Tenor Drum

Family

Percussion

Description

In a symphony orchestra’s percussion section, a tenor drum is a low-pitched drum. It’s a little bigger than a snare drum, but it has no snares and is played with soft mallets or hard sticks. Under various names, the drum has been used by composers since the mid-19th century. It is particularly noticeable in scores by 20th-century English composers such as Benjamin Britten and William Walton, and American composers such as Aaron Copland and Samuel Barber.