Amateur Bard

Well, at least one of my impulse buys has turned out to be useful! Back in 2019, I bought an inexpensive Baroque ~style~ bow to be part of my not-really-historical violin kit. An ambitious idea, but the bow mostly just languished on a shelf until now.

I gotta say, even playing with a low tier Baroque-style bow has been illuminating for playing Baroque pieces. My teacher was of the Romantic Baroque generation but she did talk a little bit about actual Baroque articulation (natural decay on long notes, a focus on the strong and weak beats) and I’ve been doing some reading myself. It’s very fun to try to replay things with my usual bow then replay with my Baroque-ish bow and really feel the dance quality of the music.