Instruments - Part 27

 Tambourine

The tambourine was referred to in ancient writings as early as 1700 BC.  Above is a Greek oil flask dating from 450-400 BC, depicting the winged god Eros playing either a tympanon, a hand drum stretched across a circular frame, or its relative the tambourine, which has metal disks mounted around the frame that jingle when you shake it.

This painting, The Triumphal Procession of Bacchus by Martin van Heemkerck, c. 1536, shows a woman in back playing a tambourine to accompany the naked revelers.

No revelry here.  This photo by the circle of Thomas Eakins, c. 1885, shows a young male nude on a couch with a tambourine, but he looks like he's falling asleep.

But the guy in Male Nude with Tambourine and Open Mouth by Lovis Corinth, 1905, is wide awake. "Hey, look at me!"

In 2003, this sculpture by Alan LeQuire was installed on Music Row in Nashville, Tennessee.  It depicts a group of nine naked men and women.  The woman at the top is playing a tambourine.  The sculpture was controversial.  Some local residents thought that naked statues didn't belong in the Bible Belt.  I would remind them of Mark Twain's quote: "If God had meant for us to be naked, we'd have been born that way."

At the 2018 World Naked Bike Ride in Brighton, England, a band called the Phantom Limbs serenaded the naked riders, including the man at right playing a "headless" tambourine (one without a drum head, but with the disks that jingle when you shake it).

And here he is again at the 2019 Brighton WNBR.  Hey, mister tambourine man, play a song for me!