A ratchet or rattle, more specifically, cog rattle is a

musical instrument A musical instrument is a device created or adapted to make Music, musical sounds. In principle, any object that produces sound can be considered a musical instrument—it is through purpose that the object becomes a musical instrument. A person ...

of the

percussion 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 ...

family and a warning/signaling device. It operates on the principle of the ratchet device, using a gearwheel and a stiff board mounted on a handle, which rotates freely. Variants include the gragger () used in

Judaism Judaism () is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic, Monotheism, monotheistic, ethnic religion that comprises the collective spiritual, cultural, and legal traditions of the Jews, Jewish people. Religious Jews regard Judaism as their means of o ...

, the crotalus, the rapach, and the raganella.

Method of playing

The player holds the handle and swings the whole mechanism around. The momentum makes the board click against the gearwheel, producing a clicking and rattling noise. A popular design consists of a thick wooden cog wheel attached to a handle and two wooden flanges that alternately hit the teeth of the cog when the handle turns. Alternatively, smaller ratchets are sometimes held still or mounted and the handle turned rapidly by the player. The mounted ratchets allow for greater control of the duration and timing of the sound. This allows the ratchet to be used like a snare drum, placing sustained rolls in precise durations of time. Dynamics are controlled by the rate at which the ratchet is rotated.

Uses

In Jewish tradition

In Judaism, the gragger (also ''grogger'' or ''gregger''; ) is used for the holiday of

Purim Purim (; , ) is a Jewish holidays, Jewish holiday that commemorates the saving of the Jews, Jewish people from Genocide, annihilation at the hands of an official of the Achaemenid Empire named Haman, as it is recounted in the Book of Esther (u ...

. The gragger is used every time Haman's name is mentioned during the reading of the Megillah.Einstein, Stephen J.; Kukoff Lydia (1989). ''Every person's guide to Judaism.'' URJ Books and Music, Because Haman persecuted the Jews, the noise is supposed to symbolically drown out his name (although every word of the Megillah, including Haman's name, must be heard clearly; therefore, the words are often repeated after the sounding of the gragger). The gragger originated in Jewish tradition to help make noise during the reading.

Music

The rattle is used in such compositions as Richard Strauss's '' Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks'' and

Arnold Schoenberg Arnold Schoenberg or Schönberg (13 September 187413 July 1951) was an Austrian and American composer, music theorist, teacher and writer. He was among the first Modernism (music), modernists who transformed the practice of harmony in 20th-centu ...

's ''

Gurre-Lieder ' (''Songs of Gurre Castle, Gurre'') is a tripartite oratorio followed by a Melodrama, melodramatic epilogue for five vocal soloists, narrator, three choruses, and grand orchestra. The work, which is based on an early song cycle for soprano, te ...

''. Respighi asks for one in the first movement of his orchestral work '' Pini di Roma'' (''Pines of Rome''), as does Tchaikovsky in his ballet,

The Nutcracker ''The Nutcracker'' (, ), Opus number, Op. 71, is an 1892 two-act classical ballet (conceived as a '; ) by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, set on Christmas Eve at the foot of a Christmas tree in a child's imagination featuring a Nutcracker doll. Th ...

. It is also used in "Gnomus" in Ravel's orchestration of Mussorgsky's '' Pictures at an Exhibition''. In orchestral percussion writing, a ratchet is used as a substitute.

Sport

Up until the early 1970s, this type of rattle was commonly used by fans at

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

and rugby matches in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

and was known as a ''football rattle''.

Warning/signaling device

In the 18th and 19th centuries, a policeman's rattle was used by British and Australian policemen to summon assistance. They were used to warn of poison gas attack in the trenches of the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

and issued to British police and ARP wardens during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, to warn of the presence of poison gas.

Variants

Raganella

The raganella (Italian for "tree frog") is a percussion instrument common in the

folk music Folk music is a music genre that includes #Traditional folk music, traditional folk music and the Contemporary folk music, contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be ca ...

Calabria Calabria is a Regions of Italy, region in Southern Italy. It is a peninsula bordered by the region Basilicata to the north, the Ionian Sea to the east, the Strait of Messina to the southwest, which separates it from Sicily, and the Tyrrhenian S ...

in southern

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

. Technically, the ''raganella'' is a "cog rattle", producing a sound that is enough of a "croak" to have derived the folk name of the instrument from the Italian name of the common tree-frog. The ''raganella'' is about the size of a breadbox and consists of a wooden frame into which are fastened four or five stiff but flexible wooden tines fastened to one side of the frame; the other ends of the tines are struck in rapid succession by a cog-wheel that is turned by a crank handle mounted on the side of the frame.

Rapach

The rapach () is a larger version of the ''derkach'', a ratchet. Rapachs are used by churches in the

Prešov Prešov () is a city in eastern Slovakia. It is the seat of administrative Prešov Region () and Šariš. With a population of approximately 85,000 for the city, and in total more than 100,000 with the urban area, it is the second-largest city i ...

region of

Slovakia Slovakia, officially the Slovak Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the west, and the Czech Republic to the northwest. Slovakia's m ...

by ethnic

Ukrainians Ukrainians (, ) are an East Slavs, East Slavic ethnic group native to Ukraine. Their native tongue is Ukrainian language, Ukrainian, and the majority adhere to Eastern Orthodox Church, Eastern Orthodoxy, forming the List of contemporary eth ...

instead of bells during

Easter Easter, also called Pascha ( Aramaic: פַּסְחָא , ''paskha''; Greek: πάσχα, ''páskha'') or Resurrection Sunday, is a Christian festival and cultural holiday commemorating the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, described in t ...

Gallery

File:Rattle, Ludlow Museum - DSCF2033.JPG, Ratchet used for poison gas warning in

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

File:Raspel.jpg, Raspel File:Rehtacka.jpg, In some European churches, a ratchet known as a is used instead of bells during the Paschal Triduum, the three days before Easter Day. File:Purim gragger.jpg, A

gragger, a kind of ratchet used in Judaism File:Cheapplasticgragger IGP4806.JPG, A plastic version of the gragger File:Ecce Homo Procession (3).JPG, A ratchet used in a procession in Braga,

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...

File:14th century ratchet.jpg, 14th century French ratchet

References

Sources for Rapach

*Humeniuk, A. ''Ukrainski narodni muzychni instrumenty'', Kyiv: Naukova dumka, 1967 *Mizynec, V. ''Ukrainian Folk Instruments'', Melbourne: Bayda books, 1984 *Cherkaskyi, L. ''Ukrainski narodni muzychni instrumenty'', Tekhnika, Kyiv, Ukraine, 2003 - 262 pages.

External links

Ratchets (''Polish folk musical instruments'')
{{Authority control Purim Scraped idiophones Hand percussion European percussion instruments Orchestral percussion instruments Unpitched percussion instruments Concert band instruments