Ratsche

As Printed on a Score

German for the ratchet, printed in full on a percussion line. Short notes ask for a quick turn of the handle; a held note, usually with tremolo strokes, asks for continuous cranking for the written length. It stays in force until the part names another instrument.

How Composers Use It

A cogwheel scraping a wooden tongue: loud, dry, comic and pitchless. Strauss gives it to the pranks of Till Eulenspiegel, and that world of mischief and clockwork is where it belongs. It is hard to play softly and cuts through a full tutti, so write exact durations and dynamics and use it for a specific gesture rather than as colour.

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