Frame Drums in the Medieval Iberian Peninsula

Frame drums are percussion instruments comprised of one or two membranes stretched over a light and shallow frame or hoop. Iconographical and literary sources reveal the widespread use of two different types of frame drums in the medieval Iberian Peninsula: a round version with parchment stretched only on one side of its shell and another of square shape with parchment covering both sides of its body. The names tympanum in Latin, pandero and adufe in Castilian, and bandair and duff in Iberian Arabic were most commonly used to refer to these instruments. From a variety of sources, such as sculptures, illuminations of Christian and Jewish books, Islamic decorative objects, music treatises, dictionaries, and historical chronicles, we learn that these instruments were not only played to provide rhythmic accompaniment to recreational, civic, and paraliturgical music, but were also perceived and used as symbols that stood for or suggested something else that was not intrinsically connected to them.