The German Bow in Tango Music

Maria Alejandra Bejarano Salazar

This artistic research compares French and German bow techniques in Tango music. I have been playing for a couple of years with a German bow when I play classical repertoire, and a French bow when I play tango. Considering that Tango has changed and added many things throughout its history, I wanted to investigate why the tradition of playing with a French bow is still extremely strong. So that is why the main question of this work is how to approach Tango music for double bass using a German bow technique? To answer this question I have been studying the method "The bass in tango" published by Tango sin fin, that approaches all of the elements from the perspective of the French bow. However, I have studied this using the German bow technique. I have found that you can play Tango with both techniques, but you cannot follow the same instructions to find the same results. This is mainly because of the anatomy of the bow. Additionally, because there is not a strong tradition outside of Argentina of typical orchestras or soloists that play beyond Piazzolla the tradition of playing with a French bow is still strong. After finishing this research, I would like to continue working on this subject through a new repertoire in a personal search to improve my performance as a tango player and then share this knowledge playing concerts or teaching with other double bass players.

Methodology

To answer my questions and achieve my aims about how I can play tango music in a traditional way with German bow, I will work with a method published by Tango sin fin of how to play tango music called The Bass in Tango² by Ignacio Varchausky. This book is also accompanied with videos and audios where they explain step by step througt all of the elements about how to play tango and how is the role of the bass in this music. Althought all of the information is approched from French bow, so I will study with this book and comparate the two tecniques to understand what are the differents between them and how I can approch it from German bow. Also, watching videos, listening to music and reading about the history will be a really important part because all of those elements are necesaries to to know beyond the tecnique how and why the sound of the double bass should be in a certain way.

Finally I am goin to work and apply all my discoveries playing two pieces. In the final exam of the first year a piece called Kicho by Astor Piazzolla, and for the final examen of the second year I am going to play De tal palo by L. Federico.

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