Bow (music)

In music, a bow is a device pulled across the strings of a string instrument in order to make them vibrate and emit sound.

In vernacular speech the bow is occasionally called a fiddlestick.

Materials

A bow consists of a length of wood with some other material stretched between its ends. The type of bow used to play the violin and related instruments has many hairs stretched between its ends, but bows used in other cultures often stretch a single piece of string between the ends of the wood.

Fine modern bows used to play orchestral string instruments of the violin family (the violin, viola, cello and double bass) are usually made of pernambuco wood from Brazil and are strung with horsehair. Silver or gold, ebony wood from Africa, ivory, pearl shell, leather, and sometimes tortoiseshell are materials commonly used for the "frog" and finger grip. Some fine synthetic bows are also made of fiberglass and other man-made materials. A very popular synthetic material for bows is carbon fiber epoxy composite, and carbon fiber bows are achieving legitimacy. Cheaper bows can also be made of synthetic materials and less suitable types of wood.

A bow maker or luthier typically uses 150 hairs from the tail of a horse for the bows for violin family instruments. White hair generally produces a smoother sound and black hair (used mainly for double bass bows) is coarser, producing a rougher sound. Inexpensive bows often use nylon or synthetic hair. Rosin, a hard, sticky substance made from resin, is regularly applied to the bow hair to increase friction so that the bow moving across the instrument's strings will cause the string to vibrate and produce a tone.

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).

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.

Playing an instrument by touching the strings with the wood of the bow rather than the hair is known by the Italian phrase col legno. Arco in Italian is the indication to use the bow hair to create the sound. See also: Sul ponticello, Sul tasto, Col legno.

History

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 period—possibly thousands of years—in 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 Encyclopedia 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 horse 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, eg Chinese, 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 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 horses in northern climates, since such hair provides more friction. The article "From Horse to Bow"^* answers many questions regarding the sources, collection, and processing of horsehair.
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: 1, 2.

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 famous Silk Road, along which goods and innovations were shipped rapidly for thousands of miles (including, via India, by sea to Java). This would account for the near-simultaneous appearance of the musical bow in the many locations cited by Halfpenny.

The modern Western bow

The kind of bow in use today was brought into its modern form largely by the bow-maker François 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. Even so, a violin or a bow maker must choose sound quality above all, when choosing wood to make bows and instruments. A common practice even today, is to reserve the best and most beautiful tone wood for bows and instruments for a maker's most expensive works. In making a bow, the greater part of the woodworking is done on a straight stick. 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 bow making has changed little since the 19th century. While the bows used for the violin, viola, and cello are generally variations on the same basic design, the bow used on the double bass comes in two distinct forms. The "French" or "overhand" bow is similar in shape and implimentation to the bow used on the other members of the orchestral string instrument family, while the "German" or "Butler" bow is broader and shorter, and held with the right hand grasping the frog in a loose fist. The German bow is the older of the two designs. The French bow, often chosen by soloists due to its greater maneuverability, was not widely popular until its adoption by 19th-century virtuouso Giovanni Bottesini. Both bows are used by modern players, and the choice between the two is a matter of personal preference.

Historical bows

With the rise of the authentic performance movement, string players have developed a revived interest in the lighter, pre-Tourte bow, as more suitable for playing stringed instruments made in pre-19th century style.

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.

External links

String instrument construction

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