Tourte bow
Quick Summary
The Tourte bow refers to a violin bow crafted by François Tourte, a French manufacturer of violin bows who died in 1835.1
The bow is a crucial accessory for stringed instruments like the violin. It's a curved stick with tightly held fibers, typically rosined horsehair, that creates sound through friction when drawn across the instrument's strings.2
François Tourte is credited with perfecting the concave shape of the bow stick, which bends towards the hair. This design became the standard for bows used with violin family instruments.2
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stringed instrumentLutes…are actually bow-shaped, but the Tourte bow is made in a compound curve to which considerable tension can be applied, making it possible to apply much pressure to the strings. The bows of the two-stringed fiddles of China (such as the erhu and the jinghu) and Korea (haegŭm) pass between…
Read More…are actually bow-shaped, but the Tourte bow is made in a compound curve to which considerable tension can be applied, making it possible to apply much pressure to the strings. The bows of the two-stringed fiddles of China (such as the erhu and the jinghu) and Korea (haegŭm) pass between…
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stringed instrumentThe bowThe modern bow, which is really the culmination of a long line of evolution, was perfected late in the 18th century by François Tourte of Paris. Its chief point of departure is that the curve of the bowstick is concave rather than convex, which thus puts the…
Read MoreThe modern bow, which is really the culmination of a long line of evolution, was perfected late in the 18th century by François Tourte of Paris. Its chief point of departure is that the curve of the bowstick is concave rather than convex, which thus puts the…
Read More