ABSTRACT
Rope tensioning was the only method of tensioning employed for the earliest drums until aer the American Civil War, when rod tensioning became common.
THE SNARE DRUM In Switzerland and Germany, the snare drum was known as a Trommel;1 in France, le tambour militaire or tambour d’ordonnance;2 and in England, the side drum.3 (When the drum was rst brought to England in 1492, at the time of Henry VII, it was known as the Sweche, and in Scotland by 1533 it was called the Swasche Talburn, attesting to its Swiss derivation.)4 In the United States, it has been known as the eld snare drum, parade drum, tenor drum, small drum, or sometimes kettle (kittle, colloquially) drum, or, in early records, simply drum.
