The Arc of the Bow

It's a stick.
This special musical tool was 
artfully designed hundreds of years ago,
for the string instrument family.
Made of an exotic Brazilian wood
that is gently bent into a subtle curve
to hold taunt a ribbon
of hair from a horse's tail,
it is called a bow.

It's slender shape, length, weight, and material 
follow century old traditions
of musical instrument craftsmanship. 

By itself the bow makes no sound.
But a violin could not sing without it.

It's still a stick.

Today I feature a small medley
of photographs of unknown string players 
demonstrating how a bow is applied to their instrument.

There are a few differences between bows used by different string instruments. The bow for a double bass is stouter and, generally, has black horsehair which is coarser to better vibrate a bass's longer, thicker strings. The grip or "frog" is also different for bassists who sometimes follow a German technique and hold the bow in an underhand position like this musician from Meyenburg, a town north of Berlin. This cabinet card probably dates from the 1890s. 

White horsehair is preferred for the other strings. It comes from white horses that are bred in colder climates like Siberia, Mongolia, Manchuria, Poland, Canada and more recently, Argentina. Every few months the horsehair wears out and needs replacing. It's very common to see string players  pluck broken strands of hair from their bows. On several occasions I've seen the bow of a string soloist come undone in the middle of a concert. Usually a quick replacement from a member of the orchestra is handed over so that the performance can carry on. 

The cello or violoncello needs a less heavy bow and it is played with an overhand position.

Like a bass player, a cellist saws the bow back and forth rather than up and down like violin or viola players. The highest pitch string is also on the other side of the instrument from the bow arm, the reverse from the violin and viola.

This cellist has the look of a professional musician though he is wearing just a tuxedo with black bow tie and not a formal tailcoat with white tie. The photographer is "Géza Schröter" from Leipzig, Germany. I think this cabinet card dates from around 1910.

A bow maker is called an archetier, and they are a craftsman independent from a luthier who make violins, violas, cellos, double basses. though a luthier regularly repair and re-hair bows. The style and dimensions of string instrument bows were set by the French archetier François Tourte (1747–1835) between 1785 and 1790. He introduced a consistent balance and high standard of construction for the bow that greatly improved the sound and playing action of string instruments. In the 21st century Tourte's bows are as prized and sought after as the violins of celebrated Italian violin makers like Stradivarius and  Guarneri. 

My opening image was cropped from this cabinet card photograph of a young woman looking directly at the camera as she plays her violin. Her standing position shows off the playing  geometry of bow to strings that all string players must learn in order to master their instrument. For a violin the top E string is near the bow arm but I think from her bow's angle that she is playing the third D string. The bow would need to be more horizonal to touch the lowest G string.

The dark green card mount has only the imprinted name of a photographer– M. E. Jenkins and no city or town. So my best guess is that the woman is from someplace in America in around 1895 to 1910.

Since François Tourte's time the timber used to make a quality bow has almost always been Pernambuco wood, Paubrasilia echinata, from Brazil. The tip of the bow may have a small ivory triangle to cover where the horsehair is mounted and the opposite end's grip or frog is made of ebony wood with a screw mechanism to tighten the bow hair. In modern times both the ivory and Pernambuco are endangered materials whose export is strictly regulated by international treaties, so string players must carry documentation for their bows when travelling across foreign borders.

This young woman is the only Japanese musician in my collection. She wears a traditional Japanese kimono and is slightly turned to her left, nearly the same position as my previous violinist. However her bow arm is down and I think the bow is placed on the top E string. This is a sepia photo that could definitely be improved with color.

This small carte de visite has the name of the photographer and location written in Japanese. But drawing the characters into the Google Translate app failed to produce a satisfactory translation. Al I can add is that the seller informed me that the style of photo dates to 1907. If that is correct the violin would be unusual as Japan was isolated from Western Culture until 1853 when American naval officer, Matthew Perry, opened the nation to diplomacy and trade with the West.

Finally my last violinist demonstrates an unconventional technique by playing his instrument on top his head. He stands in front of a theatrical backdrop of a rustic country lane with a caption painted on: Varietie Bavaria. He looks like a fun guy.

 Judging from the back of the photo, I believe he is a professional entertainer showing off one of his tricks and he sent this postcard to a friend, Herrn Ruland, a Musikal Unteroffizier at a military base near Rosenberg in  Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The violinist's was a member of a instrumental and comic troupe and his name was Abs. J. Hosemann from Augsburg in Bayern or Bavaria. His handwriting is unusual because of the block letters.

The movement of a bow follows an arc across the instrument's strings. In fact the Italian word used in music to indicate that a player should play with the bow is arco. It gives string players a  physicality in making music, not unlike dancing, as the bow follows the tempo and beat of the music. The infinite variety of dynamics and tones of a bowed string instrument come from the player's tiny adjustments made to this stick. The friction from the rosined horsehair gently, or aggressively, vibrate the string to make it sound. In a way the bow is the breathe that gives the instrument a voice. To hear an orchestra string section play as one choir is a true marvel. 

Here is a short YouTube performance to demonstrate
how animated a string orchestra can be at times.
especially when it stands like this orchestra.
The music is the Allegro molto, Kammersinfonie op. 110a
by Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich (1906–1975). 
The orchestra is the Junge Kammerphilharmonie Rhein-Neckar
— Heidelberg Youth Chamber Orchestra
with conductor, Thomas Kalb in a performance
at the Stadthalle Heidelberg, Jubiläumskonzert on 6.10.2018.

And for contrast with a seated string orchestra
here is the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra
under its leader Terje Tønnensen, playing
Romanian Folk Dances for String Orchestra Sz.56 BB 68
by Hungarian composer Béla Bartók (1881–1945)

This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday

where everyone is on target this weekend.