Most of the percussion instruments in our modern orchestra trace their origin to Asia Minor. The Arabs and Moors, who came to settle along the Mediterranean coast and especially in the Spain between the eighth and fifteenth centuries, brought with them musical instruments that were adopted and cultivated far beyond the boundaries of their homelands.

    In turn, the Crusaders from Western Europe, intent upon recovering the Holy Land from the Mohammedan, encountered people whose arts were old when Christianity began. The Crusaders were impressed with the role that music played in the Middle East. They were fascinated with the great variety of musical instruments they heard for the first time. Of special interest to them were the drums used in the Mohammedan armies.

    A real surprise to the Crusader was the sight of two drums, carried one on each side of a camel. One drum was larger than the other was. The drummer, perched high on camelback, swayed from side to side as he beat his drums with a pair of sticks.

    The first Europeans to copy the camelback drums were the Hungarian cavalries. Their drummer rode horseback with a pair of drums strapped across the neck of his mount so that he could easily boom away and still rides in style. His drums were made of copper in the shape of soup kettles. Hence the name of the Kettle drum.