On Spanish, Galician
and Portuguese Frame Drums

An Article by Juanjo Fernández and Peyman Nasehpour

At right is Inés López, from Piornedo (Galice) playing a kind of frame drum that in Galicia is called "pandeira" (feminine) . The "pandeira" has metal rings though there are some without jingles, but these are not popular. In Morocco, it is called "bendir". Bendir has been popular during the Abbasian period in Persia and the other Islamic countries.

In Galicia and Spain, a smaller one is called "pandeireta" (similar to rikk, the Persian name is raq since the Persian poet Rumi has mentioned to this name in his poems.) This has always metal jingles. This is more popular and modern than the "pandeira" and the playing technique is different.

The square drum in Spain and Galicia is called "pandeiro" (masculine). The drummer at right is Emérita Monteagudo, from Quireza (Galice), playing Playing the pandeiro. The words “pandeira” and “pandeiro” should be related to the Persian-Arabic name “bendayer” (a kind of frame drum).

In the middle Ages the name "adufe" was used for the frame and square drums. In many Arabic countries are called daf, taf, dof (tof is the Hebraic name) and in Turkey the name is tef. It is interesting to mention that the Arabic definite article is “al” and if we add it to the word “duf”, it should be pronounced “adduf”. Therefore, we guess the name “adufe” should be related to the Arabic name duf.

Today in Portugal, both the frame and square drums are called “adufe”.

note from stu: Many thanks to Juanjo Fernández and Peyman Nasehpour for sending us this excellent beginning on the frame drums of Spain, Galicia, and Portugal. For more detailed information on these two drums, we refwer you to these two pages of Juanjo's: THE PANDEIRA and THE PANDEIRO