THE PIPE AND TABOR loi 



which Mr. Casals — ^himself a Catalan — described 

 to me, is a round dance of some complexity. It is 

 held in high esteem as a national affair, and is 

 danced by gentle and simple together. The band 

 consists of a tabor and pipe, four large rustic oboes, 

 some cornets and a double-bass. The interesting 

 point is that the taborer always leads off with a solo, 

 a spirited flourish which Mr. Casals was so good as 

 to play on the piano. It is curious that there is 

 only one such traditional flourish, and this is used 

 whatever the dance-music may be. Mr. Casals 

 described the effect of the whole band as moving 

 and exciting in a high degree. 



I have an old newspaper cutting of the Queen 

 Victoria and Prince Albert watching the British 

 sailor dance a hornpipe on the deck of a man-of- 

 war, accompanied by a couple of marines with a 

 drum and fife. Shakespeare evidently considered 

 these two instruments as the military equivalent of 

 the tabor and pipe. He makes Benedick laugh at 

 Claudio, in love, for throwing over the drum and 

 fife for the taborer's music. 



In the middle ages the tabor and pipe were a 

 good deal associated with the performances of 

 strollers and mountebanks. On the other hand, 

 they did not always take this role. There is a beauti- 

 ful carved figure playing the pipe and tabor in the 

 Angel Choir of Lincoln Cathedral, dating from 

 1270. In Strutt's Sports and Pastimes (Ed. 2, 

 Plate XXIV), a horse is shown, dancing to a tabor 

 and pipe, from a MS. of about 1 300 ; on Plate XXIII 

 is a drawing of a taboring hare (without a pipe) 

 of about the end of the 13th century. I am not 



