Cog Rattle
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The Cog Rattle is a wooden hand-rattle. The repeated slap of the blade springing back against the rotating cog wheel makes the rattle's unmistakable sound. Cog rattles have few orchestral uses ; in the past they signaled the approach of leprosy sufferers. Today, you are most likely to hear the cog rattle at a football game.
| Family |
| Percussions |
| Pitch range |
| None. |
| Material |
| Usually wood. |
| Size |
| Variable. |
| Origins |
| The cog rattle evolved as a warning signal - designed to alert those nearby of approaching danger - in Europe during the Middle Ages (the period between about A.D. 400 and 1400). |
| Classification |
| Idiophone: an instrument that produces its sound through the use of the material from which it is made, without needing strings or a stretched skin. |
| And also... |
| Some Spanish and Swiss churches have cog rattles with blade up to 7 ft (2 m) in length. Operated by a rope, they sound in the week before Easter, when the bells are silent because they "go to Rome to be blessed." |
