~Musical Interlude~: Instruments of the Peasantry
One thing that I did find interesting in Peasant Fires, was how Hans Behem was called “The Drummer of Niklashausen” and how his drum was a key part of his image. I decided to look into medieval drums and how it related to society at the time. Some images of what medieval drums looked like and what Hans Behem’s drum may have looked like.
Medieval style drums were often made with rope, and skin heads that were rolled and stitched with the snare on the top head. Drums were often military in nature and were often used in marches or various kinds of processions. Drums were and often are, accompanied by other instruments but can also be played alone as shown in this performance of a drum solo:
This shows how drums can be used as a sole instrument, which is not often the case.
Here is a video of drums in a more military march like setting as they were more formally used.
Drums were very important instruments and highly used in the time period, and they make for interesting music trends around the time and beyond.