Rattle

Rattles are found in almost every musical culture, in almost every era throughout human history. Technically, they are classified as "idiophones", but that simple label doesn't convey the almost overwhelming variety of materials from which they are made or performance contexts where they are used.

These instruments can be made from animal horn or hide, leather strips, rope, cloth, wood, nut shells, gourds, metal, or clay. They can be filled with shell, stone, corn kernels, beads or other sound-producers; some, like the shekere gourd rattle illustrated here have beads attached to a net on the outer surface of the instrument. You can hold them in your hand and shake them or strike them against a hard surface. They can be tied around your wrists, waist or ankles or attached to other musical instruments, such as drums or xylophones. There is at least one constant feature in this incredible diversity of form and use: almost without exception, rattles accompany dancing as well as vocal music. In English, their very name suggests movement, articulating the melodic rhythm and adding a shimmering, buzzing sound quality to the music.

Hear horn rattles used by Seneca singers from Ontario, Canada
(AIFF, 322K, 15 sec.)

Selected references:

• Blades, James. Percussion Instruments and Their History. London: Faber and Faber, 1984.
• Diamond, Beverley, M. Sam Cronk and Franziska von Rosen. Visions of Sound: Musical Instruments of First Nations Communities in Northeastern America. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994.
• Driver, Harold. Hoof Rattles and girls' puberty rites in North and South America. Baltimore: Indiana University, 1950.
• Hart, Mickey. Planet Drum: a Celebration of Percussion and Rhythm. New York: Harper, 1991.