THE BOW,
ITS HISTORY, MANUFACTURE
AND USE.
J. H. Lavender and Co.,
2, Duncan Terrace, City Road, London, N.I.
 |
| HENRY SAINT-GEORGE. |
"THE STRAD" LIBRARY, No. III.
THE BOW,
ITS HISTORY, MANUFACTURE
AND USE
HENRY SAINT-GEORGE
ILLUSTRATED BY THE AUTHOR
THIRD EDITION
HORACE MARSHALL & SON, 46, Farringdon Street, E.C.4.
New York:
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS, 597-599, Fifth Avenue.
1922.
PREFACE.
It has always appeared to me a curious thing that the bow, withoutwhich the fiddle could have no being, should have received so scantattention, not alone from the community of fiddlers, but also fromwriters on the subject. I only know of one book in which the subjectis adequately handled. Out of every twenty violinists who profess tosome knowledge of the various types of Cremonese and other fiddles ofrepute and value, barely three will be met with who take a similarinterest in the bow beyond knowing a good one, or rather one thatsuits their particular physique, when playing with it. They are allfamiliar with the names of Dodd and Tourte, but it is seldom thattheir knowledge extends beyond the names. As for a perception of thecharacteristics of bows as works of art, which is the standard of thefiddle connoisseur, it hardly has any existence outside the smallcircle of bow makers. Of the large number of undoubted fiddle expertsnow in London, but a small proportion profess to any similarknowledge of bows, and of these there are but few who can be creditedwith real authority in the matter.
It is, therefore, with the object of bringing the bow into moregeneral notice that this little book has been written, and, to dropinto the good old prefatory style, if I succeed in arousing theinterest of but one violinist in the bow for itself, and apart fromits work, my efforts will not have been in vain.
My most hearty thanks are due to those who have so kindly assisted mein my work. To Messrs. W. E. Hill and Sons, Mr. E. Withers, Mr. F.W. Chanot, Mr. J. Chanot, and Messrs. Beare, Goodwin and Co., forthe loan of valuable bows for the purpose of illustration, and Mr.A. Tubbs, who, in addition to similar favours, most kindly placedmuch of his valuable time at my disposal, and very patiently helpedme to a sufficient understanding of the bow maker's craft for thepurpose of collecting materials for the second part of the book.
The third part, in which I treat of the use of the bow, I havepurposely avoided making a systematic handbook of bowing technique,for to handle that subject as exhaustively as I should wi