Scan 79
Catalog of rare old violins, violas, violoncellos, bows of rare makes, 1921
12 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 50. See the scan on archive.org.
1THE VIOLIN BOW
3THE VIOLIN BOW, as it is known today, did not begin to assume its present form until about the beginning of the 18th century. The bow as used by early violinists, Corelli, for example (born 1653, died 1713), was a clumsy affair, something like the modern double-bass bow. A few years later, during Tartini's time (born 1692, died 1770), it had developed to the extent of being made lighter and the first attempt had been made to give the stick a variety of tension by means of a screw.
5The importance of the bow is not fully realized by most players, for it is safe to say that without the bow as developed by Francois Tourte, and as it is known today, the modern symphony orchestra would not have been developed.
7The late Theodore Thomas, founder of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and one of the greatest conductors this country has known wrote us on October 19, 1903, in a letter about the Hawley Collection, as follows: "It was, in particular, Stradivarius who created a tone which appealed to musicians, and Francois Tourte, who invented a bow which made the modern orchestra with all its shading and nuances—and a Beethoven—possible. Without these instruments and the Tourte bow invented over a century later, the music of today would have been developed on altogether different lines."
9Francois Tourte was to the violin bow what Stradivarius and Joseph Guarnerius were to the violin, and even more, for he found the bow as Gaspar da Salo and Maggini found the violin, in an undeveloped state and by years of careful experiment finally brought it to its present perfect shape. No more intimate relationship ever existed than that of violin and bow.
11Francois Tourte was born in the year 1747, in Paris, and died in 1836. He worked at his bench, as did Stradivarius, almost to the last of his long and useful life. Aided by Viotti, who was also a student of violins and bows, as well as one of the greatest of violinists, and other prominent violinists of his time, Tourte developed a system of bow making which has never been equalled. He found the bow a short arched affair which had been handed down from the time of the rebec, viol, and other mediæval instruments, lengthened it to its present proportion, invented the frog and screw, and marvelous to relate, invented a method of construction which has remained a
The computer misreads some letters and numbers. Where a name matters to you, read the scan.