Bow hold: Gripping times

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It is uncanny how aspects of violin and viola playing run parallel to the evolution of civilisation during the last hundred years. Globalisation has come to almost every area of human activity and meanwhile these activities have evolved towards greater ease, comfort and dexterity, and we constantly break new records. The distinctions between the German, Russian and Franco- Belgian bow holds have gradually diminished and by the present millennium, well-nigh disappeared.

Let us start by looking at what the distinctions were about a hundred years ago, inasmuch as it is possible to define them. The most rational approach was the German one, which was based on the notion that the fingertips are the most sensitive parts of our fingers. When you pinch yourself with a needle, it hurts more in the tip than lower down the finger. Ergo, they reasoned, the bow must be held by the fingertips, to get the maximum feedback. There was, alas, a snag: to achieve this, most hands had to bend at the base knuckles, otherwise the thumb would become too short for an efficient hold. This, I suspect, was the origin of the phrase ‘bow grip’, a not-too-elegant description which depicts the rather forced way of managing to play like this. The bend at the knuckles actually diminished the sensitivity along the fingers and the change of direction at the frog was perforce done  with rigid fingers, not a good solution at all.