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Sleigh bells.
Labels the sleigh-bells line (Sleigh Bells), written on a single line. Single notes ask for a shake or a strike of the handle against the hand; tremolo strokes or a held note ask for continuous jingling for the written length.
Also spelled: Sleigh bell
Bright jingles that mean winter, horses and travel: Mahler opens his Fourth Symphony with them, Prokofiev’s “Troika” rides on them, and Leroy Anderson’s Sleigh Ride makes them its signature. The sound penetrates even when soft. Write the rhythm you want, because an unmeasured shake blurs the beat, and keep them for passages that earn the association.
Sleigh Bells 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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