By Porter Lang
Pick up one castanet and you are holding half of a pair. Pick up the pair and you are holding two instruments that are not supposed to sound the same. That is the first thing worth knowing before you buy, borrow or even try them.
What a castanet is
Wikipedia describes castanets as a hand-held percussion instrument, an idiophone, also called clackers or palillos, and as “a pair of concave shells joined on one edge by a string”. Britannica gives it as a percussion instrument in the clapper family, each piece a hollowed-out, pear-shaped body, typically of hardwood or ivory, with a cord joining the pair. Wikipedia says the Spanish castañuelas comes from the diminutive of castaña, chestnut, which the instrument resembles. In Andalusia they are called palillos, “little sticks”, the name used in flamenco.
The parts, named
A Spanish-language Wikipedia article gives a vocabulary. The cord is the cordón, the knot the nudo, the shell the concha, and the upper part, the “ear”, the oreja. A handled kind has a mango. Each pair, it says, has two castanets with different tones: the lower-pitched one is the macho and the higher-pitched one the hembra. The hembra goes on the right hand and the macho on the left. The article says that if you cannot tell the sound apart, the right castanet has a notch or lines at its upper edge where the two halves separate. Britannica agrees that dancers play in pairs of different pitches. Wikipedia’s English article says the two pairs sound at slightly different pitches, the slightly lower pair marking the beat with joined fingers and the higher pair used for variations with all four fingers, including rattling sounds.
Choosing size
The Spanish article says castanets come in different sizes to fit the performer’s hand, so a player with very large hands needs larger ones. It gives no measurements, and neither do we. Our reading: since the cord sits on the thumb and the shell rests on the palm, as Wikipedia describes, hand fit is a physical matter you can only judge by holding the pair.
What they are made of
Here the sources differ. Wikipedia says the traditional wood is chestnut, castaño, and that fibreglass has become increasingly popular. Britannica says typically hardwood or ivory. The Spanish article says early examples were wood or ivory and that plastic castanets, called pollopas, are cheap and meant for beginners or children. It also says top-quality concert castanets are made exclusively for each client. The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s collection lists a late twentieth-century Spanish pair in grenadilla, a hardwood. We do not name its maker. So wood, ivory, plastic and fibreglass all appear, and the chestnut that gives the instrument its name is only one of them. Our reading: the name may reflect the shape, as Wikipedia says, and not the wood.
We found no source that tests how any material sounds, and we give no advice about it.
Three ways to play
Britannica describes three styles. Classical: pairs tied to each thumb, the left pair playing a simple rhythm and the higher-pitched right pair a more complex one. Folkloric: pairs attached to one or more fingers on each hand, larger and lower-pitched than classical castanets, flicked with the wrists against the palms. Orchestral: mounted on handles and shaken, or fastened to a wooden block and played with the fingers or drumsticks. Wikipedia adds that in Murcia the castanets are called postizas and played hooked over other fingers, so the grip changes by region.
One instrument, many names
According to the Spanish article, palillos is the Western Andalusian name. Postizas is used in the Region of Murcia, the Valencian Community, Almería province and parts of Castilla-La Mancha. Chácaras are heard in La Gomera and El Hierro in the Canary Islands, tarrañuilas in Cantabria, and crótalos is an ancient name. It lists a historical sequence of crúsmatas, crótalos, castañitas or castañetas, then castañuelas or palillos. A pair sold under one name in one town may be called something else two regions over.
Where they were played
Wikipedia says flamenco singers and dancers use castanets, especially in the siguiriya and fandango-influenced subgenres, and that they appear in sevillanas and the escuela bolera in Andalusia, and in jota and fandango folk dances. Britannica places them mainly in Spain, the Balearic Islands and southern Italy.
Where the idea came from
The sources hedge. Wikipedia says most sources link the spread to Phoenician traders “around 3000 years ago”, with trade ties to Spain, calls ancient Egypt a probable origin because it knew castanet-like instruments of wood, ivory and metal, and says the Romans reportedly met the instrument in Hispania “already around 200 BC”. It also calls the origins “unclear”. Britannica says similar instruments were played by the ancient Greeks, Romans and Egyptians, and that the instrument may have reached Spain through Phoenician colonisation, or its pear-shaped form may have come from the Moors. The Met lists nineteenth-century castanets described as French or Spanish, Portuguese and Italian, mostly without a named maker. Those are catalogue records, not proof of origin.
Dates in order
- About 3000 years ago: Phoenician traders linked to the spread, according to Wikipedia.
- About 200 BC: Romans reportedly meet the instrument in Hispania, according to Wikipedia.
- 19th century: French or Spanish, Portuguese and Italian pairs in the Met’s collection.
- Late 20th century: a Spanish grenadilla pair in the Met’s collection.
Side by side
Material: chestnut (Wikipedia), hardwood or ivory (Britannica), wood or ivory early and plastic cheap (Spanish Wikipedia), fibreglass increasingly popular (Wikipedia), grenadilla (the Met). Origin: Phoenician (Wikipedia and Britannica), probable Egyptian (Wikipedia), or Moorish for the pear shape (Britannica). We do not choose among them.
What kind of sources these are
Wikipedia in English and Spanish, which anyone can edit; Britannica, an encyclopaedia; and a museum’s catalogue listing. We found no maker’s page, trade body or guild page, so the buying notes above are descriptions from encyclopaedias, not workshop advice.
Questions a buyer would ask
Which is the macho and which the hembra, and is the notch on the right-hand castanet? Is the shell wood, plastic or fibreglass? Does the size fit your hand? Which style are you learning: classical, folkloric or orchestral? We name no maker and give no prices.
What we left out
We left out the Met’s advertising cards and paintings that merely depict castanets, because they say nothing about how a pair is made. We left out the list of other countries’ musics that use the instrument, which Wikipedia gives in passing. We left out the maker’s name in the Met listing, because we cannot tell whether he is living.
Quick answers
What are castanets made of? Wikipedia says traditionally chestnut wood, with fibreglass increasingly popular. Britannica says typically hardwood or ivory. The Spanish Wikipedia article says plastic ones are cheap and for beginners.
What are macho and hembra? According to the Spanish Wikipedia article, the macho is the lower-pitched castanet, played in the left hand, and the hembra the higher-pitched one, played in the right.
Where does the word castañuelas come from? Wikipedia says it comes from the diminutive of castaña, chestnut, which the instrument resembles. In Andalusia, it adds, they are called palillos.
Roam first. Shop later.
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