the Pipe and Tabor compendium

the Pipe and Tabor compendium

essays on the three-hole pipe

Europe: 19th to 21st century France

under construction

19th century19th century
1801-1900pipe 1801 - 1900 Dolmetsch Collection
19111911 Landes, Nouvelle-Aquitaine
 
music

A classical piece of music called 'La tempête' written in 1888 by Ernest Chausson contains a section 'alleggretto leggiero'
which is said to be a flute and tambour duet.

Hidden Treasures series, at 9.50 minutes:

The tabor reappears from time to time in the modern orchestra as the tambour or tambourin provencal. Bizet employed
it in L’Arleé- sienne Suite no. 2 (1872), Copland in El Salén México (1933-36), Milhaud in his Suite frangaise (1944),
and Sessions in his Symphony no. 3 (1957).

'The New Harvard dictionary of music', 1986

 
1850‘Observations on the social and political State of the European People in 1848 and 1849;
being the second series of "The Notes of a Traveller." by Sam Laing
18711871 re-drawing of 14th century manuscript
‘A History of domestic manners and sentiments in England during the Middle Ages’ by Thomas Wright
19th century19th century putto statuette 19th century19th century sculpture 19th century19th century silver statuette late 19th centurylate 19th century gilt bronze statuette
1807 newspaper report 1807British Press - Thursday 15 October 1807
1813 newpaper report 1813Star (London) - Monday 29 November 1813
before 1820before 1820
children's illustration
18201820 Saint Cloud Festival, Paris 19th century19th century painting
18271827Morning Herald (London) 08 March 1827 - 1827 Bordeaux, Nouvelle-Aquitaine
18281828 watercolour, Brittany
1828

1830 Opera ‘Fra Diavolo’

CHORUS OF PEASANTS
"...Come, young girls, come,
come, we must be going.
Pipe and tabor
beckon us at pleasure's call."

18341834 caricature, taborer mounted on a goose

SAVOY AND SAVOYARD
… in sober reality, rarely, either in summer
or winter, will rustic dance
or song here be found to enliven
morning or evening: rarely will
the sound of pipe or tabor be found
to greet the traveller's ear, or the voice
of merriment be heard to issue from
cabin or cottage to invite his stay.  During the winter months, the condition of this peasantry must be pitiable indeed….”

Bolton Chronicle 24 January 1835

before 1837before 1837 postcard, nativity scene
© National Museum of Popular Arts and Traditions
before 1837

 

18401840 painting, Aquitaine, on the border with Spain
18431843 church wood carving, Saumur
Pays de la Loire
18461846 Épinal, Grand Est
© Musée de l'Image - Ville d'Épinal
19th century19th century

before 1847before 1847 Bourgogne-Franche-Comté

18421841 nativity scene
© Musée de l'Image, Epinal
1842

1843 story:
“… It was a holyday, and the peasants were celebrating it by a dance in the open air. A pipe and tabor
 formed their whole orchestra, but these were quite enough to keep their feet in motion. Joy shone in every face…”

‘Paul de Kock’s Novels: Sister Anne’ in The North American review. 56. 1843

18491849 nativity scene, Metz
© Musée de l'Image - Ville d'Épinal / photo E. Erfani

1849
19th century19th century nativity
 
1840-18901840-1890 nativity
1840-1890
mid 19th centurymid 19th century painting, nativity, Alsace
mid 19th century
18571857 Paris
18571857 farandole on pentecost Monday, Occitanie; l'illustration-journal-universel-no-745-volume-xxix-june-6-1857
1865 newspaper report, Laruns, Pyrénées-Atlantiques1865Berkshire Chronicle - Saturday 30 December 1865, England
18661866‘My life and recollections’ Berkeley, George C., complete in 4 vols, vol.3

1867 newspaper article ‘The Empire and the Exhibition’:

“…Prince Imperial was sick and suffering; and the grand Ceremonial Inauguration was
not with pipe and tabor , trumpet and cannon, but shabby, hurried, and dispirited….”

The Saturday Review, London. 4/20/1867

18691869 fantasy painting
playing for dancing pigs
1879-18821879-1882 toy theatre, printed at Metz
18831883 opera poster
18851885 stained glass window
Passy, Paris
18901890 from a design book by Ernest Guillot, page 132
18901890 sketch for Paris City Hall:
medieval scenes
18911891 wedding procession

1898 story 'The Ball Programme''
“…a pipe and tabour were heard, and the breeze brought us the subdued sound of dancing….A thin,
raw-boned man, leaning with his back against an oak-tree, was playing the pipe, whilst he struck a sharp
-sounding tabour with his left hand, after the custom of Provence… and it was not without anger that he
saw these inhabitants of the inner country thus breaking all the rules of fine dancing. Aggrieved during
the quadrille at the leaping and stamping of the peasants, he blushed with indignation when, at the end
of the air, they continued their paces for five long minutes, without appearing to have any idea even
of the absence of the pipe and tabour….The player on the pipe, who had pretended to withdraw,
having seen a few pieces of money shine, had just taken to his instruments again, beating and blowing
afresh, whilst sighing at the thought of prostituting melody as he was doing….”

‘Stories for Ninon’ by  Zola, Emile, 1840-1902

1898 story

“I send you Buisson, the tabour-player; pilot him," and the innumerable series of mishaps Buisson
and I met with on account of his flute, in Parisian salons, theaters, and concerts….The little flat case
contained his, galoubet, the simple rustic flute, which goes toottoot, while the drum goes boom-boom!
The covered cylinder was the drum itself. What a drum, my friends! Tears came into my eyes when I
saw it uncovered; an authentic tabour of the time of Louis XV., at once touching and comical in its enormity,
grumbling like an old man at the least touch with the tip of a finger. It was made of fine walnut, ornamented
with delicate carving, polished, thin, light, sonorous, and seeming to have become supple with the tempering
of time. Serious as a pope, Buisson slung his tabour to his left arm, took the pipe between three fingers
of his left hand (you have seen the pose and the instrument in some engraving of the eighteenth century,
or on the bottom of one of old Moustier's plates), and operating with his right hand the little ivory-tipped
drumstick, he touched the big drum, which, with its continuous sound like the burr-r-r of a harvest-fly…

‘Behind a mask; or, Numa Roumestan’by Daudet, Alphonse
18981898 ballet, Paris
19371937 etching, Paris
 
string drum
early 20th centuryearly 20th century ttun ttun from a postcard 18551855 Branle d'Ossau   
20152015 string drum    
 
pandean pipes
19th century1841 caricature, Paris    
       

 


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