EncyclopediaKriskitinak, kastainetak, kaskainetak, kastañuelak

The castanets are indirectly struck idiophones.

Description of the instrument

A pair of castanets is made up of two pieces of concave and concave wood. They are tied with a string at the top to bring them together and hold them when playing.

Way of playing

There are two different types of castanets depending on the size and the way of playing. Some are taken inside the hand, attached to the middle fingers. The others are smaller and are attached to the thumb; some of these are usually richly carved.

History

Although nowadays they are not widely used, in some regions of Navarra, Gipuzkoa, Bizkaia and Álava the dancers play them when they dance their traditional dances. There are two types. Some are used in ritual and ingurutxo group dances of the towns; for example, the Corpus dances of Oñati, the dances of Otsagabia, of Eltziego, the Goitarren troupe of the Lesaka Carnival and the Ingurutxo of Iribas. In these cases, they use common castanets that are played with the whole hand throughout the Iberian Peninsula. The second type are those used to dance the fandango and the arin-arin (jota, porrusalda). The latter, although in many cases similar to the previous ones, are sometimes smaller and are played by snapping the thumb.

As can be seen in the written documentation, in the past they have been used in many places in Euskal Herria.

Father Donostia (1952) wrote:

"In the "Guild Festivities", which were held in San Sebastián in 1732 to celebrate the taking of Oran, it is said "the officers of said art (tailors) came out ... with a dance of stamping with 8 pairs and a captain... with different performances of tambourines that deftly intoned the accompaniment of 6 changes and walks of which the dance was composed, castanets, as well as for drumming and buckling ...”(p. 302).

Jesús Ramos (1990) also finds castanets among the musicians who came to the Pamplona festivals. Here they appear with the of "pulgarillas" (thumbs) (F. Pedrell, "Technical Dictionary of Music", Pulgarillas .- of castanets in some provinces of Spain):

Pedro Joseph de Castillo - Pulgarillas - Pamplona Basin - 1792 (p. 104).

Francisco Antonio Echeverría - Pulgarillas - Sagüés - 1793 (p. 106).

Ramón de Echeverría - Pulgarillas - Pamplona - 1792-93 (p. 107).

Francisco Antonio Martínez - Pulgarillas - Sagüés - 1792-93, 1795-96 (p. 116).

J. A. Urbeltz (1987) says:

“In this general introduction, we have related the ‘kaskañuelas’ the dances of men and women. But it is also true that this instrument is used in dances performed exclusively by men. For example, in the Otsagi dances, [...] Also in the Christmas dances that they perform in Oñati on the occasion of the Day of the Body, as in Laguardia. [...]

[...] Data on its use are abundant. Not only on the Mediterranean side of Navarra and Álava, but also on the Atlantic side of Navarra and in Gipuzkoa and Bizkaia. Precisely in the Atlantic area of Navarra we have as an example the Nabaz neighborhood of the town of Lesaka. Here young people -only children- continue to use them in couples’ dances: ‘Jota’ and ‘orripeko’." (p. 15).

We, on the other hand, have met old castanet players in Oiartzun, Irún ... In these towns only men played them, with great skill, when they went to dance "loosely" in dance sessions.

In Lakuntza (Navarra), for example, in the "alkate Dantza" that is danced in the patron saint festivities and in the Korpus Eguna (dance around boys and girls), in the past the boys played the "castanets" and also when dancing the porrusaldas and the jota. This is what Emilio Andueza Olasagarre (1902-1992), our old Lakuntza informant, has told us and has n us.

In Bizkaia, the fandango and the arin-arin continue to be accompanied by instruments of this type. Among the musicians of Bizkaia, Basilio Undagoitia (Basilio txiki) from Ibarruri and the famous albokari by Igorre Silbestre Elezkano "Txilibrin" stand out, both very good dancers.

SOURCES

Bibliography

DONOSTIA, Aita. (1952). Instrumentos Musicales Populares Vascos. Obras Completas del P. Donostia. (Tomo II, 257-309). Bilbo: La Gran Enciclopedia Vasca, 1983.

RAMOS, Jesus. (1990). Materiales para la elaboración de un censo de músicos populares de Euskal Herria, a partir de los instrumentistas llegados a Iruñea en el Siglo XVIII. Cuadernos de Etnología y Etnografía de Navarra, 55. zk. 91-138. Iruñea: Institución Principe de Viana.

URBELTZ, Juan Antonio. (1987). Euskal Herriko Folklorea - Beterri -1. (libreto del interior del disco) Ikerfolk. Donostia: Elkar. Elk-142.