the large ratchet

The instrument, as smaller ratchets and knockers, is made ​​of wood. Used during carolling, in Lent and Easter.
The large ratchet, small ratchets and knockers were used for making noise by a group of carol singers who wanted to attract attention. These instruments were and are sometimes also used in churches up to now.

the large ratchet

On Good Friday, when bells stopped ringing, altar boys just using these wooden items proclaiming successive stages of church services. Big ratchets and knockers, which make much noise are used in many parishes during Easter procession, among other noisy objects and actions to emphasize the joy associated with the Resurrection.

the large ratchet-legend
instrumenty

Instruments

The instruments recorded in the project come from museum of sound with more than 80 thousand object collections from the National Ethnographic Museum in Warsaw. Together with museum staff we have chosen 23 instruments guided by the following principles – they should be definitely folk, unusual, derived from the old times, Polish and coming from different cultural backgrounds, also exotic like e.g. Asian.

Recording a full range of tone of 23 instruments - tonal and sonic scale lasted several days. Thanks to the recordings - sound banks were created and have been used in the project in two ways. The first way was based on motion-sensitive controllers which created new practical instrumentarium for use during the workshops and animation activities. The second way was placing recorded sounds on the website for promotion of the idea of the project and gathering a great number of recipients.

All instruments were also photographed and described which enabled creating of publicly accessible compendium of information about them.