General mechanical differences between bow types
My approach to bowing and right-hand technique was much more empirical than the one I have had with the left hand. The following justifies the reason why I chose this path. In these last 6 years, I have been completely dedicated to studying Early Music. This means that I have been alternating between Baroque and Transitional bows frequently and adapting to styles of the 17th and 18th centuries, and ultimately I have come to learn something: if one has the right tool —specially in the case of bows — one can trust it and let the natural elasticity of the stick guide the playing without too much thinking of the little differences in the mechanics.
However, adapting to this new repertoire was a great challenge. In my case, not so because of the virtuosity of the left hand, but because it was difficult to recover movements and sensations incorporated in the right hand and arm that I left behind when I began my immersion in Early Music. I looked for answers in many treatises, but none could provide a clear solution, as, understandably, none of these treatises dealt with the problem of maneuvering completely different bow models. Therefore, in this chapter, I will summarise my experience and explain my attempt to understand the technical issues I faced and their possible solutions.
The baroque bow, due to its shape has a natural decay that was well suited to l'inegalité that was well cherished in the music of that time. Because of the way the bow was held and drawn, the normal stroke with the baroque bow was an articulated (which happened naturally due to the characteristics of the bow itself), non-legato stroke. Eighteenth-century music, in general, aspires to resemble spoken speech, and the bow sought to ‘speak’ with shorter rhetorical gestures.
Not only this is due to the obvious lower placement of the violin on the collarbone, but also the style required by the earlier style requires much more detailed articulation, easier to achieve through the independence of different parts of the right arm and hand.
The mechanics of the wrist and fingers change from player to player depending on the bow hold, but the wrist and fingers function sometimes separately in order to provide the minute, small-scale articulation that is required.
In that same line of thought, both Geminiani, and Leopold Mozart talk elaborately about the function of the index finger as the one in charge of controlling the pressure of the bow hairs on the string and producing the different consonants.
This, on the other hand, means that legato between bows is seldom used, and it is certainly not used nor practiced at all.
Transitional bow models, like the Cramer in this case, have the obvious characteristic of being longer and having more height in the tip, so it is easier to sustain the bow stroke for a longer duration. However, something that contrasts with the subsequent Tourte model, is that Cramer bows usually have a natural "bite" or articulation similar to the baroque bow. It also has an elasticity that makes it more bouncy, causing the bow hairs to come out of the string naturally without jumping off the stick.
The Tourte bow is clearly the longer model and has the widest hair ribbon. As we have seen in the previous chapters, this model made it significantly easier to play prolonged sustained phrases, something required in the newer fashion. It is the heaviest model of all, and its whole raison d'être is to perform as equally as possible upbow and downbow. Because of its shape, the control of the consonants is more difficult, and the balance point which is in the lower third near the base means that the stick does not jump naturally, except if it is "artificially" manipulated to come out of the string.
As an example of the new mechanism of the Tourte bow, the martelé stroke is illustrative. This is a basic stroke in the modern violin technique, compiled also in Baillot’s L'art du violon, that aims to imitate the natural articulation of the baroque bow but in a technically different way to adapt to the new bow shape: in the upper half.
The different characteristics of these bows, namely the length, the height, and the balance point, imply that the player needs to use different body parts to manipulate them. Something quite apparent is that the lighter and shorter, the easier it is to involve only smaller muscles and joints (fingers and wrist); inversely, the longer and heavier, the bigger muscles one needs to engage (arm, shoulder, and back). The different bow hold mechanism directly affects the height of the wrist and elbow and its relation to the upper and lower arm. This seemingly simple principle has a significant impact, requiring the creation of new neural pathways in order to utilise each of the bows.
Probably because of the characteristics of the Tourte bow I had at my disposal - it was too heavy, and made of carbon fiber - I couldn't make it work with my transitional violin setting. I had no control of the upper half and the consonants that were produced because of the excessive weight: I could not control it with my hand or wrist, and the only way to carry it involved the whole upper arm, which is something that Baillot explicitly warns against:
To play from the arm (that is to say, from the upper arm and elbow) is one of the greatest faults one can have. One must constantly try to avoid it. When one plays on the lower strings, the wrist is raised to reach them, and the forearm merely follows it, yet this movement is almost non-existent when one has to pass quickly from one string to another as in these passages1.
Bowing and different articulations
Stowell brilliantly summarises the complexity of the classification of the articulations in the bow; one of the reasons is definitely in connection with the previous section: the great variety of different bow models that sometimes coexisted at the same time. On the other hand, it was not until the Tourte model's universalization and Baillot's Methode that the handling of this bow model was examined in a textual manner.
Legato is the stroke we find the most in Libón’s Concerto. In imitation of the human voice, particularly the bel canto style. Many virtuosic fast passages are slurred, which in part facilitates the agility of the left hand. in others, especially the dolce cantabile themes, there are long expressive slurs (which I have allowed myself to divide). Again, I reiterate the difficulty of keeping the bow really close to the string. When combined with the portamenti that he writes in great detail, makes the coordination between both hands a real challenge.
The rule of the down bow in the bar was applicable to some extent, as Baillot summarises in the introduction of L'art du violon. He reminds us of the basics: using a down bow when the phrase begins on a strong beat, using an upbow when the phrase begins on an upbeat, and finally using an upbow for the upbeat before the final cadence. However, in the music of this era, we patently know that this rule had lots of exceptions.
The main challenge in dealing with this repertoire is to decide when it is a playful subversion of the "rule" to give more variety, or when to "correct" and follow what is more orthodox or natural. In the following passage, where could be hooked, but as per the speed of it, somehow is natural to do it with the upward stroke.
Staccato is a bow articulation compiled by Baillot with very clear instruction on how to execute it.
It is described as being similar to a Martelé stroke, but faster. Both of them are muted, meaning that the bow does not leave the string and actually stops the vibration between the up bow and down bow. This stroke could be applied elsewhere where it is not slurred in this movement, including the hooked bows.
It is worth clarifying the nature of the bow stroke called the ‘Viotti‘ Bowing. Throughout his published works, Viotti showed his wide range of imaginative variations in the grouping and accentuation of the passagework. However, Spohr was the one who related this denomination to this bow stroke (with 2 variations), a classification that many later authors followed.
A very similar articulation was classified by Baillot himself with the name "saccadé" described as the follows3:
The saccade is a rough and sudden jerk of the bow given to notes, generally in twos, threes, etc and sometimes irregularly, that is to say without symmetry. (...) In a violin solo, this bow stroke’s function is to break the monotony, lighten the passage, and give it energy. One must take care to correct its normal harshness all the more especially then because the sudden contrast requires a brisk, decisive movement of the bow which would easily make the playing dry and hard if one did not attempt to blend the saccade into the other notes of the passage.
The last aspect concerning the right hand that I would like to discuss the interdependence of bow speed, bow pressure, and the point of contact. Although this is not explicitly discussed in 18th and 19th century treatises as such, both Baillot and Spohr examine these aspects separately when talking about sound production or certain effects4.