by David Beneded Blázquez
The
filmmaker Luis Buñuel, a universal Aragonese and calandino “de pro”, used to
say about the drums, "that amazing, overwhelming, cosmic phenomenon that
rubs against the collective unconscious makes the ground tremble under our
feet". Achieved definition of what the presence of the drum in the
Aragonese Holy Week supposes, already one of its most recognizable and deeply
rooted signs.
The
history of this instrument is, above all, the history of its military uses.
From the time of Charlemagne the drums resounded in the battles, receiving the
name of "tympanon" by the Greeks and of "typanon" (or
"tympanum") by the Romans. In medieval times, an instrument with
staves called "tabor" appears, whose use spread throughout Europe
after being introduced into Spain through the Arabs and through northern Europe
by the Turks; two versions that differed in their form, but basically used the
same process of producing sound. It consisted of a drum with two patches, with
a single bead located above the upper patch, and was usually played with a
single stick.
This
instrument had a wide range of sizes across different places and times, without
reaching a definitive shape. For example, the English "tabor" was
shallow, while the "tambourin" de Provence, used in France, was much
deeper. Other medieval tabores, particularly in Spain where they would be known
as "atabor" or "atambor", had a diameter approximately
equal to its depth, establishing mainly its use for military purposes, although
also in smaller size as a folk instrument. (...)
The
drum in the Holy Week of Zaragoza.
As is
known, the drum was used in the execution protocol being percussed by soldiers
or clerics while the convict's transfer, execution and subsequent burial
lasted. It is therefore that the relationship of the drum with our Holy Week is
deeply rooted with the Brotherhood of the Blood of Christ since the assistance
to those condemned to death is surely the first charitable activity instituted
in the Brotherhood since it already exists in the agreement of ascription to
the Convent of San Agustín of 1554: "the main cause and obligation that
has moved the said brothers of the said brotherhood to order the said
Brotherhood of the Blood of Christ is to console and help die well as Catholics
Christians to the condemned and sentenced to death in the city of Çaragoça, and
help them to die well and accompany them through the streets until they are
killed "[2]
The use
in these procedures had to move to the processions of the "Holy
Burial" to be Jesus Christ, at the end of the day, an executed. Thus,
processions of the early seventeenth century already appeared mourn drums as
reflected in the verses of the poem of 1628 "Entombment of Christo in
Çaragoça" preserved in the University Library of Zaragoza and studied by
the historian and brother Antonio Olmo: "The fifes sonorous / lament
intemperate, / mutter mourners / “quexoxos atambores”, / with mournful harmony
/ the trumpet moans pía, / if of hard metal / insensible instrument, / is moved
with hoarse feeling "[3]. Similarly, in the procession of 1645 the
presence of a first group of "fife, caxa and ronquilla" and a second
of "fife and caxa" is mentioned, while in the processional output of
the "Cruz de Mayo" also organized by the Brotherhood in 1647 it was
headed by "caxas and fife and four trumpets". [4]
Also,
in the processional order of 1700 reflected in the acts of the Brotherhood,
would appear "a mourning box, a fife and a drum". And such is the
identification of these instruments with the Brotherhood, that some controversy
was even generated around them, such as the prohibition by the Vicar of the
Archdiocese in 1735 of the Holy Friday costs "for the irreverences it
caused in the temple of the Lord the instruments of tamboril and fife with
which the Brotherhood of the Blood of Christ requests, unfit for a Holy place
making it a place of “place of algaraza ". [5]
References that will no longer disappear over the years as
denoted the processional order of 1860, where "the insane of both sexes of
the Holy Hospital, with its drum and flag" as well as "after the
passage of death and preceding the Tribes of Israel, he is followed by
immemorial custom, a drum with the mourning box and two fifes, all dressed in
robes playing funeral marches. " [6]
But despite these remarkable reviews as well as the constancy
of their presence in the various groups and bands of military court that have
accompanied since at least 1823 the processions of Zaragoza, we can say that it
was in 1940 when the drum is introduced in our Holy Week, as we know it today.
In that year, the Brotherhood of the Seven Words and of San Juan Evangelista,
founded Mosén Francisco Izquierdo Molins, a native of the town of Torrecilla de
Alcañiz, will incorporate a group of "twelve drums and a bugle of the
Infantry Regiment No. 52, at the seasoning of garrison in Zaragoza, dressed in
black third, formed of three in depth at the beginning of the retinue and
playing military marches "[7] in its first procession on the morning of
Holy Friday, thus collecting the essences and tradition of the drums of Bajo
Aragón.
In this region, and although its splendor and in some cases
its recovery, goes back to the first years of the 20th century, some legendary
stories narrate that in Híjar this custom is related to the impulse of local
devotion promulgated by the Franciscan Order 1519 where the people, playing
drums and cauldrons and wearing black or brown sackcloth, met during the
Thursday and Good Friday in the mountain known as "Cabezo de la Cruz"
in order to cry out against the death of Christ [8]. Similarly, in Calanda
there is evidence that, following the famous miracle happened to Miguel
Pellicer in 1640, a procession was organized to the image of the Virgen del
Pilar, located on the outskirts of the town, in which many calandinos were
Playing the drum. After this great event the Vicar José Herreros de Tejada y
Royo led to the creation of a Roman guard that he equipped with a small band of
drums, known as "Putuntunes" [9]. Also, it is recorded that in 1678,
on the initiative of the friar Fray Mateo Pestel, some drums with the intention
of publishing the burial of Christ appear in the newly created procession of
the Proclamation in Alcañiz [10].
The Brotherhood of the Seven Words, after the experience of
the first year and already known as "the one of the drums", was able
to organize in 1941 a section composed of 19 brothers of the own Brotherhood
who, dressed in the habit with a green hood, interpreted some of the most
popular marches of Calanda, Híjar and Alcañiz [7], being such their acceptance
that soon many brotherhoods and brotherhoods of Zaragoza wanted to include
their own instrumental sections in their processions in order to replace the
musical accompaniment that until then they had and that came from entities
external to the own brotherhoods (bands of music or cornets and drums of
various military regiments or entities such as the "Youth Front" or
the "Eucharistic Crusaders"). In this way, the instrumental sections
of the confraternities of the Prendimiento (1953), Nazareno (1955), Dolorosa
(1957), Coronation of Thorns (1958), Descent (1959), Arrival to Calvary (1960)
or Camino del Calvario were founded. (1962) to reach, through the years, the
current twenty-one Zaragoza brotherhoods, which have included in their ranks
instrumental percussion sections (all except the brotherhoods of the Ecce Homo,
the Silence and the Blood of Christ, although these if they have been
accompanied on several occasions in their processions by sections of other
brotherhoods). (...)
Source and reference notes: "The drum, cosmicphenomenon" created by David Beneded Blázquez for
www.jesusdelahumillacion.org,
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