The aim of this study is to prove the relationship between the theory and reality of violin bowing. The research subject is bowing during the history of violin playing about 1520-1990. The original documents and related literature have been studied by critical research of historical sources and qualitative analysis. The length of the temporal dimension has been restricted to the selection of sources of the 20th century. The early stages of bowing in the 16th century are almost unknown. The information during 1600-1750 is based mostly on the written music. Since then the teaching material of violin playing offers also textual sources to a variable extent. The study keeps to the systematic division and chronological lower-division. According to this the movements of a bow and bow arm have first been separately analysed. Secondly the influence of multiple stops and sound effects on a bow stroke have been examined. For the sake of systematic analysis the optimal movements of a bow have be
en approached first and subsequently the required movements of a bow arm. The bow movements have been investigated by the means of six parameters. The playing position of the bow means the parallelism to the bridge and inclination of a bow, the place of the bow on the string means the contact point, the direction of the movement means the relationship between down-bow and up-bow, the bow change means the boundaries of down-bow and up- bow, the string change means the turning of a bow from one string to another and the bow division means the part of the hair in use. The movements of a bow arm have been investigated separately regarding fingers, wrist, lower arm and upper arm. In connection of finger movements attention has been paid to the development of holding the bow. During its history of five hundred years violin bowing is characterized by vocalism, la ballabilita and virtuosity. The bowings have been analyzed according to this tripartition. The vocal bowings are son file, legato and portato. The ballabile bowings are detache and martele. The virtuosic bowings are spiccato, sautille, staccato, ondule, bariolage, arpeggio, tremolo, and subspecies of the former, ricochet, jete, colle and lance. The bow technical problems of the multiple stops are divided into three categories according to the double stops, chords and polyphony. The effects of bowing are sulla tastiera, sul ponticello and col legno. It has become evident during the study that the ballabile and vocal bowings originate in the initial functions of violin in the 16th century. The virtuosic bowings established the idiomatic bow stroke since the beginning of the 17th century.
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