Friction drum

A friction drum is a musical instrument found in various forms in Africa, Asia, Europe and South America.

To produce the friction, the membrane may be directly rubbed with the fingers or through the use of a cloth, or a stick or cord which is attached to the centre of the membrane and then rubbed or moved with a hand, sponge or cloth, generally wet.

The composer Orlando Gibbons (1583–1625) wrote a keyboard fantasia in which he quotes the Dutch melody De Rommelpot.

Carl Orff used a whirled friction drum in A Midsummer Night's Dream (1934–52) and Benjamin Britten, in his Children's Crusade, (1969) calls for a string drum to be struck with drumsticks and bowed by means of the stretched string.

The Rommelpot features in several paintings by Dutch painters, including Two Boys and a Girl Making Music by Jan Miense Molenaer (1629, National Gallery, London) and The Fight Between Carnival and Lent by Pieter Brueghel (1559, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna).