What is a baroque violin bow?
Baroque bows generally look straight or bent slightly outwards in the middle, with an elegant “swan-bill” pointed head. Typically made from strong, heavy snakewood, bows of the early 17th century were used to play both violins and violas. They were particularly short and light and well-suited for dance music.
Does a baroque violin use a bow?
Baroque violins are almost always fitted with gut strings, as opposed to the more common metal and synthetic strings on a modern instrument, and played with a bow made on the baroque model rather than the modern Tourte bow.
How is a baroque violin bow different?
In simplest terms, the Baroque bow wood was a flat or convex shape and shorter than the modern bow, which is longer and has a concave shape. Baroque bows performed best at the era’s dance music, where the first beat of the music was heavier and the second beat light. You can’t modernize a bow.”
How are baroque violins different?
The real difference between the two instruments is the way they’re played. The modern violin sounds forceful and declamatory in comparison with its baroque ancestor. Baroque violin playing has a gentler tone with hardly any vibrato. The complex nuances of bowing give it a sort of swelling-fading sound.
What is a Pernambuco violin bow?
Pernambuco wood is considered the best wood you can use to make a violin bow. It’s the only wood strong enough to be cut very thin and keep its curve for many many years. This wood has become endangered, so there’s only a certain amount of trees that can be harvested each year. This wood is only grown in Brazil.
Did Stradivarius make baroque violins?
The violin had attained its present shape essentially by the middle of the 16th century, so instruments from the baroque era look at first glance almost identical to modern violins. In fact, most of the most highly prized modern violins were built during the baroque era by makers like Amati, Stradivari, and Guarneri.