Violin Bow is more important than the violin itself, because it’s what produces and shapes the sound. The violin bow is essentially what entertains the audience, and makes them closer to music. Stowell says that bow is ‘the soul of the instrument’, and that it is “arts of phrasing, nuance, and singing”. This means that when there is a change in a bow structure, the sound that it produces changes as well. Then who demands to change the bow structure, is it the performer, bow maker or the composer? The performer develops the characteristics of a music era such as baroque, and classics. However the bow maker alters the bow structure, balance, and etc. over time so that the performer could produce a desired sound, and continue to develop bow techniques. The bow makers innovates the performers and composers to make a change in the music world.
Historians assume that violin started to develop in the 16th century. Violin family including rebec, lira de braccio, and medieval fiddle emerged to what it looks like a modern violin. The violin did not have any major changes. However the violin bow went through many phases until the 18th century, when Tourte presented his newly developed design. Before his presence in the early 18th century, bows were unbalanced, convex, and shorter then a modern bow. He developed a bow, which was balanced, concave. His bow was also longer and heavier to draw out violin’s maximum capability. Many authors claim that, through his work violinist were able to show what a violin can really do. Composers such as Vivaldi and Corelli composed music that required Tourte’s bow and Stradivari’s violin to create complex sound of music. They are late baroque composers who helped music era to shift from baroque to classical.
During the baroque period, they used bows that were convex and tapered at the end. It was composed of snake wood, which was lighter than our modern bow, and it was balanced toward the frog instead of in the middle. Because it was balanced toward the frog, the bow starts out strong when played in the frog but fades out when it reaches the tip. The baroque music is played with the characteristic of lightness, and the baroque bow did the job. Instead of having a screw mechanism, they had clip in frogs that helped loosen and tighten the bow and the bow had less hair on the bow. In Baroque music scores no dynamics, or gracing of notes were marked. First of all, the baroque bow did not allow the performers to have control over dynamics because of its balance. And Baroque composers believed that the performers should have control over what they should do with the notes. So it was the performer’s ability to add gracing of notes in order to add characteristics into the piece. In the baroque period, good performers were judged by their gracing of notes.
In the beginning of the 18th century, violin bows were convex, and unbalanced. Violin was mostly played in France and Italy and they played two very different style of music. These two music styles required different bow strokes, so they had different bow lengths. French enjoyed playing dance music, so they had shorter bows. However the Italians used longer bows because they enjoyed playing sonatas. Although the length of the bows were different, they were both straight to convex bows that were carved instead of bent by heat. They also were made from snake wood tree, and did not have a screw mechanism. In the mid 17th century, Francois Tourte presented a much efficient and light bow that suited all types of music. His bows were curved inward by using heat, made from Brazilian wood, balanced with the tip, and had a screw mechanism to tighten and loosen the bow. This versatile bow was a major improvement in the music world, and his bow produced for equal sound all though out the bow, and allowed variety of tone. Through Tourte’s bow, musicians were able to create a great range of expressions and dynamics and to play more complex music than a sonata, and folk dance music.
The invention of the modern bow, invented by Francois Tourte greatly affected the performer and the composer. Tourte’s bow was made up of Brazilian wood and instead of carved to be convex; it was bent by heat to be concave. His bow was balanced in the middle with the addition of sterling silver at the tip of the bow. All of these factors allowed performers to fully express their style controlling their dynamics and articulation. His new bow also led to further establishment of more bow techniques. Also with Tourte’s development, composers begin to write down dynamic and bowing techniques to fully express their musicianship. His developments in the bow allowed music to shift from baroque to classical.