Baroque bows?

[Dave2002]

Mention just now on BAL of baroque bows. If those are the only difference in a performance of string music, can they really make such a difference/improvement?

[Bryn]

Mention just now on BAL of baroque bows. If those are the only difference in a performance of string music, can they really make such a difference/improvement?

Absolutely. A prime example being not with historical music but that of Morton Feldman. When the Smith Quartet performed his complete works for piano and strings at the HCMF, they used baroque bows to help achieve the 'sourceless' pianissimo that Feldman's music calls for. When Darragh Morgan recorded For John Cage again, more recently, he again opted for a baroque bow to similar effect, Modern string instrument set-ups were otherwise used.

[Dave2002]

Though Jeremy Summerly did also mention that in some performances gut strings are used as well on otherwise modern instruments. However I think the first mention was specifically of the bows - with "normal" instruments strung in the modern fashion.

Why would bows make such a difference?

[Richard Barrett]

Absolutely. A prime example being not with historical music but that of Morton Feldman.

Although I wonder what MF would have thought of that being himself rather disdainful of things like Baroque instruments (and of course much else).

The Baroque bow is shorter and lighter, which suits the phrasing of baroque music and the instruments themselves, but most importantly I think, its weight distribution is completely different so that the sound when played in the region of the tip is quite different from when played in that the frog, and upbows and downbows sound different from one another, in distinction to the more homogeneous sound for which the Tourte bow was developed; it's something that presumably Darragh and friends had to work against when playing Feldman.

[Bryn]

Although I wonder what MF would have thought of that being himself rather disdainful of things like Baroque instruments (and of course much else).

The Baroque bow is shorter and lighter, which suits the phrasing of baroque music and the instruments themselves, but most importantly I think, its weight distribution is completely different so that the sound when played in the region of the tip is quite different from when played in that the frog, and upbows and downbows sound different from one another, in distinction to the more homogeneous sound for which the Tourte bow was developed; it's something that presumably Darragh and friends had to work against when playing Feldman.

Darragh has persevered with the use of the baroque bow, whereas his erstwhile colleagues of the Smith Quartet appear to have abandoned their use. When I attended their perfromance of SQ2 in Glasgow a few years ago, they used Tourtes. Would you not agree that Darragh's more recent recording of For John Cage demonstrates the efficacy of his choice of bow?

[Richard Barrett]

Would you not agree that Darragh's more recent recording of For John Cage demonstrates the efficacy of his choice of bow?

I haven't heard it (yet).

[Bryn]

I haven't heard it (yet).

Looks like Bandcamp might be your best source. I was lucky enough to purchase a pre-release copy of the CD when Jasper Tilbury brought some to a Cafe OTO event. last year.