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Sleigh bells.
German for sleigh bells, printed in full on a percussion line. Rhythms are written on a single line; a held note with tremolo strokes asks for a continuous shake. Do not read it as Schellentrommel, which is the German name for the tambourine.
A cluster of small jingles on a strap or handle, shaken or struck against the palm. They mean winter, horses and travel: Mahler opens his Fourth Symphony with sleigh bells and flutes, and Prokofiev’s “Troika” rides on them. The sound penetrates even when soft, so they can thread through a quiet texture; write the rhythm you want, because an unmeasured shake blurs the beat.
Schellen is one of 1755 terms in the Gradus musical dictionary: the words, abbreviations and instrument names that appear in printed scores, plus the vocabulary composers use to talk about them.
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