Castanets

see also: Etymology of Castanets

The castanets - castanet wants to say “small sweet chestnut” - are a Musical instrument Idiophone, typical of the Spanish folklore , Portuguese and southernmost Italy.

They are generally manufactured in hard Bois or Ivoire and consist of two shells surmounted of a “oreja” (ear), openings, according to the models, of two or three holes, connected between them by a cord, whose hollow faces are entrechoquent. The two castanets are not dug equal manners in their concavity, which gives a different sound. “Will hembra” (female), is acuter, while the “macho” (male), has a more serious sound, which allows variations of their sonorities, when they are entrechoquent.

A titanic piece of Carmen Amaya, “Alegrias”, makes it possible to clearly hear the difference in sound between “will hembra” and the “macho”.

The word is used mainly in the plural. One indicates sometimes all two pieces of wood by a singular term.

They can be played several manners, traditional they are put at the inches, popular they will be it with the major ones; for the traditional ones, the right hand plays with the 4 fingers while starting with the little finger and the left hand only with the two fingers of the medium, the right hand will make a carretilla.

For popular one them opera hat simultaneously in the two hands by making 2 outward journeys and returns.

The castanets of orchestra are assembled on handles or a board. The first are quite simply shaken, the second are struck hand, generally assembled on hinges.

The French castanets are two wood ends which one wedges between two fingers and which one shakes for the entrechoquer and to produce a sound similar to the Spanish castanets. The most outstanding example is in Mary Poppins from Disney. One of the musicians of the scene of the hippodrome plays of the French castanets (one hears the tic-tic-tic of the Supercalifragilisticexpicalidocious music).

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