Almost 30 Hungarian makers past and present are represented in museum display

bows

The Museum of Music History in Budapest has launched a new permanent exhibition dedicated to the art and craft of bow making in Hungary. Curated by Bernd Etzler, who recently won the top prizes for his bows at the China International Violin Making and Bow Making Competition, the exhibition features 30 bows by 28 makers past and present.

The oldest example in the collection is a violin bow made in c.1880 by Béla Szepessy, who opened a workshop in London in 1882. Other bows in the collection were made by András Bergmann, Mihály Reményi, Antal Klier and István Kónyaz. Among the modern makers represented are András Nagy, Etzler himself, and the British bow maker Paul Sadka, who lived in Hungary for five years.

'Our most exotic bow is a "Vega Bach bow† prototype from 1949,' Etzler told The Strad. 'Emil Telmányi was a Hungarian violinist who settled down in Copenhagen in 1919. He constructed this bow there in 1949, in cooperation with the Danish violin maker Knud Vestergaard. Their intention was to use it for the authentic presentation of Bach's pieces for solo violin.' The bow can be seen in use here:

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Photos from the exhibition

Museum of Music History

Museum of Music History

A selection of historical bows

stradIMG_0877

Some of the modern bows

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