Haddington in 1610 (my local town); a local lawyer is being held in the Tolbooth and he invites his friends in for a party which leads to them
"drinkand and playand and gestand in Richert Skowgall thair common pyper and swascher with ye swasch and his pype as also Johne Grahame pyper"
also, from the Scottish Treasurers accounts for 1502;

29 January: gift of 42.0d to Guilliam, tabrounar, to buy himself “quissillis”.
and for your Ship's drummers:
28 May: 14.0d to the taborers of the “Jacat”. [James IV was inspecting the fleet in the Firth of Forth]
Naval ships also had pipers; in 1705 the Edinburgh newspaper advertised for 'anyone who plays on the bagpipes' who would like to join a British Man'o' War; dosent say if they ever had any applicants ...

Keith Sanger sent me a record from the Customs Accounts of taxes on quhissils being imported by the dozen.

and then of course there's the magnificent tabrounar in Rosslyn Chapel ...