Bow (musical instrument)

“ It is told in the Odyssey (xxi. 410) how the avenging hero, when he has strung his mighty bow compact of wood and horn, gives the stretched string a twang that makes it sing like a swallow in a soft tone beautifully. One might well guess that the strung bow of the warrior would naturally become a musical instrument, but what is more, it really is so used. The Damara in South Africa finds pleasure in the faint tones heard by striking the tight bowstring with a little stick. The Zulu despises the bow as a cowardly weapon, but he still uses it for music; his music-bow, shown in Fig. ”

“ For wind instruments we have a prototype in the human voice, and one may reasonably suppose that the trumpet class were evolved by slow process from the simple action of placing the hands on either side of the mouth to augment a shout. The harp may have been suggested by the twanging of a bow-string as an arrow left the archer's hand, and a seventeenth century play writer fancifully attributed the invention of string instruments to the finding of a "dead horse head." ”

“ Many people imagine that the plates of silver or gold with which the nut of a bow is inlaid are nothing more than mere ornamentation. But their first purpose is distinctly one of utility, which is as it should be in a work of art; superfluous decoration has no beauty for an artist. It is by means of these metal "loadings" at the heel that the weight of the head is counteracted and the exact point of equilibrium determined. The centre of gravity in a violin bow should be at 19 centimètres (7.48 inches) from the nut; in a 'cello bow at 175 to 180 millimètres (6.89 to 7.087 inches) from the nut. ”

“ Mr Galpin (p. 75) gives a figure of a man playing a Crowd with a bow, instead of plucking the strings with the fingers as shown in sculptured Irish Crosses. What makes the figure so especially interesting, is that there is clearly no means of stopping the strings, i.e., of altering the length of the vibrating region, and therefore altering the pitch. No one, I fancy, would have guessed that the bow was of more ancient lineage than the fiddle. The finger-board, which transforms the instrument into an undeniable relative of the violin, is known to have existed in the thirteenth century. ”

“ In practising the scales in quavers (Ex. 26) , the bow actually bounces away from the string between each note, at the moment the bow is thrown on the string, the hand should move backwards, or forwards, so that sufficient tone may be brought out of the instrument. Regarding the latter, it will be evident to the student, that the action of the bow falling on the strings cannot alone set them in vibration; no matter how brilliant is the bowing, we must have some species of stroke or the result will be minus tone. ”

“ From the teaching standpoint it is far more important that whatever violin the student has is one properly built and adjusted, than that it be a fine instrument. And the bow must have the right amount of spring, of elasticity in its stick. A poor bow will work more harm than a poor fiddle, for if the bow is poor, if it lacks the right resilience, the student cannot acquire the correct bow pressure. ”

“ The method of performance readily suggests itself in this case as it will be seen that it would be quite possible and convenient for the player to pass his rod—probably a rough surfaced reed—between the strings. I do not think it could have been used for percussion as, in that case, it would surely have had some hammer like projection at its end; a salient feature hardly to be missed by the artist as were the less obtrusive details of the true bow in later ages. ”

“ Tracings of a bow among the sculpture of the ancients have been sought for in vain: no piece is known upon which a bow is distinguishable. A century since, an important discovery was thought to have been made by musical antiquarians in the Grand Duke's Tribuna at Florence, wherein was a small figure of Apollo playing on a kind of Violin with something of the nature of a bow. ”

“ The stick of a violin bow is made of Brazilian snake wood, or lance wood, reddish and slightly mottled. It is cut straight, following the grain of the wood and then it is slightly bent by the application of heat. The hair, fastened into the tip by a plug, is inserted into the nut of the bow (made of ebony, or tortoise shell) ; it can be made tighter, or looser, by turning the screw in the nut. There are from 175 to 200 hairs in a bow and these are taken from tails of stallions. White hair is used for the violin, viola and violoncello and black for the double-bass. ”

“ It must be understood, however, that a good maker never uses a stick that is palpably unequal. He will only take this trouble to correct infinitesimal weaknesses (discernible only to a hand of great experience) in wood of exceptionally good grain. It is astonishing how many violinists seem to think good bows are made by accident. Few know that there are some men who can make a fine bow.
The prime factor in the "setting" of a bow is heat, by the judicious application of which the straight rod is made to assume and retain the desired cambre. ”

“ The bowing of a violinist is what breath is to a singer and what touch is to a pianist. The beauty and delicacy of tone and the astonishing effects of scattering showers [41] of notes about are all the work of the loose wrist, strong and flexible arm and yielding fingers that hold the bow and draw it across the strings.
INSTRUMENT-MAKER’S WORKSHOP
Eighteenth Century
The rich, velvety, smooth and peaceful legato; the detached or short, sharp strokes; the hammered; the jumping; and the harp-like effects, the arpeggios (or open chords) swinging back and forth, are all accomplished by the bow. ”

“ Truly these grand old craftsmen were not afraid of work. The screw-nut is as perfect as one could wish, saving, only, in the meagre allowance of hair provided for.
These early bows with screw-nuts quite dispel the generally accepted theory that this mechanical contrivance for regulating the tension and preserving the elasticity of the stick was the invention of the elder Tourte. The majority of writers on the history of the violin, and, incidentally, the bow, are content to take their data from that much quoted historian and scientist, Fétis. ”

“ The worth of a bow to its possessor consists in its firmness and elasticity, and in its proving fit to execute every kind of bowing with certainty.
Care of the instrument.
The instrument must always be kept clean and in order; every part should always be in proper condition. The dust from the resin must, every time after playing, be wiped from the upper table, fingerboard and bridge with a soft cloth. The strings, fingerboard and neck are then rubbed with an old silk handkerchief, taking care not to rub the strings to and fro, but always in one direction, else small fibres may be loosened. ”

“ The evolution of the modern bow has taken place almost entirely since the violin attained its final form, and has followed, more completely perhaps than the instrument itself, the development of violin music and the requirements of the player. It reached its highest perfection at the hands of the celebrated François Tourte of Paris, about 1780, whose bows have served as a model for all succeeding makers, even more exclusively than the violins of Stradivari controlled the pattern of later instruments ”

“ Too much attention cannot be paid to the study of sustained bowing which can be practised in a variety of ways. Firstly, long drawn semibreves—at one of the Continental Conservatoires they make the violin students play scales of two octaves, taking one bow to each note, the same to last two minutes, thus the whole scale, ascending and descending, occupies one hour! ”

“ In piano passages, the little finger should partially sustain the weight, and the stick should be inclined toward the neck, so that only part of the hairs act upon the strings.
The great stiffness and elasticity of the heavy bow gives a freer, clearer tone than can be produced by one of a lighter and more sluggish nature. ”

“ There was in general amongst violinists an anticipation of the grand, yet simple law set forth by De Beriot in his Violin School that the human voice was the pure archetype upon which all played music should be modelled.
It was found that the violin was capable of simulating all the subtle inflexions of song, whether of passion or tenderness, and players sighed for an ideal bow that should be tongue-like in its response to the performer's emotion. A bow that should at once be flexible to "whisper soft nothings in my lady's ear"; strong—to sound a clarion-blast of defiance ”

“ His best bows, such as he sold for a pound or thirty shillings, are fine, although few of the violin bows are such as an artist would make much use of. The slenderness is frequently carried to excess, and the narrowness of the head prevents a sufficient "spread" being given to the hair in many cases, and a great number are much too short.
It must be remembered that Dodd worked before foreign importation annihilated the English violin and bow making industries, and he turned out a large number of bows at prices ranging from a few shillings a dozen upwards. ”

“ Woolhouse laid great stress on a point overlooked by many other students of the subject, the same being that the success of a bow depends quite as much on its purity as a vibrating body as does the violin.
Unless the bow is so adjusted in its weight and proportions that it vibrates with absolute uniformity throughout its entire length it is useless to an artist. ”

“ The signs commonly employed in music for violin, viola, violoncello, and double-bass, to indicate various manners of bowing, are as follows:
The ordinary staccato mark ( or ) means a long quick stroke, either up or down as the case may be. The absence of slurs indicates a separate stroke of the bow for each tone. Sometimes the player is directed to use the lower half, the upper half, or the middle of the bow, such directions being given by printing the words "lower half," et cetera, above the passage, or by giving the initials of these words (sometimes in German) . ”

“ It is therefore evident that herein rests one of the most important and difficult elements of the art of violin-playing, and that the excellence of a player, or even of a whole school of playing, depends to a great extent on its method of bowing. It would have been even better for the art of violin-playing as practiced to-day that the perfect instruments of Stradiuarius and Guarnerius should not have been, than that the Tourté bow should have been uninvented. ”

“ According to Ishi, a bow left strung or standing in an upright position, gets tired and sweats. When not in use it should be lying down; no one should step over it; no child should handle it, and no woman should touch it. This brings bad luck and makes it shoot crooked. To expunge such an influence it is necessary to wash the bow in sand and water.
In his judgment, a good bow made a musical note when strung and the string is tapped with the arrow. ”

“ Suffice it to say that whoever boasts of an excellent violin should match it with a superior bow. One is incomplete without the other. There are many excellent makers, but we must content ourselves with briefly noticing the most prominent. Suffice it to say in the way of advice and warning that whether the amateur buy an old or a new bow, let him see that its flexibility, which is its great merit, is perfect, and that it is still strong though light and straight. Mr. Bishop in his edition of Otto says the finest bows are those of Vuillaume! ”

“ The thin, bent, elastic stick of the bow, with its greater length of sweep, gives the modern player incalculable advantages over those of an earlier age, enabling him to follow out the slightest gradations of tone from the fullest forte to the softest piano, to mark all kinds of strong and gentle accents, to execute staccato, legato, saltato, and arpeggio passages with the greatest ease and certainty. ”

“ In string quartets, orchestral music, etc., a very fine effect is possible if all the players execute it in a proper manner. The bow should be drawn quite close to the bridge, with only medium pressure applied, the stroke should be performed more rapidly than ordinary bowing. This bowing executed by a number of strings gives a very weird effect, the only objection to its use being that if great skill is not used, the string, instead of vibrating as a whole, will vibrate in segments, thus giving out one or other of the natural harmonics. ”

“ Having succeeded in acquiring a firm hold of the instrument and of the bow, it is best to examine before a looking-glass the attitude of the whole body, which must be natural and unconstrained. The body and head should be held erect, the shoulders somewhat back. When beginning to draw the bow across the strings the manner of holding should be examined and corrected after every stroke before proceeding further. ”

“ To acquire this skill, and also in some measure to educate the ear to the various tone-colour effects which are possible on the violoncello, much thoughtful practice is necessary. The student must not only know the correct movements which the hand and arm are to make in performing any particular style of bowing, but with much practice, he must so develop the muscles of his bow-arm, that they respond instantly to effect the slightest change in the amount of pressure required for the different degrees of sound-volume, or for the various parts of the bow used. ”