Talk:Bow (music)

message: Does anyone know the origin of the term "frog" as used in the context of the bow?  I looked it up in the OED and could find nothing.
:I'm afraid no one seems to know for sure! J Lorraine 09:37, 31 July 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Hmm, the original poster apparently didn't have the most up to date version of the OED.  In 1993, they added:  "Mus. (orig. and chiefly U.S.). [tr. G. Frosch; cf. am Frosch (played) near the nut."  Of course, this doesn't explain why Germans refer to this part of the bow using their word for "frog".  Perhaps it looks a bit like a crouching frog?  Opus33 15:09, 10 September 2006 (UTC)
replies: text:  A "frog" in general is something that holds two things together.  A frog at the neck of a cape to hold it closed is an example.  That is my guess.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by My Flatley (talk • contribs) 20:47, 11 December 2009 (UTC)
thread_title: Origin of terminology "frog"

message: Can someone add information on the mechanism of vibration to this article?  (ie, a physics perspective)  I think I understand how a bow works, but when I came to Wikipedia for confirmation, naught was found...As I understand it, it involves friction and resonant frequencies.  Could one craft a bow in such a way as to interact more with an instrument than a traditional bow? --Morbid-o 20:52, 3 Jun 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: Hm, maybe adding a section about "how the bow works" is worth considering.  Meanwhile, check out this which might answer some of your questions. J Lorraine 09:50, 31 July 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Mechanism of vibration

message: Hello Jagged85--
I'm not opposed to the Indian-origin theory in principle, but it's not allowed on the Wikipedia to put in a major change without citing your reference sources.  If you want to include the Indian theory, please include text like this:
:Smith (1997) has proposed that the bow originated in ancient India around 3000 B.C.  She bases this claim on ...
Then, at the end of the article, you provide a bibliographic reference for Smith (1997).
If, however, the Indian theory is your own theory, then I'm sorry, but the rules of the Wikipedia do not permit it to be included.  For the applicable policies, please consult Wikipedia:Citing sources and No original research.
Yours sincerely,
<BR>
Opus33 14:37, 16 April 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: No major edits without scholarly sources

message: Who refers to the bow as a 'fiddlestick'?  I have never heard this term used for a bow in either formal or vernacular english speech.  At most, it's only used two ways: as an interjection in speech somewhat akin to a mild expletive, (expressing disappointment or frustration), or as a brand name for devil sticks (fiddlesticks redirects there) J Lorraine 20:46, 9 September 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Well, the Oxford English Dictionary gives "The bow strung with horsehair with which the fiddle is played" as the first definition.  But I, too, seldom hear this word used literally.  It might be good to move it later than the opening paragraph.  Opus33 14:59, 10 September 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: fiddlestick???

message: The McKean book is a published, authoritative, and very useful reference; to remove it from the article does not help our readers.  Also, whoever removed the reference didn't bother to notice that it had been cited in the text, thus leaving the citation stranded.  
Opus33 14:52, 29 October 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: McKean reference

message: There should be a quick reference to the bowed guitar, (a method of playing guitar by using a bow) made famous by Jimmy Page. I'm not quite sure where it would fit in to the current article though.
:Hello, we already had this under String instrument.  I put in a cross-reference.  Opus33 15:43, 12 November 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Bowed Guitar 

message: Hello. Being a violinist myself, I was told several times that musicians during the baroque era used bows that had a very strong curvature, as compared to the quasi-linear bow used nowadays. Such bows would allow them to play chords containing more than two notes, which happen quite often in this kind of music (take Bach's sonatas and partitas for solo violin, for example). Recently, Michael Bach used a curved bow to play the Number Piece entitled One8 by John Cage. Anybody knows more about curved bows historically and technically ? Alex
I definietly know that when a bow is shown in older art it's stick is concave instead of convex. It seems to be general consensus in society that the bow used for playing insturments was at one point more like the bow used for shooting arrows in terms of the stick, however the article makes no mention of this. I have not heard about playing more than two notes at once, but I'm not exactly a music history expert. I will add something to the article about medival concave bows, but it would probably be worth doing more research on it than I currently have time to do. Heavy Metal Cellisttalkcontribs
:: This is mentioned in the article on the baroque violin, although there should probably be a mention of it here as well. Also take a look at Viol#Viol_bows.  Another place you can find an ambiguous reference to a 'highly curved' bow and a mention of playing several strings at once (although it may be due to the bridge and not the bow) is in the article Lira da braccio. As for my own hearsay, I've been told that the idea that the baroque bow makes triple and quadruple stops easier is not necessarily true, nor is it the main or first difference one notices when playing with a baroque bow after only using modern bows! J Lorraine 
06:46, 7 January 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: We shouldn't call it concave or convex; 'curved in' and 'curved out' would be better. Bows nowadays aren't quasi-linear, they're curved inwards, and become straighter when they're tightened. Someone ought to research when the curvature changed. I find impossible to believe that this came about with François Tourte. The style of music in the 1760s radically changed in a way that must have required a different bow.
Cellorando (talk) 18:20, 15 July 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: Maybe I just found the answer. Evolution de l'archet[] says that bows were curved inwards, though very slightly, at the beginning of the 18th Cent. This might shoot down my 1760s theory. I still haven't tried a baroque bow. It shows photos of bows through its development. It doesn't show a Tourte bow, but has a Vuillaume, which it says is the modern form. The 'highly curved' bow mentioned by J Lorraine would be the one from the 16th Cent., still the Renaissance. 
Cellorando (talk) 19:31, 15 July 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Curved Bows 

message: That is one damn fine cello bow! --66.168.179.218 16:58, 15 April 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Sexy Cello Bow

message: No mention of the requirement for Rosin? Rufty 13:16, 6 September 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Rosin 

message: I just restored the link to Shar's bow info pages. The Mirecourt link looked more like an ad to me, so I left it off. The edit summary pretty much says it all: "I'm willing to say the Shar link has high info content. Four out of six of the present links are to companies; anyone thinking WP "endorses" them has serious flaws in their understanding of the pedia."
I need to go read up on WP policy regarding commercial links, but my basic feeling here is that it's usually pretty obvious when a link looks like advertising, and when it looks like something useful. __Just plain Bill (talk) 12:45, 12 May 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: Thanks for checking this out, JPB.  Opus33 (talk) 14:56, 12 May 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Useful commercial links vs. spam 

message: This nobile and vile theory sounds sounds more vile than noble to me. I could not find one single example in French from Google. They say now tirer and pousser, to push and to pull. I was told that the down-bow symbol represents a frog and the up-bow symbol the point of a bow. "From the tip" and "from the frog" meaning up-bow and down-bow are common expressions in other European languages. But someone must know more than I about this.
Cellorando (talk) 18:33, 15 July 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: I just removed that part. Will need a better cite before restoring it. __ Just plain Bill (talk) 21:02, 16 October 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Down and Up Bow 

message: Regarding this diff, I just googled "mammoth ivory violin bow" and got plenty of hits, violin bow dealers offering bows with mammoth fittings. This one came out on top this time, a very nice bow with a mammoth ivory frog. It is pretty well known in the trade that fossil mammoth ivory is useful in applications formerly using elephant ivory such as mandolin and guitar nuts. Since mammoths are already extinct, there is no question of protecting the species from poachers. __ Just plain Bill (talk) 01:51, 8 October 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  Mammoth ivory 

message: As an amateur I would enjoy seeing an illustration of the four common modern bows all together, violin, viola, cello and bass, for comparison of size and shape.  An accompanying paragraph would be nice too.  My Flatley (talk) 20:57, 11 December 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  Comparison of Bows 

message: Am I the only one who ever had a bow in which the frog was inlaid with mother-of-pearl?
Zyxwv99 (talk) 15:29, 19 December 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: I just included a bit on shell eyes and slides in the frog section. __ Just plain Bill (talk) 19:21, 19 December 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Mother-of-Pearl 

message: Volume I of Albert Schweitzer's biography of Bach, p.389, states that in Bach's time, bow tension was maintained by pressure from the thumb of the person using the bow, rather than with a screw.  This enabled the tension to be adjusted on the fly, and the lower tensions made it possible to play all strings at once without distortion, for example in the unaccompanied violin suites and sonatas.  Is this suitable for inclusion in the history section?  (Has this been disproved by later scholarship? - Schweitzer's 1911 biography of Bach cites a 1904 study.)--Wikimedes (talk) 22:42, 13 August 2016 (UTC)
thread_title:  Thumb-adjusted tension 

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thread_title:  External links modified 

message: I heard don't touch the horsehair because the oils on your fingers can make the friction worse  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.167.246.211 (talk) 15:43, 3 December 2020 (UTC)
thread_title:  Don't touch the horse hair