Castinet: Egyptian musical instrument

The castinets are percussion musical instruments that are used in Kalo, Moorish, Ottoman, ancient Roman, Italian, Spanish, Sephardic, Swiss and Portuguese music. The musical instrument is made up of a pair of concave shells that are joined on one edge of the instrument by a string. The castinets are held in the hand and used to manufacture clicks for rhythmic accents or rattling sound made up of a rapid series of clicks. The musical instruments are traditionally constructed of hardwood, but fiberglass is becoming more popular in the modern days.

source: musicwithease.com

In practice, the player of the musical instrument uses two pairs of the castinets. One pair is held in each hand of the player, with the string of the musical instrument hooked over the thumb and the instruments resting on the palm with the fingers bent over to assist the other side. Each pair of the musical instrument will make a sound of a little bit different pitch.

The origins of the musical instruments are unknown. The practice of clicking hand-held stick together to accompany dancing is old, and was practiced both by the Egyptians and the Greeks. In more modern days, the bones and spoons that used in Minstrel performance and jug band music can as well be taken as a form of the castinets.

During the baroque era, the musical instruments were featured in dances prominently. A rare occasion where the accompanying musical instrument is given concertant solo status is Leonardo Balada’s concertino for the musical instruments and orchestra three Anecdotes (1977).

In the late ottoman empire, koceks did not only danced, but he performed the percussion musical instrument, specifically a kind of castanet that is known as the carpare that in later times were replaced with the metal cymbals known as the zills.

Castinets are usually performed by singers or dancers. Different from popular belief, the musical instruments are not generally used in the flamenco dance, except for the two particular forms, which are the zambra and the siguiriyas. In fact, the Spanish folk dance known as the ‘sevillanas’ is the pattern typically played using this musical instruments. A balletic form of dance that is known as the ‘Escuela bolera’ is as well accompanied by the musical instruments.

The castinets are used to raise a Spanish atmosphere in Georges Bizet’s opera, Carmen and Emmanuel Chabrier’s orchestral work Espana. The musical instruments are also seen in the ‘Dance of the Seven Veils’ from Richard Strauss’ opera salome and in Richard Wagner’s Tannhäuser.

When used in an orchestral or jug band setting, the musical instrument are sometimes fixed to a handle or mounted to a base to form a pair of machine castinets. This always makes them easier to be played, but also changes the sound of the musical instruments, especially for the machine castinets. It is very much possible to manufacture a roll on a pair of castinets in any of the three ways that they are held. When held in the hand, the musical instruments are bounced against the fingers and palm of the player’s hand; on sticks, bouncing between the fingers and the thigh of the player is one accepted way. For a machine castinets, a less satisfactory roll is achieved by speedy alternation of the two instruments with the fingers of the hand.