Imperial Valley Press

Manufacture of Castanets Dying Out in Spain

By United Press Leased Wire

MADRID, June 7.—Good castanets, the indispensable accompaniment to almost every Spanish dance, are getting scarce. It appears the national industry of castanet making is going through a crisis due chiefly to lack of proper hand labor which has resulted in paradox; the best castanets are now made in Germany, by an emigrant Spaniard.

It would seem simple and easy to fabricate the pairs of little instruments which for numerous purposes have all the same sound, but it is not. Castanets can produce any kind of expression to suit musical phrases if made in the right way and placed in the hands of players who know how to use them.

Although some of the expensive hollow shells are made of silver or ivory, accomplished artists generally prefer those of "granadillo" (red ebony) which render the finest effects. However, other hard woods such as guaiacum, jujube tree, box and black ebony serve currently, too.

For a long time, Seville, the capital of Andalusia, was the center of the castanet industry controlled by renowned artisans called "palleros." Their champion, Francisco Bonilla, made perfect castanets that nobody ever equalled. Today, there remains only one manufacturer of castanets in Seville; the "maestros" are dead and have left uninitiated pupils.

A set of "serious" castanets, one for the right hand and producing the high sounds, one for the left hand, and giving the lower sounds, cost in wood, from six to forty dollars, and in ivory from sixty to two hundred dollars, both according to quality and engraving. In the old days a set of slapping "granadillo" castanets could be purchased for thirty cents.