Clapsticks, generally known as twererre in the Arrernte languages, are a distinctive instrument used in Aboriginal music. When using these clapsticks, Arrernte people do not just beat out a rhythm as an accompaniment to singing but sometimes hit the sticks rapidly to emphasise different points in the music. Twererre were generally made of mulga wood (Acacia aneura) and could be used by both men and women in different genres of music. These particular styles of clapstick with either their 'forked'-like ends or with carved fish-shape middles, are unique to the Charlotte Waters area of the Northern Territory. Almost all of these distinctively shaped twererre were collected from this area. While there has been some speculation about how the fork or prong points of these objects were used when being played, there is little known about them. One of the few anthropologists to have observed people using these types of twererre, Walter Baldwin Spencer, described the way that they were played. 'When in use the blunt end of the prong is held in the left hand, and the striker is allowed to fall on to the pronged end'(Spencer 1927) . The other style of twerrere, with its carved fish tail shape in centre and with vegetable fibre bound around its middle, was played differently. 'When in use', the handle-like end is 'held in the hand while a simple striker is 'allowed to drop on the prolonged end' (Spencer 1927). According to Spencer, 'the prongs' on these twerrere 'are simply meant as an ornament, and do not apparently serve to vary the nature of the sound produced by the instrument' (Spencer 1927). Others (Stirling 1896) however suggest that the inner part of the 'prongs' were hit to produce distinctive sounds.

References

Stirling, E.C. Report on the Work of the Horn Scientific Expedition to Central Australia. Part IV - Anthropology. Dulau and Co. London. 1896

Spencer, Sir Baldwin, and Francis James Gillen. The Arunta: A Study of a Stone Age People. Vol. 1. 2 vols. London: Macmillan and Company, limited, 1927.

 

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