| Author |
Subject |
TerryM
Registered
User
(1/28/01 6:28:12 pm)
Reply |
Questions regarding bow weight
It is my understanding that older
bows, i.e. 19th or early 20th century were generally on the lighter
side. Present day bows tend to average around 80grams or more,
whereas the older bows were generally 5 or more grams
lighter.
The reason I am thinking about this is that my
present bow seems a bit on the heavy side for playing baroque music
with the many fast and lighter sounding passages, which need greater
articulation. My main pernambuco wood bow has a big sound and lots
of harmonic content and is great for more romantic pieces, but I
find it more difficult to get the kind of sound I am looking for in
baroque music. I have a light weight and inexpensive brazilwood bow
in my collection of bows and it is much easier to handle in rapid
passages than my more expensive and heavier pernambuco wood
bows.
I tried the lighter weight Arcus and thought it was
great for baroque pieces, but found the sound a bit light for other
music. Does anyone have or has anyone played with a baroque bow and
if so, what are your general impressions about the ease of playing
and the quality of sound? What are your thoughts on bow weight in
general.
Terry
|
Ryan
Selberg .gif)
Registered User
(1/29/01 2:43:46 pm)
Reply |
Re:
Questions regarding bow weight
Although I don't own a baroque-style
bow, I do own over a dozen bows, including both older French and
English, and a number of modern, including two carbon fiber bows. I
am a firm believer in using a bow that is appropiate to the type of
playing a particular work demands, rather than using only one bow
and making it fit the incredible diversity of styles that a modern
player faces, particularly in symphonic playing. We just finished a
series of concerts over the weekend whose repetoire consisted of the
Vivaldi 4 Seasons and Schubert 9th Symphony. I used two different
bows for the concert. For the Vivaldi, I used a 75 gram Voirin (a
great bow whose head broke years ago and was replaced by a local
bowmaker), and for the Schubert, an 81.5 gram Paul Siefried bow
which is very strong and articulate, but not too heavy, either. I
don't consider it a luxury to have a number of bows to chose from,
any more than a photographer considers having a number of different
lenses to use. There is no ideal bow! I have several that do most
things very well, especially if I need to have the warmest, biggest,
most refined sound I can make. But they are all compromises. Like
shooting everything with a 50 mm lense!
Hope this makes
sense. (There is a side benefit to having a number of really nice
bows to play with, too-variety! Sort of like an instrumental harem!
Hope that statement doesn't get me in trouble!)
Ryan
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TerryM
Registered
User
(1/29/01 9:28:16 pm)
Reply |
Thanks
Ryan
It makes a lot of sense and is very
helpful. I liked your analogy to the photograher's selection of
lenses. This is certainly a case of one size does not fit all.
Thanks
Terry
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