About: Materials

Today I thought I would talk a little about the various materials used for making castanets, and give my opinions about them. Let me know in the comments if you agree or disagree with me :)

History has known castanets to be made out of metal, wood, ivory, marble etc, but the traditional Spanish castanet as we know it today are usually made out of some variety of Micarta or various traditional woods. Of course, there are novelty castanets in every possible material, but real musical instruments are much more restricted in what they use.

I will discuss the various Micarta types, the two most common wood and ivory – which is often seen in historical castanets and have an intriguing sound. There are many more woods used, eg. rosewood and chestnut, but among professional instruments they have only very limited use.

Micarta: Micarta is a registered trademark for high-pressured laminates consisting of sheets of glassfibre, cloth or paper that have been impregnated with phenolic resins, and cure under high pressure and temperature to form laminates. Castañuelas del Sur predominately uses these various types in their production, even going as far as producing “wooden” castanets – which actually is thin wooden slices impregnated in resins.

One major advantage with these kinds of material is that the instruments are nearly impervious to changes in humidity and temperature, and often will have a higher volume. However, for me the setbacks far outweigh the benefits: the tone produced by most of these are simply unfit for any musical oeuvre. The tone could best be described as cold, and very often even harsh – which when used in dancing is of minor importance and perhaps even is an advantage as to not getting lost in between the guitar and the footwork used. If you’re just going to use them in dancing, or if you’re a beginner without the know-how of caring for various woods, I would recommend; but if you’re a serious musician, I would not.

Courtesy of Debenham Auction House

Ivory: We all know the history of ivory and it’s current status of ivory – which is a real shame, considering how beautiful it is, and how musical! One of my dreams is one day owning a pair of ivory castanets, because I simply love their sound! If you watch this clip of Belen Cabanes talking about and performing with an ancient pair given to her by José de Udaeta, you will notice their delicacy – while their tone is somewhat faint, it is still very strong and clean with no ringing overtones. Lucero Tena has stated that while they may have limited use, and not be of real musical value, there are certain pieces and genres where the delicate sound is preferred.

Owned by Lucero Tena, in grenadilla

Ebony/Grenadilla: These are the woods most favoured by professional performers, and for very good reasons – they are both extremely dense and hard, and can withstand long hours of intense playing, and they are very easy to look after and care for. Grenadilla especially is very popular for it’s purity of tone. The main downside with either wood is that they, as any wood, are sensitive to major shifts in humidity and temperature, so it’s important not to shock them, and keep them in their cases when not being used. As I live in Sweden where the temperatures are radically different from Spain, I occasionally oil the inside of my castanets to avoid drying out and cracking (the exteriors are kept moist by the hands’ natural oils). Grenadilla, and to a certain extent ebony, also have the major advantage not shared by any other material in they that are ‘played in’ over extended periods of use – don’t expect a pair of grenadilla instruments to sound the same when you purchased it as it will five years later! The tone mellows and soften, loses some of the harshness necessary of any wooden instrument, and gains in an openness of tone – and in high quality examples there will be subtle but very definite overtones after a while. It’s easy to understand why ebony and grenadilla are the choice of most professional players!

(Are you curious as to what my personal preferences are? I have a pair in gaiacum which I use very often to practice with, but for serious playing I resort to either my lignum vitae pair, or of course my grenadilla ones!)