Clapstick

{{Short description|Traditional Australian Aboriginal instrument}}

Clapsticks, also spelt clap sticks and also known as {{langr|aus|bilma}}, {{langr|aus|bimli}}, clappers, musicstick or just stick, are a traditional Australian Aboriginal instrument. They serve to maintain rhythm in voice chants, often as part of an Aboriginal ceremony.{{cite web |last1=Rare Music Collection, University of Melbourne Library |title=Bilma (clapsticks), from the Northern Territory |url=https://library.unimelb.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0007/2067703/Clapsticks.pdf |website=The University of Melbourne |publisher=The University of Melbourne |access-date=9 April 2024}}

They are a type of drumstick, percussion mallet or claves that belongs to the idiophone category.

Unlike drumsticks, which are generally used to strike a drum, clapsticks are intended for striking one stick on another.

Origin and nomenclature

In northern Australia, clapsticks would traditionally accompany the didgeridoo, and are called {{lang|aus|bimli}} or {{lang|aus|bilma}} by the Yolngu people of north-east Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory of Australia.

Boomerang clapsticks

Boomerang clapsticks are similar to regular clapsticks but they can be shaken for a rattling sound or be clapped together.

Technique

The usual technique employed when using clapsticks is to clap the sticks together to create a rhythm that goes along with the song.

References

External links

[https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/bitstream/1885/132161/16/7_mcdonald.pdf A survey of traditional south-eastern Australian Indigenous music] by Barry McDonald (book chapter)
{{cite book|url=https://aiatsis.gov.au/sites/default/files/products/cd/aboriginal-sound-instruments.pdf|title=Aboriginal Sound Instruments|first=Alice M.|last=Moyle|publisher=Aboriginal SoundInstrumentsAlice M MoyleCompanion Booklet for a CompaCt DisCAustralian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies|date=1978|isbn=9781922059468|author-link=Alice Marshall Moyle}}
{{cite web|url=https://library.unimelb.edu.au/teachingobjects/objects/clapsticks|website=University of Melbourne|title=Clapsticks|date=21 June 2017 }}
{{cite web | title=1788 - Meet Waruwi: Clapping sticks | website=My Place | date=24 December 1999 | url=http://www.abc.net.au/abc3/myplace/narrowband/1788/clapping-sticks.htm|publisher=Australian Broadcasting Corporation/}}
Curkpatrick, Samuel. "Productive Ambiguity: Fleshing out the Bones in Yolŋu Manikay" Song" Performance, and the Australian Art Orchestra’s" Crossing Roper Bar"." Critical Studies in Improvisation/Études critiques en improvisation 9, no. 2 (2013)[https://doi.org/10.21083/csieci.v9i2.2694]

Category:Stick concussion idiophones

Category:Australian Aboriginal music

Category:Australian musical instruments