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Views from the Choir Loft

Ratchets instead of Bells for your Electric Angelus

Veronica Brandt · March 28, 2018

Ratchet with crucifix background N THE PAST I HAVE WRITTEN about setting up automatic Angelus bells with a Raspberry Pi computer. It is very handy to have this for anyone not living within earshot of a church that still rings the Angelus.

The Angelus is a prayer in honor of the Annunciation, traditionally said at 6am, noon and 6pm. During Paschaltide it is replaced by the Regina Caeli. In some places you can still here church bells ring at midday, or maybe a short reminder on the radio.

On Good Friday and Holy Saturday however, it is customary to silence the bells and use other noise-makers instead. Fr Z describes these in his Quaeriter: Rattlers in the Sanctuary. There are some very impressive noisemakers, mostly in European museums.

This year I am not quite as frazzled as usual and remembered in time to look for ratchet sound effects and found this collection of Orchestral Ratchets. You remember the sound of the ratchet in the Toy Symphony, but it also comes up in Respighi’s The Pines of Rome and more cacophonic work by Schoenberg and Carl Orff.

Bells are avoided from after the Gloria at the Mass of Our Lord’s Supper through to the Gloria at the Easter Vigil, when they ring again with gusto and organ and unveiling images, so set your ratchet sounds for Friday and Saturday. Or get clappers, castanets and other non-bell percussion instruments and make the most of these sombre days.

Happy almost Easter everyone!



Photo Credit:

Background photo from the Nationaal Archief, Collectie Eerste Wereldoorlog (World War One). “The British Advance in the West: Yet another instance of a crucifix escaping injury from shells.

Opinions by blog authors do not necessarily represent the views of Corpus Christi Watershed.

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: Raspberry Pi Last Updated: October 29, 2020

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About Veronica Brandt

Veronica Brandt holds a Bachelor Degree in Electrical Engineering. She lives near Sydney, Australia, with her husband and six children.—(Read full biography).

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Corpus Christi Watershed

Quick Thoughts

    Hymn by Cardinal Newman
    During the season of Septuagesima, we will be using this hymn by Cardinal Newman, which employs both Latin and English. (Readers probably know that Cardinal Newman was one of the world's experts when it comes to Lingua Latina.) The final verse contains a beautiful soprano descant. Father Louis Bouyer—famous theologian, close friend of Pope Paul VI, and architect of post-conciliar reforms—wrote thus vis-à-vis the elimination of Septuagesima: “I prefer to say nothing, or very little, about the new calendar, the handiwork of a trio of maniacs who suppressed (with no good reason) Septuagesima and the Octave of Pentecost and who scattered three quarters of the Saints higgledy-piddledy, all based on notions of their own devising!”
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Introit • Candlemas (2 February)
    “Candlemas” • Our choir sang on February 2nd, and here's a live recording of the beautiful INTROIT: Suscépimus Deus. We had very little time to rehearse, but I think it has some very nice moments. I promise that by the 8th Sunday after Pentecost it will be perfect! (That Introit is repeated on the 8th Sunday after Pentecost.) We still need to improve, but we're definitely on the right track!
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Simplified Antiphons • “Candlemas”
    Anyone who desires simplified antiphons (“psalm tone versions”) for 2 February, the Feast of the Purification—which is also known as “Candlemas” or the Feast of the Presentation—may freely download them. The texts of the antiphons are quite beautiful. From “Lumen Ad Revelatiónem Géntium” you can hear a live excerpt (Mp3). I'm not a fan of chant in octaves, but we had such limited time to rehearse, it seemed the best choice. After all, everyone should have an opportunity to learn “Lumen Ad Revelatiónem Géntium,” which summarizes Candlemas.
    —Jeff Ostrowski

Random Quote

“From six in the evening, his martyrdom had continued through the ghastly night until nine o’clock in the morning. After fifteen hours of torture rarely if ever surpassed in the bloody annals of the Iroquois, the soul of Gabriel Lalemant was freed from its charred and mutilated prison and summoned to join his comrade Jean de Brébeuf in the radiant splendor of God. March 17th, 1649, was the date; for Brébeuf it had been the sixteenth.”

— ‘Fr. John A. O’Brien, speaking of St. Gabriel Lalemant’

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