Writing of the two instruments, Douglas Kennedy says:

“The folk version of the whistle pipe could be made with a penknife out of a twig of soft wood. The twig was first hollowed and a whistle fashioned at one end, by making a hole and inserting a plug which allowed the breath to pass over the lip of the hole. The hollow pipe was then shortened by cutting off enough to leave a total length of about twelve to fourteen inches. The three holes were cut out, two on the front of the pipe and one at the back. These were so placed, that the pipe could be held between the fourth and fifth finger, the first and second fingers closing the two front holes and the thumb closing the back hole. These three holes correspond to the lower three holes of a six-holed tin whistle.

The great advantage of the three-holed whistle is that it can be held and fingered by one hand, leaving the other hand free to play an accompanying instrument, usually some form of percussion.

 This combination of instruments known in Shakespeare’s day among the lordlings as the pipe and tabor and among the groundlings [common folk] as the whittle and dub, was familiar in town and country as the one-man band of popular dance music.” (Kennedy 1964, pp. 97-98)

 “…English players use a combination of three-holed whistle and drum or tambourine, the whistle being played by the left hand, while the tambourine, slung on the left wrist, is beaten by a small stick carried in the right hand. This one-man band evidently sufficed for many hundreds of years. In England the combination was known as the ‘pipe and tabor’ (pronounced ‘tabber’). While there were probably different methods of striking the tabor, a regular way seems to have been to hole the short stick in the middle and, using both ends of it, to beat out a continuous tattoo. This tattoo imparted a tremulous character to the music and to the dance, giving every individual movement a preliminary shake or shiver. This shivering effect, so essential a character of the traditional Morris step, is emphasised by the ringing of the bells fastened to the lower part of the [Morris dancer’s] leg.” (Kennedy 1949, p.112)

 Cecil Sharp, who founded the English Folk Dance and Song Society—the E.F.D.S.S.— (amongst a great many other accomplishments to the benefit and preservation of folk dance and folksong), wrote of the music of the traditional Morris dance:

 The pipe and tabor were at one time the traditional instruments of this country, and until recently they were almost invariably used to accompany the Morris dance. Although they fell into disuse less than a generation ago [about 1885 or so], we have only once seen and heard them played. We have, however, secured two specimens of the instruments and have experimented upon them, and in a manner learned how to manipulate them. In this way we were helped by the description given by Mersennus, an early writer on musical instruments (1627), in whose treatise the pipe and its scales are carefully explained.3

 The pipe—often called the “whittle,” “whistle” or “fife”— is a small wooden, cylindrical flûte à bec [recorder] or flageolet, about thirteen inches long and of small diameter. At the upper end it is fitted with a whistle attachment, the tongue of which is usually made of metal; while at the lower end it is pierced with three holes, two in front to be stopped by the first and second fingers, and one at the back for the thumb. The pipe can therefore be held and played with the fingers of one hand, the left, leaving the other (the right) at liberty to tap or “dub” the tabor, which is suspended from the left wrist by means of a leathern thong.

The scale is diatonic, and its compass as octave and three notes. In addition, it is possible to sound the first four notes of the lower octave, but these are too faint to be of any practical value.

 The tabor, often called the “dub,” is a small, shallow drum or double tambourine; the words “tabor” and “tambour” are onomatopœic, and derived from the same root. The frame, which is usually made of wood, is decorated with bunches of ribbons, and sometimes rudely carved. The parchment sides—one of which is fitted with a snare, should, we are told, be cut from an old will or testament, because the skins upon which these were engrossed were peculiarly resonant!

The whittle and dub, after they fell into disuse—apparently because the younger men would not, or could not, learn them—were superseded by the fiddle, concertina, or melodeon. Many old Morris men have told us that they gave up dancing when the pipe and tabor were superseded by the fiddle, because they found it impossible to dance to dance to the latter instrument. Probably they missed the rhythmical support of the drum-notes; but the sound of the pipe and tabor is so distinctive that one can well understand that those who had never heard any other instrument might find it difficult to become reconciled to anything else.

The Morris airs have, of course, suffered considerable change in the transference from pipe to fiddle or concertina; we have found that of the tunes which we have noted down from fiddlers, &c., only very few are capable of being played on the more ancient instrument.

(Sharp & Macilwaine 1912, pp. 33-35)

While looking for more information on the Net about the E.F.D.S.S. pipe & tabor recordings we have on 45rpm discs, it was with some surprise that we found they don’t appear on any of the Kenworthy Schofield/pipe & tabor websites.

As a very curious, final note, the following has been downloaded from an MIT website on the Net:

 “In modern times this instrument has become favored [sic.] by truckers and other long haul drivers, since the pipe can be played while keeping one hand on the wheel. I would respectfully request that you not try to play the tabor in addition while sharing the roadway with me.”

http://www.mit.edu:8001/people/ijs/pipe-and-tabor.html