Don Quijote van den Haag

http://melgareslagos.blogspot.com/2009/01/delft-blau.html

Arte Regional

Paul Vernon's ever-expanding series on the history of roots recordings around the world gets to Spain.

Late nineteenth century Spain was a rural and underdeveloped country with very marked cultural differences between its regions. In 1891 a population of seventeen and a half million spread itself across an area of almost 198,000 square miles, producing a sparse average of 88 people to the square mile. Less than a quarter of those could read or write. Catalans and Basques saw themselves as separate then as they do today, jealously guarding their cultures. Aragonese and Andalusians produced significantly different musics. Mallorquins felt themselves to be just as special and different as did Castillians. Arguably, no single country other than the United States produced a wider range of regional styles. Yet for all that, the spirit that moved them all was essentially and unifyingly Iberian. Follow the complete article.

Castanets factory map

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Use instructions, very important

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Castanets are percussion instrument (idiophone), much used in Moorish, Ottoman, Ancient Roman, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American music. The instrument consists of a pair of concave shells joined on one edge by string. These are held in the hand and used to produce clicks for rhythmic accents or a ripping or rattling sound consisting of a rapid series of clicks. They are traditionally made of hardwood, although fibreglass is becoming increasingly popular.

In practice a player usually uses two pairs of castanets. One pair is held in each hand, with the string hooked over the thumb and the castanets resting on the palm with the fingers bent over to support the other side. Each pair will make a sound of a slightly different pitch. The higher pair, known as hembra (female), is usually held in the right hand, with the larger macho (male) pair held in the left.

Castanets are often played by singers or dancers, and are prominently used in flamenco music. The name (Spanish: castañuelas) is derived from the diminutive form of castaña, the Spanish word for chestnut, which they resemble. In Andalusia they are usually referred to as palillos (little sticks) instead, and this is the name by which they are known in flamenco.

The origins of the instrument are not known. The practice of clicking hand-held sticks together to accompany dancing is ancient, and was practiced by both the Greeks and the Egyptians. In more modern times, the bones and spoons used in Minstrel show and jug band music can also be considered forms of the castanet.

When used in an orchestral setting, castanets are sometimes attached to a handle, or mounted to a base to form a pair of machine castanets. This makes them easier to play, but also alters the sound, particularly for the machine castanets. It is possible to produce a roll on a pair of castanets in any of the three ways in which they are held. When held in the hand, they are bounced against the fingers and palm of the hand; on sticks, bouncing between fingers and the player's thigh is one accepted method. For a machine castanet, a less satisfactory roll is obtained by rapid alternation of the two castanets with the fingers.

During the baroque period, castanets are featured prominently in dances. Composers like Jean-Baptiste Lully scored them for the music of dances which included Spaniards (Ballet des Nations), Egyptians (Persée, Phaëton), Ethiopians (Persée, Phaëton), and Korybantes (Atys). In addition, they are often scored for dances involving less pleasant characters such as demons (Alceste) and nightmares (Atys). Their association with African dances is even stated in the ballet Flore (1669) by Lully, “...les Africains inventeurs des danses de Castagnettes entrent d’un air plus gai...”

Köçek troupe at 1720 celebration fair at Sultan Ahmed's sons' circumcision.

Castanets were used to evoke a Spanish atmosphere in Georges Bizet's opera, Carmen and Emmanuel Chabrier's orchestral work España. They are also found in the "Dance of the Seven Veils" from Richard Strauss' opera Salome and in Richard Wagner's Tannhäuser. An unusual variation on the standard castanets can be found in Darius Milhaud's Les Choëphores, which calls for castanets made of metal. Other uses include Rimsky-Korsakov's Capriccio espagnol, Ravel's Rapsodie espagnole and Karl Jenkins's Tangollen.

A rare occasion where the normally accompanying instrument is given concertant solo status is Leonardo Balada's Concertino for Castanets and Orchestra Three Anecdotes (1977). The "Conciertino für Kastagnetten und Orchester" by the German composer Helmut M. Timpelan, in cooperation with the castanet virtuoso, José de Udaeta, is another solo work for the instrument.

In the late Ottoman empire, köçeks not only danced but played percussion instruments, especially a type of castanet known as the çarpare, which in later times were replaced by metal cymbals called zills.

The Orchestra

The castanets is also an instrument which is use in the Orchestra, played with the the other idiophone instruments

The History

English and pedagogical version of the castanets history,
and here you are gonna find a Spanish more deeply study, with a complete bibliography of the matter.

The sound

Here you are gonna listen the sound of the castanets

The Method

In this site you can find the Method developed for Emma Maleras to play castanets

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