Produced by Ron Swanson
THE BOW, ITS HISTORY, MANUFACTURE AND USE.
Printed in Great Britain by J. H. Lavender and Co.,
2, Duncan Terrace, City Road, London, N.I.
[Frontispiece: HENRY SAINT-GEORGE.]
_"THE STRAD" LIBRARY, No. III._
THE BOW, ITS HISTORY, MANUFACTURE AND USE
BY
HENRY SAINT-GEORGE
ILLUSTRATED BY THE AUTHOR
THIRD EDITION
London:
HORACE MARSHALL & SON, 46, Farringdon Street, E.C.4.
New York:
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS, 597-599, Fifth Avenue.
1922.
PREFACE.
It has always appeared to me a curious thing that the bow, without
which the fiddle could have no being, should have received so scant
attention, not alone from the community of fiddlers, but also from
writers on the subject. I only know of one book in which the subject
is adequately handled. Out of every twenty violinists who profess to
some knowledge of the various types of Cremonese and other fiddles of
repute and value, barely three will be met with who take a similar
interest in the bow beyond knowing a good one, or rather one that
suits their particular physique, when playing with it. They are all
familiar with the names of Dodd and Tourte, but it is seldom that
their knowledge extends beyond the names. As for a perception of the
characteristics of bows as works of art, which is the standard of the
fiddle connoisseur, it hardly has any existence outside the small
circle of bow makers. Of the large number of undoubted fiddle experts
now in London, but a small proportion profess to any similar
knowledge of bows, and of these there are but few who can be credited
with real authority in the matter.
It is, therefore, with the object of bringing the bow into more
general notice that this little book has been written, and, to drop
into the good old prefatory style, if I succeed in arousing the
interest of but one violinist in the bow for itself, and apart from
its work, my efforts will not have been in vain.
My most hearty thanks are due to those who have so kindly assisted me
in my work. To _Messrs. W. E. Hill and Sons, Mr. E. Withers, Mr. F.
W. Chanot, Mr. J. Chanot, and Messrs. Beare, Goodwin and Co._, for
the loan of valuable bows for the purpose of illustration, and _Mr.
A. Tubbs_, who, in addition to similar favours, most kindly placed
much of his valuable time at my disposal, and very patiently helped
me to a sufficient understanding of the bow maker's craft for the
purpose of collecting materials for the second part of the book.
The third part, in which I treat of the use of the bow, I have
purposely avoided making a systematic handbook of bowing technique,
for to handle that subject as exhaustively as I should wish would
require a separate volume. As stated in Chapter XIV., that portion of
the book is addressed almost exclusively to teachers, and in the few
cases where I have gone into questions of technique it has been
limited to those points that appear to be most neglected or
misunderstood by the generality of teachers.
"Anything that is worth doing is worth doing well" is a maxim that
teachers should hold up to themselves and their pupils, and this
reminds me of an exhortation to that effect in "Musick's Monument,"
that quaint and pathetic book of Thomas Mace (1676) with which I
cannot do better than end my already too extensive preamble.
"Now being Thus far _ready_ for _Exercise_, attempt the _Striking of
your Strings_; but before you do _That_, Arm yourself with
Preparative _Resolutions to gain a
Handsome--Smooth--Sweet--Smart--Clear--Stroak_; or else Play not at
all."
CONTENTS.
PART I.
_The History of the Bow_.
CHAPTER I. PAGE
ORIGIN OF INSTRUMENTS. FRICTIONAL VIBRATION. THE BOW DISTINCT
FROM THE PLECTRUM. THE TRIGONON. BOWING WITH VARIOUS OBJECTS . . 1
CHAPTER II.
ORIENTAL ORIGIN OF THE BOW. INDIAN, CHINESE AND OTHER EASTERN
BOWED INSTRUMENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
CHAPTER III.
THE CRWTH. FLEMING'S "ETRUSCAN RAVANASTRON." THE MEDIAEVAL BOW.
UNRELIABILITY OF EARLY DRAWINGS AND SCULPTURES . . . . . . . . . 14
CHAPTER IV.
THE BEGINNINGS OF THE MODERN BOW. ORNAMENTATION. A POSSIBLE
STRADIVARI BOW. THE MOVABLE NUT. THE CREMAILLERE. THE SCREW NUT 23
CHAPTER V.
VUILLAUME'S FACTS. THE FERRULE AND SLIDE. JOHN DODD . . . . . . 31
CHAPTER VI.
DR. SELLE'S RECOLLECTIONS OF DODD. HIS WORK AND POVERTY. DODD
AND TOURTE. THE CALCULATION OF FETIS AND VUILLAUME . . . . . . . 36
CHAPTER VII.
LUPOT. PECCATTE. SPURIOUS STAMPING. PANORMO. W. J. B.
WOOLHOUSE'S CALCULATIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
CHAPTER VIII.
A LIST OF BOW MAKERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
PART II.
_Bow Making_.
CHAPTER IX.
MATERIALS. BRAZIL WOOD. HORSEHAIR. THE ACTION OF ROSIN . . . . . 60
CHAPTER X.
QUALITIES ESSENTIAL IN A BOW MAKER. SHAPING THE STICK. SETTING
THE _Cambre_. THE FACES. THE TRENCHES. THE NUT . . . . . . . . . 64
CHAPTER XI.
POSSIBLE REPAIRS. SPLICING. RENEWING CUPS. RESTORING THE NUT.
RE-FACING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
CHAPTER XII.
RE-LAPPING. RE-HAIRING. CHOICE OF ROSIN . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
CHAPTER XIII.
THE PERFECTION OF THE MODERN BOW. DR. NICHOLSON'S PATENT BOW.
VUILLAUME'S INVENTIONS. SELF-HAIRING BOWS. A FOLDING BOW. THE
"KETTERIDGE BOW" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
PART III.
_The Art of Bowing_.
CHAPTER XIV.
THE UNDECIDED ASPECT OF TECHNIQUE. IMPORTANCE OF A KNOWLEDGE OF
THE ANATOMY OF THE HAND. THE FUNCTION OF THE THUMB.
INDIVIDUALITY IN TECHNIQUE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
CHAPTER XV.
BOWING HISTORICALLY CONSIDERED. THE OLDEST ENGLISH VIOLIN
METHOD. SYMPSON'S INSTRUCTIONS IN BOWING. THOSE OF MACE (1676).
THOSE OF VARIOUS MODERN MASTERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
CHAPTER XVI.
THE FINGERS OF THE RIGHT HAND. DIFFERENCES OF OPINION THEREON.
SAUTILLE. THE LOOSE WRIST . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
CHAPTER XVII.
THE IMPORTANCE OF THE SLOW BOW. THE RAPID WHOLE BOW. STACCATO.
BOWING STUDIES AND SOLOS. CONCLUSION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
PUBLISHER'S NOTE.
In this new impression of the late Mr. Saint-George's book
opportunity has been taken to correct a few obvious errors, such as
those occurring in the notices of the three bowmakers named Peccatte;
the deaths of those makers which have occurred since the publication
of the first edition have been noted, and a few fresh names have been
added to the list contained in Chapter VIII. In other respects the
text of the work remains practically as the author left it.
INDEX TO ILLUSTRATIONS.
PHOTO REPRODUCTIONS OF BOWS.
PLATE
I. Head and nut of inlaid bow probably by Stradivari
to face page 32
II. Heads of three English bows showing evolution of design
to follow page 32
III. Heads of two violin, two viola, and one 'cello bow, by
IV. J. Dodd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . to follow page 32
V. Heads of three violin bows and one 'cello bow, by
VI. Francois Tourte . . . . . . . . . . . . to face page 48
VII. Heads of bows by Lupot . . . . . . . . . . . to follow page 48
VIII. Two heads of bows by D. Peccatte and one by Panormo
to follow page 48
ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE TEXT.
FIG. PAGE
1. Locust, showing action of hind leg in producing note . . . . 3
2. Assyrian Trigonon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
3. Crwth bow from the Golden Porch at Freiburg . . . . . . . . 6
4. Ravanastron and bow (Indian) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
5. Uh-Ch'in and bow (Chinese) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
6. Omerti and bow (Indian) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
7. Kemangeh-a-gouz and bow (Arabian) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
8. Rebab-esh-Sha'er and bow (Arabian) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
9. Sitara and bow (Persian) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
10. Sarinda and bow (Bengalese) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
11. Method of hairing some Egyptian bows . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
12. Saw-Tai and bow (Siamese) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
13. Bow of Nyckelharpa (Swedish) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
14. Bow of Saw-oo (Chinese) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
15. Bow of the eighth century . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
16. Bow of the ninth century . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
17. Bow of the ninth century . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
18. Bows of the eleventh century . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
19. Bows of the twelfth century . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
20. Bows of the thirteenth century . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
21. Bows of the fourteenth century . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
22.
23. Bows of the fifteenth century . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
24. Bows of the sixteenth century . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
25. Bows of the seventeenth century (drawn actual size from
specimens now in existence) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
26. Bows of the eighteenth century (drawn actual size from
specimens now in existence) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
27. Showing detachable nut of some early bows . . . . . . . . . 28
28. Heels of early bows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
29. The Cremaillere . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
30. Head and nut of ornamented Cremonese bow (actual size) . . . 32
31. Head and nut of Dodd bow (reduced) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
32. Head of Dodd bow (actual size) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
33. Geometrical construction showing gradation of stick (Fetis) 43
34. Bow stick in the rough (greatly reduced) . . . . . . . . . . 65
35. Pattern of bow head (actual size) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
36. Ivory face in the rough . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
37. Gauge for nuts (actual size) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
38. Parts of a bow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
39. Tip of bow showing "cups" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
40. Head of bow showing trench . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
41. Nut of bow showing screw and method of hairing . . . . . . . 75
42. End view of nut showing bow with unequal facets . . . . . . 76
43. Dr. Nicholson's bow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
44. A fifteenth century violist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
45. A seventeenth century gambist (from Sympson) . . . . . . . . 93
THE BOW: Its History, Manufacture and Use.
PART I.
THE HISTORY OF THE BOW.
CHAPTER I.
ORIGIN OF INSTRUMENTS--FRICTIONAL VIBRATION--THE BOW DISTINCT FROM
THE PLECTRUM--THE TRIGONON--BOWING WITH VARIOUS OBJECTS.
As has been observed by the most talented writer on this subject "the
history of the bow is practically that of the violin." It will
therefore be readily understood that in the earlier portions of this
_opusculum_ it will be impossible to separate them to any great
extent; also, I must crave my readers' indulgence for going over a
considerable tract of already well trodden ground. My excuse must be
my desire for completeness, for, as I propose to deal with the
evolution of the modern bow, I find it difficult to arbitrarily
select a starting point to the exclusion of all previous details,
whether of ascertained fact or conjecture. Therefore I will follow
the invariable custom of fiddle literature and go back to the regions
of speculative history for a commencement.
Speculative history is, I fear, more fascinating to the writer than
convincing to the reader, so I will be as brief as possible in this
particular, nor will I, like one John Gunn who wrote a treatise on
fingering the violoncello, fill up space with irrelevant matter such
as the modes and tunings of the ancient Greek lyres, etc., highly
interesting as these subjects may be, although it is a very tempting
method of getting over the "bald and unconvincing" nature of the
bow's early history.
We of the present generation, having the bow in its most perfect
form, are apt to take its existence for granted; we do not think that
there must have been a period when no such thing was known, and,
consequently, fail to appreciate the difficulties in the way of its
discovery or invention. With some other instruments it is different.
For wind instruments we have a prototype in the human voice, and one
may reasonably suppose that the trumpet class were evolved by slow
process from the simple action of placing the hands on either side of
the mouth to augment a shout. The harp may have been suggested by the
twanging of a bow-string as an arrow left the archer's hand, and a
seventeenth century play writer fancifully attributed the invention
of string instruments to the finding of a "dead horse head." Here, of
course, would be found a complete resonance-chamber and possibly some
dried and stretched sinews--quite sufficient to suggest lute-like
instruments to men of genius such as must have formed a much larger
proportion of the world's population in prehistoric times than is the
case to-day; for brilliant as our great men of art and science are,
there are few who can be called _originators_ in the simplest meaning
of the word.
Thus, then, we have wind instruments, harps and lutes; but the bow
eludes us. If we are determined to find a suggestion in nature we
must turn to certain insects of the cricket and grasshopper tribe.
Many of these, in particular the locusts, are thorough fiddlers,
using their long hind-leg as a bow across the edge of the hollow
wing-case to produce the familiar chirping sound.
[Illustration: FIG. 1.]
Naturally, the strings are absent, but here is to be found a perfect
example of the excitation of frictional vibration. Whether this was
actually what suggested the bow is another matter.
For my own part, while admitting that in close observation of nature
our early forefathers were probably supreme, I prefer to think that
the innate concept of the bow was latent in the human mind and only
waited some fortunate accident of observation to start it into being.
I am aware, however, that this is a highly unscientific position to
take up.
That there should be so little in the way of adequate record
concerning the development of this indispensable adjunct of the
violin is not a matter for great wonderment, for, as has elsewhere
been shown, the earlier bowed instruments were of such primitive
construction, and, consequently, so weak in tone that they were
totally unsuited to the purposes of ceremonial or pageantry; two
subjects which form prominent features in ancient pictorial
representations. And if we come to what we fondly term "more
civilized" times, we find such crude drawings of early viols and
kindred instruments that we must not be surprised if such an
apparently unimportant detail as the bow should receive still more
perfunctory treatment at the hands of the artist.
We must also remember that the word "fiddlesticks" is still applied
to anything that is beneath contempt in its utter lack of importance.
Undoubtedly the idea of exciting vibrations in a stretched string by
means of friction is one of great antiquity; so much so, indeed, that
the question of origin becomes merely one of conjecture. True, the
majority of writers look upon the bow as a development of the
_plectrum_, but this is a theory that I must confess does not strike
me as being satisfactorily probable. To paraphrase a popular
expression, "fingers were made before _plectra_," the latter being an
"improvement" on nature's contrivance. And I see no reasonable
objection to the supposition that friction may have been used as a
means of tone-production prior to the introduction of the _plectrum_.
The great dissimilarity between the producing of sound by plucking,
and that by friction is such that I see no occasion to evolve one
from the other and consider their introduction most probably coeval.
When we come to the direct percussion of a string, as in the
dulcimer, piano, etc., we at once perceive a possible connection
between the hammer of the one and the rod or bow of the other: the
accidental colliding of the bow with the strings of its accompanying
instrument would soon suggest experiments ending in the forming of
dulcimer-like instruments.[1] But if we grant that the art of
plucking a string had first advanced as far as the substitution of a
_plectrum_ for what Mace calls the "nibble end of the flesh," I fail
to see how such an implement could suggest the friction of a string,
as, if short enough for manipulation in its original use, it would
not be long enough to excite the continuous vibrations characteristic
of the bow.
[Footnote 1: The bow is frequently used now as a means of percussion
for certain effects.]
I do not accept the theory of a long _plectrum_ used for pizzicato
purposes, as I consider, with Engel, that such an implement would
have been unmanageably clumsy even for the primitive music of the
ancients. Whenever I see a rod, as in the accompanying drawing of the
Assyrian Trigonon, I maintain that its purpose was to excite
frictional vibrations.
[Illustration: FIG. 2.]
The method of performance readily suggests itself in this case as it
will be seen that it would be quite possible and convenient for the
player to pass his rod--probably a rough surfaced reed--_between_ the
strings. I do not think it could have been used for percussion as, in
that case, it would surely have had some hammer like projection at
its end; a salient feature hardly to be missed by the artist as were
the less obtrusive details of the true bow in later ages.
We are all familiar with the oft repeated anecdote of Paganini's
playing with a light reed-stem, and I remember having seen at
Christmas festivities in country homesteads, the village fiddler
playing a brisk old-time tune with the long stem of his clay pipe;
also, quite recently, I read an account of an "artiste" in the States
who charmed his enlightened audiences with his performances on the
violin by using a variety of heterogeneous objects in lieu of the
conventional bow, including a stick of sealing-wax and a candle!
Now I do not wish to prove that the implement held by the benign
Assyrian in Fig. 2, is either of the last named articles, but merely
to draw attention to the fact that friction-tone is producible
without the aid of a "bow" proper.
The use of plain reed stems or other suitable rods for the production
of continuous sounds would naturally soon give place to more
elaborately constructed implements; although Ruhlmann gives a drawing
of a portion of the sculptured decorations that adorn the famous
"Golden Porch" at Freiburg which represents a crwth and bow of the
twelfth century, the bow being merely a straight rod ornamented at
either end with a simple knob (Fig. 3).
[Illustration: FIG. 3.]
He also gives a drawing of a violist of the fourteenth century,
sculptured on the cathedral at Cologne, where the bow is even simpler
in form. It is, however, impossible to judge how far the sculptor's
imagination, or lack of observation, may have been responsible for
these representations, so that they can hardly be taken as reliable
evidence of the use of such primitive contrivances at so late a
period.