ratchet

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Good Friday ratchet from Rottenburg am Neckar, 19th century
The sound of six box ratchets (Thundorf in Lower Franconia)
Ratchet or purr
ratchet
Use of ratchets to warn of gas attacks during World War II

Ratchet or ratchet (to medium high German ratzen , chatter ', related to Neuhochdeutsch rattle ), and rattle, Schnurre, rappel, Räppel, Riärtel, ratchet, is a wooden noise and effect instrument . According to the Hornbostel-Sachs system , it is a scraper wheel that is assigned to scrap instruments , i.e. the indirectly struck idiophones . Here, the teeth of a rotating wheel tension one or more elastic tongues, which are relieved as the wheel continues to rotate, knock back and thus produce a crackling noise. The Klepper, which is also indirectly excited by a swinging movement, does not belong to the scrap instruments, but to the impact idiophones and is similar to the rattles .

functionality

The ratchet is set in motion by lively turning a narrow wooden frame with a wooden spring blade around a hand-held axis to which a gear is attached. The spring leaf rattles around the stationary gear and, depending on the speed of rotation, generates a loud, crackling noise. Ratchets usually have one to three parallel wooden leaf springs on top of each other.

The frame of a rotary ratchet is made of birch wood, the toothed roller is made of beech wood. The roller is operated by a side crank. The thin blades of the ratchet are made of spruce and generate the sound when turning from tooth to tooth.

Historical background

In various Central European regions (southern Germany, Austria, Bohemia), snares or rattles have been used in Carnival and Good Friday processions since the 18th century at the latest . In Catholic areas covered and pull some still children with ratchets by the municipality to means of ratcheting to replace the church bells from the time Gloria of the Mass of the Lord's Supper on Holy Thursday until the celebration of the Easter Vigil not ring. They are also known in Switzerland as Rafelen, Räre, Rätschi, Radelen, Rädelen, Rällen, Ratsche, Good Friday Klapper and other terms. The snare (or wing ratchet) is now a popular instrument, including at major cultural and sporting events, at demonstrations and as a toy instrument . The ratchet (Hebrew: רעשן - ra'schen) also plays a fixed role in Jewish Purim .

Begging musicians used to roam the streets with a snarl, from which the name Schnorrer (Yiddish: שנאָרער) was derived. According to Curt Sachs, ratchets were once used for garbage collection in Amsterdam . The urban night watchman earlier had a rattle or Schnurre as an alarm signal; In Middle High German, snurre meant "purring, humming".

Ratchets were also used in viticulture to drive voracious birds off the grape-covered vines.

Its use was not restricted to Europe alone; similar instruments could also be found in Bengal .

Various composers provide for the use of a gun in their works, e.g. B. Leopold Mozart in the children's symphony ascribed to him , Carl Orff in the Carmina Burana and Richard Strauss in his symphonic poem Till Eulenspiegel's funny pranks .

Others

The word rätsche also denotes regionally, for example in German-speaking Switzerland, the hemp and flax break . In the vernacular , the ratchet or ratchet is also a ratchet , a ratchet or a torque wrench .

In the Alemannic and Bavarian language areas, a talkative person of predominantly female gender ("She is a Ratschn!" Or "She is a right Ratschkathl !") Is also referred to, whereby the Ratschn corresponds most closely to gossip .

literature

  • Brigitte Bachmann-Geiser : The folk musical instruments of Switzerland . Atlantis, Zurich a. a. 1981 (= Handbook of European Folk Musical Instruments Series 1, 4), ISBN 3-7611-0606-8 .
  • Curt Sachs : The musical instruments of India and Indonesia. At the same time an introduction to instrument science . 2nd Edition. Association of Scientific Publishers Walter de Gruyter, Berlin a. a. 1923 (=  manuals of the National Museums in Berlin ). Reprint: Olms, Hildesheim 1983, ISBN 3-487-07352-8 ), p. 49.

Web links

Commons : Ratchets  - collection of images, videos and audio files
Wiktionary: Ratsche  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Kluge. Etymological dictionary of the German language . Edited by Elmar Seebold . 25th, reviewed and expanded edition. De Gruyter, Berlin / Boston 2011, p. 747.
  2. ↑ Etymological dictionary of the German language. 18th edition edit. by Walther Mitzka . Walter de Gruyter, Berlin 1960, p. 584 f.
  3. ↑ See for example Schweizerisches Idiotikon , Vol. 6, Sp. 1843, Article Rätsch II, Bed. 1.
  4. ↑ Schweizerisches Idiotikon , Vol. 6, Col. 1846, article Vogelrätscheⁿ
  5. ↑ Schweizerisches Idiotikon , Vol. 6, Col. 1844, Article Rätsch II, Bed. 2.
  6. ↑ Schweizerisches Idiotikon , Vol. 6, Col. 1845, Article Rätsch II, Bed. 5.