Word of the Day: Tabor

Tabor: a small drum From the Latin

The tabor is a small drum, carried suspended from the arm and struck with only one drumstick, so that the musician is free to play a pipe with the other hand. The pipe-and-tabor combination differs from a fife and drum in several ways. The most significant difference is that the fife and drum is used for military and ceremonial purposes, while the pipe-and-tabor is used for social functions, such as weddings and dances. This is what Shakespeare was referring in Much Ado About Nothing (Act II, scene 3) when he wrote, about the change that had come over a man who had fallen in love,

"...I have known when there was no music for him but the drum and the fife; and now he had rather hear the tabor and the pipe."

For more about tabors, click here.