the Pipe and Tabor compendium

the Pipe and Tabor compendium

essays on the three-hole pipe
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Portugal

with thanks to Gwilym for his research

One of the earliest depictions of the pipe and tabor in the 13th century. 420 poems with musical notation,
written in the medieval Galician-Portuguese language during the reign of Alfonso X of Castile El Sabio (1221–1284)

Cantiga370Cantiga 370

Portuguese historical and iconographic sources show us, since the Middle Ages, the presence of the drummer
in festive and ceremonial contexts. The flute and drum ensemble is still located in the border areas of Terras
de Miranda (Trás-os-Montes) and in Baixo Alentejo. source

The 3-holed pipe played in north-east part of Portugal, Miranda do Douro, is generally called the pastoral flute,
(flauta pastoral, or ‘fraita’ in the Mirandes language). The tabor is a tamboril.  There is an unbroken tradition in
N E Portugal. Located on the border with Spain and part of Spain for a while, it has been geographically isolated
from the rest of Portugal; so traditional rural culture was preserved here for longer.  

The situations when the pipe and tabor can be seen today are firstly on religious occasions. There are specific tunes
for going into mass, coming out of mass, processions for saints’ days and so on. Some villages have their own tunes
which have persisted amongst folk musicians, despite official discouragement from the clerical authorities in the past. 
Secondly, the music accompanies folk dancing. Thirdly, the music is played on social occasions, in bars and social
gatherings. [source]

King Edward I (1391 –1438) had many musicians including:
“fifteen trumpeters, four shawm players, a tamborileiros, a lutenist called Lopo de Condeixa, a cittern player and a minstrel…”

'Musical iconography in fifteenth-century altarpiece and mural painting: Álvaro Pires de Évora, Bernardo Martorell and the unknown
Masters of Batalha, Arouca and Monsaraz’ by Sónia Duarte, 2014
13441344 Lisbon
 
15061506 religious item
16th century16th century manuscript 1517-15381517-38 April, from 'Book of Hours of Dom Manuel'
tiles18th century, Monastery of São Vicente de Fora, Lisbon
 17601760 tile panel depicting Apollo and Marsyas, garden fountain, Lisbon (detail)

pipeextant pipe source
traditional drumtraditional drum - Bombo de Lavacolhos
player in traditional costumeflauta o gaita played by
a tamborileiro from
Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro,
and Alentejo
playerunknown
playerunknown pipe player
player's handpipe held by little finger at end
Manuol Einácio in the 20th century.
20th century20th century
20th century20th century Virgílio Augusto Cristal playing for dancing
20th century20th century playersource

1966 player1966 António Maria Cuco

 With the border erased
in the 1970’s as a result
of the European Community, there now is much more coming and going between players in Spain and Portugal
19651965 António Oliveira Lopes

“ my father would leave here playing the drum at dawn,
everyone already knew that the Tamborileiro would be there,
playing tum tum, tum tum, but he played very well. …
My brother still played, he played well, but he didn’t play
like him"

(Maria Castro Lopes, daughter of the drummer Manuel Fialho Lopes).

 20th centurysource
Ângelo Arriba, 21st century
playing for folk dancing 		2006 pipeand tabor workshop2006 workshop with teacher Santiago Bejar 2011 player2011 player

practise2013
20142014 in a religious procession
20142014 Tamborileiro drawing
Sendim, Miranda do Douro
Trás-os-Montes
 
band practise music workshop
Angelo ArribasAngelo Arribas,
Freixiosa, Miranda do Douro
    
21st century women players21st century women students at the music school in Lisbon  
20242024 duo 'Pardeus'  
The traditional musical line-up for most occasions follows a strict pattern of a trio consisting of either bagpipe
or pipe and tabor, accompanied by a bass drum and a side drum. Since taborers did not play in groups
together their pipes used to be in varied keys.  More recently the keys are being standardised
Some bands play traditional instruments at folk concerts . 
player
 FrameFrame
tamboriltamboril GalandumGalandum's instruments
instruments used in Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro, and Alentejo, north-east Portugal

 

‘Portuguese entertainment music from the countryside,’ a film by Michel Giacometti, produced in 1972:

This film shows different ways to relax together or to celebrate feasts. Musical instruments of the countryside
accompany these events. ..... The pipe and tabor player, living along the border in Alentejo province, is also
the musician for some feasts, as well as the band of the Beira province, called ‘Lavacoios,’ composed of men
playing different kinds of drums and flutes. They perform in the streets in a procession.
Women occasionally play the pipe - Las Çaranda Cirigoça in 2014 women band
 
Sometimes the pipe is played with the string drum.
alterpiece1515 alterpiece 'Adoration of the Shepherds' (detail)
string drum
 1515
 
c. 1515 altarpiece, Convento da Madre de Deus, Lisbon
string drum
book
 "This work seeks to preserve,
for future memory, two
of the most expressive musical
traditions of Miranda do Douro,
through the life stories of the
taborers and the Mirandese frita,
a three-hole flute also known
as pastoral flute: in Portuguese"

report on a research trip by Judith Cohen


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©an on-going project with lots more to add Last modified 4 July, 2026