Bow (music)

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This article is about the bow used to play a string

instrument. For the musical instrument called
"bow", see musical bow.

A cello bow

In music, a bow is moved across some part of

a musical instrument, causing vibration which the
instrument emits as sound. The vast majority of
bows are used with string instruments, although
some bows are used with musical saws and other
bowed idiophones.

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Contents
[hide]
1Materialsandmanufacture
2Typesofbow
3Bowing
4History
4.1Origin
4.2ThemodernWesternbow
4.3Historicalbows
4.4Othertypesofbow
5Maintenance
6Nomenclature
7Seealso
8References
9Furtherreading
10Externallinks

[edit]Materials

and manufacture

A bow consists of a specially shaped stick with

other material forming a ribbon stretched between
its ends, which is used to stroke the string and
create sound. Different musical cultures have
adopted various designs for the bow. For instance,
in some bows a single cord is stretched between
the ends of the stick. In the Western tradition of
bowmakingbows for the instruments of
the violin and viol familiesa hank of horsehair is
normally employed.
The manufacture of bows is considered a
demanding craft, and well-made bows command
high prices. Part of the bowmaker's skill is the
ability to choose high quality material for the stick.
Historically, Western bows have been made
of pernambuco wood from Brazil. However,
pernambuco is now an endangered species whose
export is regulated by international treaty,[1] so
makers are currently adopting other materials:
woods such as Ip (Tabebuia)[2] as well as
synthetic materials. These synthetic materials
include carbon fiber epoxy composite
and fiberglass. Carbon fiber bows have become

very popular, and some of the better carbon fiber

bows are now comparable to fine pernambuco
sticks.
For the frog[3], which holds and adjusts the near
end of the horsehair, ebony is most often used, but
other materials, often decorative, were used as
well; these included ivory and tortoiseshell.
Materials such as mother of pearl or abalone shell
are often used on the slide which covers
the mortise, as well as in round decorative "eyes"
on the side surfaces. Sometimes "Parisian eyes"
are used, with the circle of shell surrounded by a
metal ring. The metal parts of the frog, or
mountings, may be used by the maker to mark
various grades of bow, ordinary bows being
mounted with nickel silver, better bows withsilver,
and the finest being gold-mounted. (Not all makers
adhere uniformly to this practice.) Near the frog is
the grip, which is made of a wire, silk, or
"whalebone" wrap and a thumb cushion made
of leather or snakeskin. The tip plate of the bow
may be made of bone, ivory, mammoth ivory, or
metal, such as silver.

A bow maker or Archetier typically uses between

150 and 200 hairs [4] from the tail of a horse for a
violin bow. Bows for other members of the violin
family typically have a wider ribbon, using more
hairs. White hair generally produces a smoother
sound and black hair (used mainly for double bass
bows) is coarser, producing a rougher sound.
Lower quality (inexpensive) bows often use nylon
or synthetic hair. Rosin, a hard, sticky substance
made from resin (sometimes mixed with wax), is
regularly applied to the bow hair to increase
friction.
In making a wooden bow, the greater part of the
woodworking is done on a straight stick. According
to James McKean,[5] "the bow maker graduates the
stick in precise gradations so that it is evenly
flexible throughout." These gradations were
originally calculated by Franois Tourte, discussed
below. In order to shape the curve or "camber" of
the bow stick, the maker carefully heats the stick in
an alcohol flame, a few inches at a time, bending
the heated stick gradually to the proper shape. A

metal or wooden template is used to get the exact

model's curve and shape while heating.
The art of making wooden bows has changed little
since the 19th century; most modern composite
sticks roughly resemble the Tourte design. Various
inventors have tried, at times, to come up with new
ways of bow making; the Incredibow,[6] for example,
has a straight stick cambered only by the fixed
tension of the synthetic hair.

[edit]Types

of bow

French (top) and German (bottom)double bass bows

Slightly different bows, varying in weight and

length, are used for the violin, viola, cello, and
double bass.
These are generally variations on the same basic
design. However, two distinct forms of the double
bass bow are in current usage. The "French"

overhand bow is constructed along the same lines

as the bow used with the other instruments of the
orchestral string family. The French stick is grasped
from opposite the frog. The "German" or "Butler"
underhand bow is broader and longer than the
French bow with a larger frog curved to fit the palm
of the hand. The German stick is grasped with the
hand encompassing the frog loosely. The German
bow is the older of the two designs, having
superseded the earlier arched bow. The French
bow became popular with its adoption in the 19th
century by virtuoso Giovanni Bottesini. Both are
found in the orchestra, though typically an
individual bass player prefers to perform using one
or the other type of bow.

[edit]Bowing
The characteristic long, sustained, and singing
sound produced by the violin, viola, violoncello,
and double bass is due to the drawing of the
bow against their strings. This sustaining of
musical sound with a bow is comparable to a
singer using breath to sustain sounds and sing

long, smooth, or legato melodies. Without the bow

the violin family could only be played pizzicato.
In modern practice, the bow is almost always held
in the right hand while the left is used for fingering.
When the player pulls the bow across the strings
(such that the frog moves away from the
instrument), it is called a downbow; pushing the
bow so the frog moves toward the instrument is
an upbow (the directions "down" and "up" are
literally descriptive for violins and violas, and are
employed in analogous fashion for the cello and
double bass). Two consecutive notes played in the
same bow direction are referred to as a hooked
bow; a downbow following a whole downbow is
called a retake.
Generally, the downbow stroke is used for the
strong musical beats, the upbow for weak beats.
However, in the viola da gamba, it is the reverse;
thus violinists, violists, and cellists look like they are
"pulling" on the strong beats when they play,
whereas gamba players look like they are
"stabbing" on the strong beats. The difference
almost certainly results from the different ways in

which the bow is held in these instrument families:

violin/viola/cello players hold the wood part of the
bow closer to the palm, whereas gamba players
use the opposite orientation, with the horsehair
closer. The orientation appropriate to each
instrument family permits the stronger wrist
muscles (flexors) to reinforce the strong beat.
String players control their tone quality by touching
the bow to the strings at varying distances from the
bridge, emphasizing the higher harmonics by
playing sul ponticello "on the bridge," or reducing
them, and emphasizing the fundamental frequency
by playing sul tasto "on the fingerboard".
Occasionally, composers ask the player to use the
bow by touching the strings with the wood rather
than the hair; this is known by the Italian phrase col
legno, "with the wood". Coll'arco, "with the bow", is
the indication to use the bow hair to create the
sound in the normal way.

[edit]History
[edit]Origin

The question of when and where the bow was

invented is of interest because the bow made
possible several of the most important instruments
in music today. Authorities give different answers to
this question, and this article will give only the
predominant opinion.
Scholars are agreed that stringed instruments as a
category existed long before the bow. There was a
long periodpossibly thousands of yearsin
which all stringed instruments were plucked.
In fact, it is likely that bowed instruments are not
much more than a thousand years old. Eric
Halfpenny, writing in the 1988 Encyclopdia
Britannica, says "bowing can be traced as far back
as the Islamic civilization of the 10th century ... it
seems likely that the principle of bowing originated
among the nomadic horse riding cultures of Central
Asia, whence it spread quickly through Islam and
the East, so that by 1000 it had almost
simultaneously reached China, Java, North Africa,
the Near East and Balkans, and Europe."
Halfpenny notes that in many Eurasian languages
the word for "bridge" etymologically means "horse,"

and that the Chinese regarded their own bowed

instruments (huqin) as having originated with the
"barbarians" of Central Asia.
The Central Asian theory is endorsed by Werner
Bachmann, writing in the New Grove. Bachmann
notes evidence from a tenth century Central Asian
wall painting for bowed instruments in what is now
the city of Kurbanshaid in Tajikistan.
Circumstantial evidence also supports the Central
Asian theory. All the elements that were necessary
for the invention of the bow were probably present
among the Central Asian horse riding peoples at
the same time:
In a society of horse-mounted
warriors (the horse peoples
included the Huns and
the Mongols), horsehair obviously
would have been available.
Central Asian horse warriors
specialized in the military bow,
which could easily have served
the inventor as a temporary way to
hold horsehair at high tension.

 To this day, horsehair for bows is

taken from places with harsh cold
climates, including Mongolia [1],
as such hair offers a better grip on
the strings.
Rosin, crucial for creating sound
even with coarse horsehair, is
used by traditional archers to
maintain the integrity of the string
and (mixed with beeswax) to
protect the finish of the bow; for
details, see these links: [2][3].
From all this it is tempting to imagine the invention
of the bow: some Mongol warrior, having just used
rosin on his equipment, idly stroked
his harp or lyre with a rosin-dusted finger and
produced a brief continuous sound, which caused
him to have an inspiration; whereupon he seized
his bow, restrung it with horsehair, and so on.
Obviously, the degree to which this fantasy is true
will never be known.
However the bow was invented, it soon spread very
widely. The Central Asian horse peoples occupied

a territory that included the Silk Road, along which

goods and innovations were transported rapidly for
thousands of miles (including, via India, by sea to
Java). This would account for the nearsimultaneous appearance of the musical bow in the
many locations cited by Halfpenny.

[edit]The

modern Western bow

Turning the screw on a modern violin bow causes the frog

(heel) to move, which adjusts the tension on the hair.

The kind of bow in use today was brought into its

modern form largely by the archetier / bowmaker Franois Tourte in 19th century France.
Pernambuco wood which was imported into France
to make textile dye, was found by the early French
bow masters to have just the right combination of
strength, resiliency, weight, and beauty. According

to James McKean, Tourte's bows, "like the

instruments of Stradivari, as still considered to be
without equal."[5]

[edit]Historical

bows

The early 18th century bow referred to as the

Corelli-Tartini model, is also referred to as the
Italian 'sonata' bow.This basic Baroque bow
supplanted by 1725 an earlier French dance bow
which was quite short with a little point. The French
dance bow was held with the thumb under the hair
and played with short, quick strokes for rhythmic
dance music. The Italian sonata bow was longer,
from 24-28 inches (6171 cm.), with a straight or
slightly convex stick. The head is described as a
pike's head, and the frog is either fixed (the clip-in
bow) or has a screw mechanism. The screw is an
early improvement, indicative of further changes to
come. As compared to a modern Tourte-style bow,
the Corelli-Tartini model is shorter and lighter,
especially at the tip, the balance point is lower
down on the stick, the hair more yielding, and the
ribbon of hair narrower about 6 mm wide.

In the early bow (the Baroque bow), the natural

bow stroke is a non-legato norm, producing what
Leopold Mozart called a "small softness" at the
beginning and end of each stroke.
A lighter, clearer sound is produced, and quick
notes are cleanly articulated without the hair
leaving the string.
A truly great example of such a bow, described by
David Boyden,[7] is part of the Ansley Salz
Collection at the University of California at
Berkeley. It was made around 1700, and is
attributed to Stradivari.
Towards the middle of the century (18th century),
there was a move into the Transitional period, the
separation of hair from stick became greater,
particularly at the head. This greater separation is
necessary because the stick becomes longer and
straighter, approaching a concave shape.
Up until the advent of the bow by Tourte, there was
absolutely no standardization of bow features
during this Transitional period, and every bow was
different in weight, length and balance. In

particular, the heads varied enormously by any

given maker.
Another transitional type of bow may be called the
Cramer bow, after the violinist Wilhelm
Cramer (174699) who lived the early part of his
life in Mannheim (Germany) and, after 1772, in
London. This bow and models comparable to it in
Paris, generally prevailed between the gradual
demise of the Corelli-Tartini model and the birth of
the Tourte-that is, roughly 1750-85. In the view of
top experts, the Cramer bow represents a decisive
step towards the modern bow.
The Cramer bow and others like it were gradually
rendered obsolete by the advent of Franois
Tourte's standardized bow. The hair (on the
Cramer bow) is wider than the Corelli model but
still narrower than a Tourte, the screw mechanism
becomes standard, and more sticks are made from
pernambuco, rather than the earlier snakewood,
ironwood, and china wood, which were often fluted
for a portion of the length of the stick.[8]

Fine makers of these Transitional models were

Duchane, La Fleur, Meauchand, Tourte pre,
and Edward Dodd.
The underlying reasons for the change from the old
Corelli-Tartini model to the Cramer and, finally, to
the Tourte were naturally related to musical
demands on the part of composers and violinists.
Undoubtedly the emphasis on cantabile, especially
the long drawn out and evenly sustained phrase,
required a generally longer bow and also a
somewhat wider ribbon of hair. - David
Boyden[9] These new bows were ideal to fill the
new, very large concert halls with sound and
worked great with the late classical and the new
romantic repertoire.
Today, with the rise of the historically informed
performance movement, string players have
developed a revived interest in the lighter, preTourte bow, as more suitable for playing stringed
instruments made in pre-19th century style.

[edit]Other

types of bow

The Chinese yazheng and yaqin, and

Korean ajaeng zithers are generally played by

"bowing" with a rosined stick, which creates friction

against the strings without any horsehair.
The hurdy-gurdy's strings are similarly set into
vibration by means of a "rosin wheel," a wooden
wheel which contacts the strings as it is rotated by
means of a crank handle, creating a "bowed" tone.

[edit]Maintenance
Careful owners always loosen the hair on a bow
before putting it away. James McKean
recommends that the owner "loosen the hair
completely, then bring it back just a single turn of
the button." The goal is to "keep the hair even but
allow the bow to relax."[5]
Since hairs may break in service, bows must be
periodically rehaired, an operation usually
performed by professionals rather than by the
instrument owner.
Bows sometimes lose their correct camber (see
above), and are recambered using the same
heating method as is used in the original
manufacture.

Lastly, the grip or winding of the bow must

occasionally be replaced to maintain a good grip
and protect the wood.
These repairs are best left to professionals, as the
head of the bow is extremely fragile, and a poor
rehair, or a broken ivory plate on the tip can lead to
ruining the bow.

[edit]Nomenclature
In vernacular speech the bow is occasionally called
a fiddlestick. Bows for particular instruments are
often designated as such: "violin bow", "cello bow",
and so on.

[edit]See

also

Pernambuco
Playing the violin, section on
"Bowing techniques"
Rosin
String instrument, section on
"Bowing"
Musical bow, musical instrument
Bowed guitar
Curved bow

[edit]References
1. ^ Greenpeace Music Wood Campaign
2. ^ Erin Shrader. "Shop Visit with Bow Maker John
Aniano". Strings Magazine. Retrieved
15 March 2010. "Collections of
bows of ipe and other alternative
woods by top bow makers have
appeared at the Musicora trade
show in Paris, at the Violin
Society of Americas Innovation
Exposition at the 2006
convention, and at the Library of
Congress as part of the
Federation of Violin and Bow
Makers 2006 Players Meet
Makers event."
3. ^ Also known as
the talon, heel or nut.
4. ^ Raffin, Jean Francois; Millant,
Bernard (2000). L'Archet. Paris:
L'Archet ditions. ISBN 2-9515569-0-X.
5. ^
McKean, James N.
(1996) Commonsense Instrument
Care. San Anselmo, California:
a b c

String Letter Publishing. ISBN 978-09626081-9-3

6. ^ http://www.incredibow.com/index.htm Incredibow
web page
7. ^ Boyden, David. The History of
Violin Playing, p. 207
8. ^ Cramer model bowEarly Bows
9. ^ http://www.boisestate.edu/music/pedagogylit/stringlit/week0
1/boyden.pdf

David Boyden
WikimediaCommonshasmedia
relatedto:Bows(music)

Harnoncourt, Nikolaus. Baroque

music today: music as
speech. Amadeus Press, c1988.
Saint-George, Henry. The
Bow (London, 1896; 2: 1909).
Seletsky, Robert E., "New Light on
the Old Bow," Part 1: Early
Music 5/2004, p. 286-96; Part
2: Early Music 8/2004, p. 415-26.
Roda, Joseph (1959). Bows for
Musical Instruments. Chicago: W.
Lewis. OCLC 906667.

 Vatelot, Etienne (1976). Les

Archet Francais. Sernor: M.
Dufour. OCLC 2850939.
Raffin, Jean Francois; Millant,
Bernard (2000). L'Archet. Paris:
L'Archet ditions. ISBN 29515569-0-X.

[edit]Further

reading

Bachmann, Werner. The origins of

bowing and the development of
bowed instruments up to the
thirteenth century. London, Oxford
U.P., 1969.
Saint-George, Henry, The Bow, Its
History, Manufacture and Use
Templeton, David. "Fresh Prince:
Joshua Bell on composition,
hyperviolins, and the
future". Strings no. 105 (October
2002).
Young, Diana. A Methodology for
Investigation of Bowed String
Performance Through

Measurement of Violin Bowing

Technique. PhD Thesis. M.I.T.,
2007.

[edit]External

links

Wikisourcehasthetextof
the1911Encyclopdia
BritannicaarticleBow.

Book about bow making

Article about horse hair.
Commissioning a bow.
Mastering New Materials:
Commissioning an Amber Bow,
no.65
Production of a carbon fiber bow
eNotes article on the history and
making of bows.
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