Crotales (, ), sometimes called antique cymbals, are

percussion instrument A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a percussion mallet, beater including attached or enclosed beaters or Rattle (percussion beater), rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or ...

s consisting of small, tuned bronze or brass disks. Each is about in diameter with a flat top surface and a nipple on the base. They are commonly played by being struck with hard mallets. However, they may also be played by striking two disks together in the same manner as

finger cymbals Zills, zils, or sagat, also known as finger cymbals, are small metallic cymbals used in belly dance, belly dancing and similar performances. They are similar to Tibetan tingsha bells. In Western music, several pairs can be set in a frame to make ...

, or by bowing. Their sound is rather like a small tuned

bell A bell /ˈbɛl/ () is a directly struck idiophone percussion instrument. Most bells have the shape of a hollow cup that when struck vibrates in a single strong strike tone, with its sides forming an efficient resonator. The strike may be m ...

, only with a much brighter sound and a much longer resonance. Similar to tuned finger cymbals, crotales are thicker and larger; they also have slight grooves in them. The name comes from the Greek '' crotalon'', for a castanet or rattle. Modern crotales are arranged chromatically and have a range of up to two

octave In music, an octave (: eighth) or perfect octave (sometimes called the diapason) is an interval between two notes, one having twice the frequency of vibration of the other. The octave relationship is a natural phenomenon that has been referr ...

s. They are typically available in sets (commonly one octave) but may also be purchased individually. Crotales are treated as

transposing instrument A transposing instrument is a musical instrument for which music notation is not written at concert pitch (concert pitch is the pitch on a non-transposing instrument such as the piano). For example, playing a written middle C on a transposing ...

s; music for crotales is written two octaves lower than the sounding pitch to minimize ledger lines. Crotal bells are a type of small bell, mostly medieval. A different form of crotal is found in

Prehistoric Ireland The prehistory of Ireland has been pieced together from Archaeology, archaeological evidence, which has grown at an increasing rate over recent decades. It begins with the first evidence of permanent human residence in Ireland around 10,500 BC ...

. The National Museum of Ireland and

British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...

have several examples on display dating from the late

Bronze Age The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...

() which were found in the Dowris Hoard, alongside various brass wind instruments. These are bronze cylinders in the rough shape of a bull's testicle, with a piece of baked clay or a pebble inside. It is presumed they functioned as a type of rattle. The hoard had 48 of them in total, in two sizes. Only two other examples are known, both Irish.

Uses

One of the earliest uses of crotales in the orchestral repertoire is Hector Berlioz's '' Roméo et Juliette'' (1839). Other classical pieces featuring crotales include Claude Debussy's '' Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune'', Maurice Ravel's orchestration of his ''

Alborada del gracioso ''Alborada del gracioso (The Jester's Aubade)'' is the fourth of the five movements of Maurice Ravel, Maurice Ravel's piano suite ''Miroirs'', written in 1905. It is about seven minutes long and, as part of the suite, has always been regularly ...

'' and Henri Dutilleux's Cello Concerto. The contemporary American composer

John Adams John Adams (October 30, 1735 – July 4, 1826) was a Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father and the second president of the United States from 1797 to 1801. Before Presidency of John Adams, his presidency, he was a leader of ...

uses them in many of his more colorful orchestral pieces such as '' Short Ride in a Fast Machine''. Composer Julia Wolfe uses crotales in her oratorio '' Fire in my mouth''. Crotales are also found in popular music, particularly in rock music.

Neil Peart Neil Ellwood Peart ( ; September 12, 1952 – January 7, 2020) was a Canadian and American musician, known as the drummer, percussionist, and primary lyricist of the rock band Rush (band), Rush. He was known to fans by the nickname "the Profe ...

of Rush used them as part of his basic

drum kit A drum kit or drum set (also known as a trap set, or simply drums in popular music and jazz contexts) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and sometimes other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one p ...

for several years, featuring them in the introduction to the instrumental " YYZ", and Alan White of Yes used them in the middle instrumental section of "Awaken" from '' Going for the One''. The Bengsons use them in the instrumentation of their Off-Broadway show "Hundred Days." Wilco drummer Glenn Kotche uses them live on the '' Yankee Hotel Foxtrot'' song "I Am Trying to Break Your Heart".

References

External links

* {{Authority control Cymbals Keyboard percussion instruments Orchestral percussion instruments Early musical instruments Plaque percussion idiophones Metal percussion instruments