Capturing Bowing Gesture: Interpreting Individual Technique

Virtuosic bowed string performance in many ways exemplifies the incredible potential of human physical performance and expression. Today, a great deal is known about the physics of the violin family and those factors responsible for its sound capabilities. However, there remains much to be discovered about the intricacies of how players control these instruments in order to achieve their characteristic range and nuance of sound. Today, technology offers the ability to study this player control under realistic, unimpeded playing conditions to lead to greater understanding of these performance skills. Presented here is a new methodology for investigation of bowed string performance that uses a playable hardware measurement system to capture the gestures of right hand violin bowing technique. This measurement system (which uses inertial, force, and electric field position sensors) was optimized to be small, lightweight, and portable and was installed on a carbon fiber violin bow and an electric violin to enable study of realistic, unencumbered violin performances. The application of this measurement system to the study of standard bowing techniques, including

détaché

,

martelé

, and

spiccato

, and to the study of individual players themselves, is discussed.