Boyden of course is not the last word in research on the history of violin playing. I gather from other sources that not all old bows were shorter, even though such authorities as Jaap Schroeder continue to state that they were. Don't get me wrong, I have the greatest respect for Jaap as both a human being and a musician, but he is one of the many who cling to ideas that emerged in the early days of the early music revival - such as the idea that stringing was generally at a (much) lower tension. Any one interested could do worse than czech out what Ephraim Segerman has to say here:
[1]http://www.nrinstruments.demon.co.uk/About.html and elsewhere. Particularly telling is the statement "The historical information has been very useful to some, but most use more modern stringing because the traditions of the early-music movement developed before the research was done." (my emphasis) Mersenne recommended using a long bow (though doesn't specify how long), and I think Boyden himself quotes some authority as saying that short bows were for tavern musicians (prost!). Certainly, a number of my "baroque bows" - copied from early 18th century originals in the Ashmolean collection - are more or less the same length as modern bows. Maybe the detached style was the string players in turn adapting to the articulation of the keyboards. And of course, you can detach with a modern bow too. chirs >-----Original Message----- >From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [[2]mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] >Sent: Friday, August 22, 2008 2:38 PM >To: nsp@cs.dartmouth.edu; BIRCH Christopher (DGT) >Subject: Re: [NSP] The great choyte debate redux > >On 22 Aug 2008, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > >> I remember reading somewhere (possibly in Boyden's book on >the history >> of violin playing,) > >From the same book, which I'm currently reading / ploughing through, >I have bookmarked a small paragraph which remarks (of violinists in >the C17), that the old bows (which were shorter) meant that notes >were on the whole clearly articulated (approx. = detached, from the >context) in comparison with C19 playing where the long legato bow >stroke was regarded as desirable. > >I'm simplifying here, obviously. > >However it set me to wondering whether there were connections between >the articulated style of the violinists / fiddlers of the period and >the articulation of the closed chanter, developing about the same >time (as far as we know). > >Food for thought, anyway. > >Julia > -- References 1. http://www.nrinstruments.demon.co.uk/About.html 2. mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
