THE DRUM, COSMIC PHENOMENON



Photograph by JorgeSesé


EL TAMBOR (“THE DRUM”), COSMIC PHENOMENON 
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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