THE WEIGHT OF THE BOWS"But what's the weight of this bow?". I assembled a list of the most useless questions I am constantly asked by the musicians who try our bows, and it won the Golden Globe !
As mentioned several times whenever a bowmaker builds, he "never" look for a certain weight, but for the right force and especially the balance. The weight of the "wood" that is sufficient to hold the arm of the performer is never the same because there are not two equal sticks and the craftsman chooses the mounting depending on the characteristics of the material. Fast and light wood,heavy mounting; slow and heavy wood, light weighted mounting (as a general rule but with appropriate exceptions). Every mounting has different weights, then the weight and the balance of the bow need to be linked to the materials in use. This year, for example, Maestro Navea Vera has built one of the finest quartets of his life. Two violin bows, one viola and a cello, mounted with ebony and gold frog, full button in gold and winding in tortoiseshell and gold ribbon. To all the musicians who made me the crucial question, I answered: "What do you think about?". The replies were almost unanimous; 59-60 g violin, 69-70 g viola 79-80 g cello. Nobody, and I repeat no one, has guessed the weight of these bows, respectively 63.5 g, 73 g , 83.2 g. I am speaking of excellent musicians, among them Maestro Boris Belkin, not exactly beginners, so why did these errors occur? The answer lies in the mountings. If these bows were mounted in silver, with three- part button, and silver winding, they would have weighed 58.5, 68, and 78.2 g. The reason is very simple, the frog in ebony, silver and three-part button you see in the picture weighs 18.5 g, the other one shown aside, in ivory, gold, and full button weighs 24.5 g. As you can see the difference in weight is of 6 g ! Black whalebone , tortoiseshell , silver wire 0.25 mm, and gold ribbon. The materials you see above are those used for the windings , and guess what, they all have different weights. Speaking of violin for example,a wrapping silver wire, diameter 0.25, weighs 3.5 g and 4.5 g in gold (of course with the increase of the wire diameter, the weight will increase as well). Given the considerable weight of gold, Maestro Navea Vera has not opted for the golden thread, but for the ribbon in gold and tortoise that weighs 2 g less. If he had not made this choice, the bow would have weighed 65.5 g, while maintaining the same force. Always talking of violin, the wrapping in silver wire 0.25, weighs 3.5 g, as told, the one in silk thread and silver 1.5 g , in whalebone or tortoiseshell and silver ribbon 2 g, 4.5 g in gold ribbon and whalebone or tortoise 2.5 g. As you can see the weight of the bows may change depending on the winding used even of 5, 6, 7 g, so it is useless to ask how heavy it is.. Certainly, a bow mounted in silver, ebony, silver and silk thread, button in three parts weighing 65 g is not much, as the heavy weight is due to the stick, so to hold the string as it needs a lot of mass. This bow, even if not very heavy certainly will not have neither a beautiful nor a powerful sound and not even a clear and precise mechanics. Returning to the Maestro Navea Vera's quartet, the musicians were not able to tell the right weight, because the bows are perfectly balanced giving a unique feeling of lightness in your hand . Heavy or light, , great bows must always give this impression, and these are really like this. What a luck to work with this man, thanks Daniel! In view of the forthcoming Mondomusica exhibition, I am glad to add the program of the concert that will be held here on October 1st at 12.00 in the NotAntica Hall. Come and listen to our sound. We wait for you !
Download the program of this event in pdf So long. Paolo
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