Rattle is an instrument consisting of loosely connected objects arranged so that they collide with each other and make a noise when the instrument is shaken. A rattle may be a container partly filled with small, hard pellets or beads, or it may consist of a set of metal disks, bones, shells, pieces of wood, or some other resonating objects strung together and set on a frame along which they can slide. A baby’s rattle takes the form of a colorful plastic object containing pellets.
The rattle has its origins in prehistoric times and has had many uses. People have used rattles as musical percussion instruments, as instruments to accompany religious rituals, and as alarms.
The ancient Egyptians used a metallic rattle called a sistrum when celebrating the festival of the goddess Isis and at other feasts. The sistrum consisted of sliding bars set in a frame. Pellet bells or jingle bells—bells made of a metal container with one rattling object in it—were used in some cultures to drive away evil spirits or give protection against them. The Cheyenne and some other Native American groups used rattles made of gourds in their rituals.
The tambourine and maracas are popular musical percussion instruments of the rattle type. The angklung is a rattle from Java. It is made of tuned bamboo tubes of graduated lengths set in a bamboo frame.
The ratchet rattle is a wooden toothed wheel fixed to a handle at one end of a frame. At the opposite end of the frame is a flexible blade. When the rattle is swung or twirled, the frame swings around the handle and each tooth on the turning wheel plucks the blade, letting it snap back against the next tooth with a sharp crack. The ratchet rattle is used in the modern symphony orchestra as a musical instrument. In Switzerland, Spain, and other Roman Catholic countries, enormous mechanically operated ratchet rattles are set up in church towers. They call the faithful to prayer during the week before Easter because no bells may be rung from Maundy Thursday until the following Saturday.
