Good topic, when I was in college taking botany as an elective we had to do a paper for a final grade and it had to do with plants and how we used them as humans.

I decided to do the paper on plants and instruments and the earliest instruments were actually logs on the ground and or just the ground being stamped on with ones foot.

From there it progressed to log drums of all sorts and shapes and finally to skin drums. Log drums were used on every continent.

I believe when the skins were hanging they had to hit them and stretch them and it was just a natural progression that they were stretched over the end of the logs.

I did more research on the Hawaiian instruments (I was in a Polynesian band at the time) since they use a lot of them in their native dances including bamboo sticks, gourds, shells and other hand instruments.

I still have the paper and have to see if I can find it. I did get an A of course, it was a topic I really liked. I got a C in the class because I just did not want to memorize all of the different parts of a plant.

David

My wild speculation on the origin of the snare drum is that it was probably militaristic. I'm thinking it may have been a literal attempt at imitating gunfire for enhanced intimidation on the battlefield. Perhaps discovered incidently in a search for ways to increase perceived volume (projection).x-mas1

interesting topic.. all seem to be possible.

According to Percussion Instruments and Their History, by James Blades (not on me so relying on memory), the earliest examples of drums with snares are the ghirbal and bendir, from ancient Arabia (south and west of modern day Iraq) and today found in Morocco in North Africa. The bendir is a single headed frame drum with gut stretched across the backside of the head. i think a ghirbal is a very small frame drum with snares on the top side of the head.

Found these on the web

The earliest form of the snare drum was the medieval tabor. The tabor is a doubleheaded drum. It often has one simple gut snare. The tabor was often played along with a three-holed pipe in the Middle Ages. Today this combination can still be found in modern European folk music.

The tabor gradually increased in size during the 15th century. It emerged as a military instrument by the 16th century.

The term bass drum has been used for two distinct instruments. The first had a short shell with a wide head. It can be traced back to the 14th century in Europe. This drum was known to the West as the Turkish drum until the 19th century.

The other bass drum was a long drum. The length of its cylinder was about twice the width of the diameter. This drum was changed until it resembled the other one during the course of the 19th century. Its shell was shortened and widened, and the shell was replaced with brass.

A cord was once used to attach the head of a drum to the shell. It was done by wrapping a cord around the border of skin that overlapped the shell. This was later replaced when the hoop was added to the head around which the excess skin was lapped.

Laces were used to increase the tension of the heads. It was accomplished by lacing a cord in a W or Y pattern around the shell. This method was replaced with the development of a top hoop. This hoop had tension screws, which could alter the tautness of the drumhead.

The bass drum was first introduced into European music in the 18th century. It came from the Turkish military music being produced at the time.

Floyd was definately onto something there. The drum has been used all through history as a military item. More specifically, a means to communicate. Drums were used in many wars to tell the troops when to move and when to fire and even when to retreat ........... providing the drummer didn't get shot in the process!!! Certain patterns meant certain commands and since walkies talkies weren't around and a persons voice wasn't loud enough to be heard over gun shots and other noises of war ................ the drum was!! Is this the original purpose? I don't know, but it is indeed one use of the snare drum.