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The string drum goes by many names according to the region of Europe. These include:
Choron / Corun / Chorus
in the Middle Ages, Chicotén or Salterio in Aragon (Spain);
Ttun ttun or Sokazko Ttunttuna in the Basque country
(north Spain/France); Tamborin
in Gascony (France).
There is no evidence that the string drum was played in Great Britain.
There are also variations in the design of the instrument
according
to the region.
The number of strings in medieval
and Renaissance times, for example, varied between 2 and 9. |
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string drum, no pipe |
| In the 14th and 15th centuries the string drum was played on it's own, without a pipe. |
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 late 14th century angel on the back
of a chair
belonging to one
of the officiants
at the Chartreuse
de Champmol,
Dijon
Burgundy, France |
14th century angel, altarpiece, Lekeitio, Vizcaya, Basque country [Virgin and Child], Spain |
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 1400-1425 terracotta angel
Palau Dalmases chapel,
Barcelona, Spain |
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 1450-60 manuscript
Poitiers, France |
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15th century angel player with two sticks
Castelló d'Empúries,
Girona, Catalonia, Spain
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 15th century misericord, Rouen Cathedral, Normandy, France
[now disappeared] |
.. 15th / 16th century stone carving
The Church of Saint-Maclou, Rouen
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 1520 fresco, Pomarance, Pisa
Italy |
 1527 painting
Abbadia a Isola, Tuscany, Italy |
 1550 tapestry, Brussels
Belgium [page 15] |
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 18th century sketch, Germany
man playing
a scheitholt
or tambourin de Béarn |
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early 15th century France; Jean de Gerson described :
"a certain oblong, hollow instrument in the form of a beam, having two or three strings much thicker than
those
of the cithara, which when diversely struck with sticks give a rude sound”
‘A treatise by Master Johannes Gerson, Chancellor of Paris, an excellent doctor, on the temptations, suggestions, and impulses of the evil spirit.’ page 52 |
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pipe and string drum |
14th, 15th and 16th centuries there are descriptions of string drums throughout Europe, especially in France,
the Netherlands, Italy and the Iberian Peninsula. In the mountain villages of France and Spain there is
a continuing
tradition to the present day.
There do not appear to be records of the string drum being played in Great Britain. |
 14th century fresco Church of Carraascal de Velambelez
Salamanca, Spain
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 15th century stone carving
Sulmona, Italy |
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 1448 hammer dulcimer or chorus
or pipe and not-a-string-drum? |
 between 1487 and 1506 church
of Fontdepou in Àger La Noguera
Lleida, Catalonia, Spain |
angels playing string drum and viol in the village
of Cervera del Río Alhama
(Rioja Baja, Spain) |
 1489 angel, fresco, Rome, Italy
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 15th/16th century angel, Galicia, Spain
[string drum?] |
 c.1490 angel, manuscript, Milan, Italy [f.31] |
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 1515 angel, Lisbon, Portugal |
 c.1515 painted
altarpiece with angels,
'Assumption of the Virgin'
Convento da Madre
de Deus,
Lisbon, Portugal |
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 1510-1550 pipe and string drum, Palace of the Counts of Miranda
in Peñaranda de Duero, Burgos, Spain |
 1536 'Concert of Angels, Saranno, Italy [detail] |
1592 string drums in an inventory of musical instruments:
Alarcón in Cuenca, Spain.
“Two Buttafuoco cloth bags ”
‘Musical Instruments in A 1592 Inventory of The Marquis Ferdinando D'alarçon’ by Alberto Mammarella |
 1592 'Spring' mythological, Rome, Italy |
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 1598 part of angel band,
Valencia, Spain |
 16th century Siena, Italy |
 unknown angel,
Brescia
Lombardy, Italy |
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1600
Italy, book appendix:
‘Alcune considerazioni attorno al buttafuoco’,
(Some considerations about the string drum) by John Henry van der Meer,
in ‘Libro per scriver l'intavolatura per sonar sopra le sordelline’by Giovanni Lorenzo Baldano,(Savona 1600) |
1611 string drum definition in one of the first Spanish dictionaries:
‘The instrument that we now call the salterio is an instrument a little wider than a span, and a vara [a measure
of about 83 cm] long, hollow inside, and with the ribs four fingers high. It has many strings, all made of metal
and arranged in such a way that by playing them all together with a stick garnished with a cloth, it makes
a gentle sound; and their equality serves as a drone for the pipe that the musician of this instrument plays
with the left hand, and according to the tune he wants to make, he follows the beat with the stick. It is used
in the villages, in processions, at weddings, and in dances.”
‘The Network of Musicians in Valladolid, 1550–1650: Training, Companies, Livelihoods, and Related Crafts and Trades’ by López Suero, Ana |
 1625-30 Italy
Psalteries paired with the pipe appeared in the late 15th century.
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 1600-1650 modern replica figure
of 'Tambourin du Bearn with Schwegel',
Music Corps Thirty Years' War Item No.: 671 |
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 17th century? painting,
House of Music, Strasbourg Grand Est, France [page 55] |
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 1687 religious painting, Naples Italy |
 1687 religious painting, Naples Italy |
 18th century copy, Italy |
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In the 18th century it became fashionable for the aristocracy to pretend to be peasants. Meanwhile in the Pyrenees
working class
agricultural men continued to play their traditional music with, and dancing to, the string drum. |
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 1734 playing for dancing |
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 20th century, Basque, painting [detail] |
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 2007 Monein, SW France |
 procession, Aragon, NE Spain |
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1923 
1948 Angeles-sur-Mer, 
2008 Aragon, Spain 
2009 French and Spanish string drum workshop 
[source]
memorial on wall in Aragaon, Spain 
2012 Basque country Spain 
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_-_Mus%C3%A9e_des_beaux-arts_-_%22Aragonaises_d'Anso%22_(Jean-Pierre-Alexandre_Antigna,_1817-1878)_(49442887941).jpg){kind=link}
![[source]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psalterium_(instrument)#/media/File:Espartenhas_-_Campestral_2016_au_Passage_d'Agen_(1).jpg){kind=link}
