What is this arc?

[Enrique]

Watching a rendition of Bach's St.Matthew's Passion my attention was caught by the double basses, who were playing their instruments with arcs which instead of having the convexity towards the chords had it the other way around. What can this strange arc possibly be? Is this the famous Bach arc?

[Peter]

I think you'll find this site helpful even though it refers specifically to the violin, the bows referred to apply to your point.

http://www.baroquemusic.org/barvlnbo.html

[Enrique]

Thanks Peter. I see you understood the question even though I used a foreign word: arc. My mistake.

EDIT: by the way, beautiful page.

[Enrique]

Peter, the site you have referred me to is one of the discoveries of the year for me. In particular, the page on the bow, is a very finely written and seemingly well informed article. I had heard somewhere that Casals managed to play the four strings at the same time, namely in the series of chords with which one of the preludes to the suites ends. I never understood how he could do that, and it must have been made possible by the sheer use of force. Or perhaps he used a special bridge for that suite and adapted the bow technique correspondingly. If somebody knows in your forum it must be Philip.

Anyway, in this connection, it would be interesting to know when the historically informed movement in music began to have importance, for so I could know the odds that Casals had any knowledge of with it. Although his way of playing those four-string chords as real chords and not in two and two strings as usual must have been his original idea, I suspect. Plus HIP couldn't have had any importance in the first half of the 20th century, if it existed at all then.

[Peter]

The name of Arnold Dolmetsch immediately sprang to mind on reading your post - he was an early pioneer of the HIP movement in the late 19th century.

[Enrique]

This makes the appearance of such famous performers as Wanda Landowska in the early 20th century an anachronism, for nothing so criticized like her by present day HIP people. That is to say, if we put HIP so far back in time, we have that harpsicord and organ performers of barroque music did not take much notice of HIP. For example, large instruments in what touches organ. Or that the Landowska should have existed 50 years before if she new so little about how Bach should be played.

[Quijote]

"Arc" = Arco = Archet = Bow. No way Casals or anyone else plays all four strings at once, though the "effect" can be created. That said, I did once attend a concert where a Cage work for 'cello was programmed and the 'cellist used a convex bow with a wide silk ribbon instead of the usual horse hair, this ribbon not being over-tightened the player managed to "cover" the 4 strings at the same time.

[Enrique]

That was an intrigue of old when coming to the suites, and you've just made it vanish. Thanks. So you not only have heard the (in)famous 4'33""! And I wrote '(in)' coz you guys are always pulling Cage's legs here with that poor work, the target of you go to know how many jokes. [I give you, Quijote, express consent to correct my English whenever you consider it convenient. I do not know pride when it comes to learning. And extend this my consent to all in this forum, of course.]

[Enrique]

How are you doing with your tour? Are you already back?