Description
A tambourine is a frame drum consisting of a hoop covered with a skin and to which several bells are attached. If this is not the case, it is not a tambourine but a hand drum. If the bells are present but the skin is not stretched, it is a beatring, or a ring of bells. The instrument is struck or moved by hand. The tambourine is frequently seen and heard in much Southern European folk music (Spain, Portugal, Italy). In classical music, the tambourine has been frequently prescribed, especially since the early twentieth century. One of the earliest users was Joseph Haydn, who prescribed it in the choral passage "Es lebe der Wein..." (The Life of Wine), about the wine festival in the oratorio "Die Jahreszeiten" (The Seasons). Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy wrote them for the purely instrumental fandango in the second act of his opera "Die Hochzeit des Camacho" (Op. 10, 1825). Richard Strauss wrote the tambourine for the final movement of the "Symphonia domestica" (Op. 53).
Listen to the Tambourine and learn to play it.
