THE PERFECT SPRING

From the very moment I was pondering about writing an “info blog” about the Bow, I was wondering, as well, how to start with the description of such a vast and complex world.

I think that in order to understand a bow and, especially how it works, it is necessary to define the basic essence of this instrument.

Tourte’s violin bow – head   

Because the bow, as my Maestro Giovanni Lucchi taught me, is merely a spring: a leaf spring. Being aware that a bow is a leaf spring is a certainty that will help us to answer a lot of questions.

For instance “ Why do the bows lose their fiber and nerve ? “

Apart the bad maintenance that is often a guilt of the handcrafter and causes premature damages in the fiber, a certain cause of death is imputable to its use. As the bow is a spring, it responds to the same physical laws. As shock absorbers in a car , that wear out because of the mileage , the bows as well can wear out during the years and throughout its use.

The average life of a bow, played from 4 to 6 hours a day is of 15/20 years, after this period its starting peculiarities inevitably fade and decrease dramatically. The voices of the ancient bows become richer of very sweet and captivating tones to the player’s ear but, often, with the exception of few cases in which the bow is very rarely used, they lose power and clearness.

Or “ Why doesn’t the bow keep the string ? “

As in a F1 car, where the stability on the circuit is related to quality of the shock absorbers, the capability of a bow to stay properly on the string is directly connected to the correctness of its curve.

If it is not homogeneously shared, the tension changings occurring in the different parts of the stick, will cause a lack of adherence on the string and consequently a lack in both sound and stability.

     - If the head is not perfectly aligned with the frog or, better, if the bow has suffered a tension, we will have a constant instability along the whole stick, due to the incorrect support of the hair on the string.

     - If the bow has too much curve the bow will be soft and, when we play there will be a tendency of the stick to “wave” toward the outside .

     - If the bow has too little curve, it will be very tiring to use it and impossible to make it jump.

It’s all for now, I invite you to write me for any further question clicking on “subscribe”.

As a gift, I leave you two pictures of a beautiful violin bow made by Tourte.

One day or the other I will tell you more about him …an alien !

So long !

Paolo.

Tourte violin bow, frog