Baroque bows can’t do this! 🚫 | Adrian Butterfield

In this clip, Adrian Butterfield discusses the differences between baroque and modern bows.
Watch Adrian Butterfield's full course on Bach's Sonata No. 2 in A Minor, BWV 1003 and more here:
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[@YatesViolin]

Playing on a baroque bow taught me how to play bach. I highly recommend trying one

[@MM93_SV5]

So true. Tried baroque bow once, bought one the other day.

[@readyfree]

Do not fight the tip, embrace it and enjoy it.... got it. 😏

[@tacitozetticci9308]

Wanna try? You can borrow mine 👍

[@tilde5884]

​@@tacitozetticci9308 okay calm down herbert you're getting way too excited You can have mine instead it's about 20 inches

[@tacitozetticci9308]

@tilde5884 what? Gtfo I was here first unless you wanna let me try yours (?) 

[@mbradley5683]

Ayo don’t forget eye contact

[@nessa8177]

Caca c loopo

[@Ember_Prime]

I tried using one for Bach’s Sonata 1 in G Minor for Solo Violin, it drastically changed the sound from what you typically hear to something that’s somehow more entrancing. Something about the way the baroque bow plays just adds an extra… something to the sound of the piece.

[@ellanorevannin4147]

I have seen people hold a bow many different ways but this way is new to me😂

[@leonardoiglesias2394]

Holding does not mean ANYTHING. Its WHAT you DO with your bow, not the way a hand looks like…

[@RobManser77]

I can’t speak for violin, although o suspect this applies, but on the cello the baroque bow hold is very different to the modern bow hold. This accentuates the up/down inequality he’s talking about. Baroque music was written with this in mind.

[@leonardoiglesias2394]

@@RobManser77 ok. Enjoy then!

[@ellanorevannin4147]

@@leonardoiglesias2394 I play violin and the way I hold the bow will determine if I can bow nicely or not. So it does matter.

[@RobManser77]

@@TungstenTin Yes, exactly that on the cello. 👍🏼 It’s done both with baroque bows and modern bows.

[@srinitaaigaura]

We know why music was composed for the violin in that way in the Baroque period with all those rolling chords and arpeggios and running melodic lines, because that was written optimised for the Baroque violin and bow and the phrases that instrument naturally excelled at playing.

[@ruperttmls7985]

Es como cuando quieres tocar Mozart y es mas fácil en un fortepiano por el tamaño de sus teclas a diferencia de hacerlo en un piano moderno.

[@mommyseastar5776]

I have a doctorate degree in historical performance practice on the violin. This is the best brief summary the Baroque bow that I’ve ever heard. Thank you!

[@jacobtapianieto9655]

With a Baroque bow is not possible to sustain a note, but is way much easier to play chords smoothly compared to a modern one.

[@sinf0nie]

his voice scratches my brain

[@jeanweiss6742]

thank you for explaing the advantage of a Baroque bow

[@StagvanHeuten]

Beautiful sound!

[@thinkpad20]

Kinda scratchy to my ears 🫤

[@liamnevilleviolist1809]

@@thinkpad20 Probably a combination of the natural gut strings plus a sensitive microphone. A properly set-up baroque violin plus a baroque bow can fill a nice/large cathedral and there's no scratchiness to be heard there.

[@hamwhacker]

I agree it sounded scratchy and weak to me. Maybe playing on gut strings doesn’t help either.

[@OttoDoe123]

Thx for this wisdom :-) Who is the maker of your violin?

[@weixinguo6094]

distance between the bridge and the finger board is very far

[@jackfusco5232]

The fingerboard used to be shorter

[@ivanf.8489]

It's a baroque instrument, not a modern one. The bow is also wrong

[@commontater8630]

@@ivanf.8489 What do you mean, 'wrong'? It's a contemporary edition of a Baroque bow.

[@bilbo_gamers6417]

that's amazing!

[@DustinPlatt]

Just embrace the tip.

[@NEEDSHES]

Sounds like me with a modern bow😂😂😂😂

[@Charles3x7]

Ah, such a regal sound. The musician, not the instrument. The violin is absolutely wonderful as well.

[@Tylervrooman]

A minor Sonata has my soul...

[@lukashi.i]

did u apply rosin?

[@nickcarroll8565]

I was waiting til I saw someone mention this 😂

[@banjiddle]

Should the bow sound raspy?

[@matteobaldoni702]

Bad mic I suppose, way too close and too sensitive

[@thatoneguy8064]

pure gut has a lot of edge. combined with very light bowing, it'll sound super raspy or whispery.

[@johnsoloninka322]

Sound quality is unfortunately awful. That is not Representative of good baroque instruments in my experience.

[@blendcry7025]

i think it has also to do with the ageold vibrato discussion.. always funny to me how baroque HAS to be played without vibrato.. Like, its been followed sooo rigorously :D And it just sounds so bad

[@alexandrusimo899]

​@@blendcry7025that's because you probably play on steel stringed instruments which have quite a colorless sound, requiring vibrato. this is not the case with the already textured sound of pure gut. the problem in video may be that he's using quite low bow pressure resulting in that poor, whispering sound quality, not projecting a lot. vibrato has nothing to do with this

[@blendcry7025]

@@alexandrusimo899 steelstring-sound "requiring" vibrato because its flat otherwise, interesting point, never heard of that line of thinking.. also in combination w the sustain point made in the video. Although I have to say, in the end thats all just another position of taste.. and "texture" of sound is something way to abstract to inform the actual performance of playing a violin, imo. Honestly, all I see in specialized baroque play is an approach of strange inhibition.. Good for a musical scientist view on things though.

[@Jxcksoon]

Jit trippin

[@thinkpad20]

Agreed, I would recommend anyone to listen to Shunsuke Sato, his playing of the baroque violin is positively heavenly

[@user-ri2oj6yz6c]

Does it have to slide around?

[@christianhubbard1246]

Which piece is this?

[@YatesViolin]

Grave from bach A minor violin sonata

[@spaceviolin6919]

Скажите пожалуйста, а не сильно ли натянут смычок, или при барочной игре нужно сильное натяжение? Благодарю Вас!

[@KlimatorUzurpator91]

It's normal tension for baroque bow.

[@mylesyiu6188]

Baroque bows have an outwards curve when under normal tension

[@dmytrotsvyntarnyi799]

Барочные смычки более "аркообразные" сами по себе, даже без натяжения. Просто такая форма трости

[@SMTDDR]

Interesting 👀

[@drydenhillvibes2263]

Mmmmmm sonata number 2. Tasty!

[@aidanmays7825]

It's only marginally lighter at the tip. You can test this by getting total weight and balance point. Mostly placebo

[@mixmam1]

Baroque bows are much lighter at the tip

[@aidanmays7825]

@@mixmam1 the bigger difference is balance point and overall weight. Unless you have an acceptionally heavy modern bow this can be easily approximates by moving the bow hold up

[@Adrian_AdamViolonDiGerma-tm3nq]

hello Adrian 😉

[@andrecheng7303]

Why do baroque violins have no fine tuners?

[@terranbricklin]

Didn't have fine tuners in the olden days I guess.

[@corneliusnowicki5363]

It’s because during the Baroque period, they used animal gut strings, as opposed to the metal strings we use now. Those strings needed to be adjusted a lot to make a tuning different, so you would need to turn the peg more to tune the string the same amount as you would a metal string. Therefore, you don’t need the fine tuners as there was no need to finely adjust, since the strings were not as sensitive.

[@tilde5884]

Why weren't there smartphones in the Bronze Age?

[@gniewomircioek6845]

@@corneliusnowicki5363 aren't todays nylon?

[@corneliusnowicki5363]

@@gniewomircioek6845 I believe violin strings today are usually made from a variety of metals. The lower strings might have a synthetic core, but they would still be wound with metal.

[@gaetanodepaola2ndchannel179]

So wait... I play harpsichord, and that instrument is also notorious for having short sustained notes (because the strings are plucked instead of hammered like on the piano). Does this mean the harpsichord and baroque bow were created to have a similar length in their sustained notes?

[@JoanneLouzado]

How are you playing without a chin rest 😮

[@YoChepe]

Baroque style apparently

[@stephenrobshaw4931]

Ssshhhh

[@commontater8630]

How indeed, but that's what they did back in the day, and that's what contemporary Baroque players do presently.

[@hoathi3095]

Sounds like the soundpost is dropped off

[@bonjo5866]

bro speaks like he lived in the same house with Bach

[@timon3562]

I suppose Bach spoke german

[@commontater8630]

Bro (bonjo) speaks like he doesn't know wtf he's speaking about.

[@leonardoiglesias2394]

No bow does ANYTHING. This is only mithology. No bow does what we need. Only our muscles, our workout, our bodybuilding helps to make the bow do what we want it to do. A Bow is at the same time too light and too heavy for our needs. That is the bow problem. You need power to get a loud sound, you need to control the weight of the bow as soon as we want to play really softly… All about baroque style needing baroque bows, or classical style needing classic bows…its all mythology. Of course, EVENTUALLY, a baroque bow can help you with a very fast pick up on a Rameau Opera..and of course, you wont take the lightest baroque bow to play a shostakovich concerto Nr 1….STILL, the problem with bow technic is: the bow does not offer what we need….we have to TRAIN our muscles….to WORK OUT to get to make the bow do what one or music needs. Something which is been always neglected by thousands of string players, specially teachers.

[@PagiNANI]

Booo tomato boo 👻

[@leonardoiglesias2394]

@@PagiNANI that was a good argument.

[@commontater8630]

In other words, practice 40 hours a day.

[@charlesdahmital8095]

So it's my bow! And I thought I was just talent-less.

[@chaseviolinsandbows]

What about all those bach sonatas that sustain for like many slow measures? Yeah i don’t buy it. Those bows sustain just fine.

[@stanleymancio9989]

ia baroque bow nice for bigginers ?

[@normalidiot7227]

what i'm getting from this is that regular modern bows are more balanced than the baroque bow which allows you to get an even tone easier. I think it would be best to start with a regular bow since as he said, our goal is usually to get a clean solid sound. Even if you were to switch to specializing in baroque violin later on, I think it would still be best to start with a modern violin and bow.

[@SeraphOfDoom]

Simply no. Go regular for now. Find a teacher for the genre you are interested in though classical basics will always help.

[@gaetanodepaola2ndchannel179]

I don't think either of these are a definitive answer. What you're saying is basically to avoid baroque completely. Baroque music is so beautiful though. Of course to each their own, but I'd say you could try both of them on for size and see what you think of the 2 bows

[@timmarchmont86]

Yeah there’s a reason the modern bow was developed. 😂

[@ruperttmls7985]

Los barrocos hicieron su música para ese instrumento y desde luego es mas fácil que con un violín moderno. Así como Haydn y Mozart es mas fácil en un fortepiano que en un piano moderno.

[@wannabecat369]

I don't generally like the dying sound of a baroque bow, but his playing made my eyes mist...

[@waldronmatt61sd]

Barack

[@matswessling6600]

That doesnt follow at all... On the contrary: development of the new bow shows that there was a need.

[@89sharlo]

Exactly. A singer has the ability to sustain a note, so why should you not try the same with a legato bow stroke? Modern bow makes it easier.

[@user-td7dx9dn9k]

I don't like the sound òf his Violin!!!!

[@liamnevilleviolist1809]

In my opinion: I don't like the sound of this particular recording (a sensitive microphone). I'm sure the violin sounds lovely in person.

[@elquepasadeti]

😂😂😂😂😂

[@sebastianzanon6974]

Ok, but you're out of tune