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.
A bow consists of a carefully chosen stick (usually wood) with some other material stretched between its ends. The type of bow used to play instruments of the
violin family 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 bows are made from synthetic materials, such as a
carbon fiber epoxy composite, or
fiberglass. Carbon fiber bows have become very popular, and some of the better carbon fiber bows are now comparable to the finer pernambuco sticks. Lower quality 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. Lower quality (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.
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.
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"[
1] 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
|
Turning the screw on a modern violin bow causes the frog 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 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.
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.
*
Bow bugs*
Book about bow making*
Article about horse hair.*
Information about gold and silver bow.
