The best drum sticks are of whalebone, each
terminating in a small wooden button covered with sponge. For the bass
drum and side drum I must be content to refer to Mr. Victor de
Pontigny's article, and also for the tambourine, but the Provencal
tambourines I have met with have long, narrow sound bodies, and are
strung with a few very coarse strings which the player sounds with a
hammer. This instrument is the rhythmic bass and support to the simple
galoubet, a cylindrical pipe with two holes in front and one behind,
sounded by the same performer. The English pipe and tabor is a similar
combination, also with one player, of such a pipe and a small
drum-head tambourine. Lastly, to conclude percussion instruments,
cymbals are round metal plates, consisting of an alloy of copper and
tin--say 80 parts to 20--with sunk hollow centers, from which the
Greek name. They are not exactly clashed together to elicit their
sound, but rubbed across each other in a sliding fashion. Like the
triangle, a steel rod, bent into the form indicated by the name, but
open at one corner so as to make it an elastic rod, free at both ends;
the object is to add to the orchestral matter luminous crashes, as it
were, and dazzling points of light, when extreme brilliancy is
required.
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