It operates on the principle of the ratchet device, using a gearwheel and a stiff board mounted on a handle, which rotates freely.

[4] The rattle is used in such compositions as Richard Strauss's Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks and Arnold Schoenberg's Gurre-Lieder.

Respighi asks for one in the first movement of his orchestral work Pini di Roma (Pines of Rome), as does Tchaikovsky in his ballet, The Nutcracker.

[9][10] The raganella (Italian for "tree frog") is a percussion instrument common in the folk music of Calabria in southern Italy.

Technically, the raganella is a "cog rattle", producing a sound that is enough of a "croak" to have derived the folk name of the instrument from the Italian name of the common tree-frog.