![French and german bows](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/55/French_and_german_bows.jpg)
The bow frog is the end part of a
stringed musical instrument
String instruments, stringed instruments, or chordophones are musical instruments that produce sound from vibrating strings when a performer plays or sounds the strings in some manner.
Musicians play some string instruments by plucking the st ...
's
bow that encloses the mechanism responsible for tightening and holding the bow hair ribbon. Most of the bow frogs used in today's classical bows are made of
ebony
Ebony is a dense black/brown hardwood, coming from several species in the genus ''Diospyros'', which also contains the persimmons. Unlike most woods, ebony is dense enough to sink in water. It is finely textured and has a mirror finish when pol ...
; some synthetic bows have frogs made with materials that imitate ebony, while
Baroque bows use frogs made with various woods.
Etymology and names
The origin of the name ''frog'' is unknown, although it may derive from the use of the frock, the small device that bow makers use to shape it. It is also referred to as the "heel" or "nut" of the bow. The German equivalent ''Frosch'' is the literal equivalent of "
frog
A frog is any member of a diverse and largely Carnivore, carnivorous group of short-bodied, tailless amphibians composing the order (biology), order Anura (ανοὐρά, literally ''without tail'' in Ancient Greek). The oldest fossil "proto-f ...
," while in French and Italian the equivalent of "
heel
The heel is the prominence at the posterior end of the foot. It is based on the projection of one bone, the calcaneus or heel bone, behind the articulation of the bones of the lower Human leg, leg.
Structure
To distribute the compressive for ...
" is used (''talon'' and ''tallone''). French also uses ''hausse''. The foreign language terms sometimes appear in musical instructions, such as ''au talon'', indicating to play with the bow near the frog. However, the English term is also used, such as in the
Alfred
Alfred may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
*''Alfred J. Kwak'', Dutch-German-Japanese anime television series
* ''Alfred'' (Arne opera), a 1740 masque by Thomas Arne
* ''Alfred'' (Dvořák), an 1870 opera by Antonín Dvořák
*"Alfred (Interlu ...
edition of
George Gershwin's ''
An American in Paris
''An American in Paris'' is a jazz-influenced orchestral piece by American composer George Gershwin first performed in 1928. It was inspired by the time that Gershwin had spent in Paris and evokes the sights and energy of the French capital ...
'', in which the violins and violas are instructed to play "near the frog" at bar 32.
George Gershwin
George Gershwin (; born Jacob Gershwine; September 26, 1898 – July 11, 1937) was an American composer and pianist whose compositions spanned popular, jazz and classical genres. Among his best-known works are the orchestral compositions ' ...
. "George Gershwin's An American in Paris". Alfred Publishing Co., Inc., December 30, 1994.
History
Early bows
During the earliest periods of music history, prior the Baroque era, the frog was a curved piece of wood affixed to the bow that served as a sort of rail to guide the hair ribbon and separate it from the stick. The bow hair was attached at both ends of the stick to the head and handle. The musician had to stretch and release the hair ribbon while playing in order to obtain the desire tension.
Baroque bows
The first attempt to mechanically adjust the hair tension came with the "crémaillère", a notch and hook system that pulled the hair ribbon by cranking the frog back and released it while moving forward. This uneasy device added considerable weight to the bow and was seldom used, but the concept for a new mechanical function of the frog was progressing.
With Baroque bows the frog was made with either the same wood as the stick or ivory. The woods typically used were common exotic woods, such as snakewood (
amourette). During this time bow makers began carving the ivory, shifting their focus to the frog's aesthetic beauty.
A major improvement came with the screw and eyelet system, beginning in the 18th century. This was used in the workshop of
Antonio Stradivari
Antonio Stradivari (, also , ; – 18 December 1737) was an Italian luthier and a craftsman of string instruments such as violins, cellos, guitars, violas and harps. The Latinized form of his surname, ''Stradivarius'', as well as the colloq ...
, and became the standard with the ''transition'' bow, exemplified by the
Cramer Cramer may refer to:
Businesses
* Cramer brothers, 18th century publishers
* Cramer Systems, a software company
* Cramer & Co., a former musical-related business in London
Other uses
* Cramer (surname), including a list of people and fictional ...
bow.
Tourte and the classical bow
François Xavier Tourte pioneered the modern classical bow in the second half of the 18th and early 19th centuries. Tourte, with suggestions from the virtuoso violinist
G. B. Viotti, improved upon the limitations of the Baroque bow. Previously a clockmaker, Tourte added a great deal of precision to the art of bow making. One example was his perfection of the screw and eyelet system; a ferrule circling the frog tongue and hair ribbon that worked as a guide to flatten and widen the bow hair.
Tourte also viewed the frog as a precious item and worked with ebony, gold, and tortoise shell. He standardized the use of ornamentation, such as the inlay of a pearl eye on each side of the frog, and covered mechanical parts with a pearl slide.
After Tourte
In the generations that followed Tourte, ebony became the new standard material for frogs,
Nicolas Lupot
'Nicolas Lupot'' (4 December 1758 – 14 August 1824) was one of the most illustrious French luthiers (violin makers) of his time.
Lupot was born in Stuttgart. He was apprenticed to his father and worked in Orléans until 1794. Soon after, he ...
built upon Tourte's model to add the metallic underslide that reinforced the fragile ebony edges.
Jacques LaFleur (1757–1853) devised a method of attaching the hair that suppressed the need for the conventional mortise, plug, and wedge.
In Paris,
Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume
Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume (7 October 1798 – 19 March 1875) was a French luthier, businessman, inventor and winner of many awards. His workshop made over 3,000 instruments.
Early life
Vuillaume was born in Mirecourt, where his father and g ...
introduced an oval ferrule that allowed the hair ribbon to widen and flatten as the violinist augmented the pressure.
20th century and beyond
The attention given to the beauty of the bow frog continued throughout centuries, particularly with the use of tortoiseshell in the 19th and first part of the 20th century, like famous "tortoiseshell-mounted Hill bow, made by Barnes in the early 1920" (Ariane Todes, ''
The Strad
''The Strad'' is a UK-based monthly classical music magazine about string instrumentsprincipally the violin, viola, cello and double bassfor amateur and professional musicians. Founded in 1889, the magazine provides information, photographs and re ...
'', 2012), until the use of tortoiseshell was regulated by
CITES
CITES (shorter name for the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, also known as the Washington Convention) is a multilateral treaty to protect endangered plants and animals from the threats of interna ...
.
Jean-Jacques Millant was the first bow maker to split the frog into two parts: the throat remains permanently attached to the stick, while the body of the frog is detached and moveable, in order to tighten the hair. The purpose of this invention was to always keep the leather grip and the frog at the same distance.
A number of other innovations occurred throughout the 20th century, all attempts to modernize the frog's appearance. Yet the Tourte model of more than three centuries remained the standard, until the introduction of the
Galliane A Galliane is a bow frog for stringed instrument bows that sets the hair ribbon at an angle. This kind of frog was first described in ''Scientific American'' in October 2012. It was invented by bow maker Benoit Rolland for violin, viola, cello, an ...
frog in 2012 by bow maker
Benoît Rolland. While Galliane proposed a new look, its primary purpose was a new functionality for the frog, giving a helicoidial shape to the bow hair that follows the natural movement of the string player's arm.
Notes
References
*Wilder, Tom. The Conservation, Restoration, and Repair of Stringed Instruments. Archetype Publications Ltd., 2011.
*Millant, Bernard, and Jean-Francois Raffin. L'Archet. Volumes 1-3. Paris: 2000
Fein Violins Blog: Why a Frog? Why Are There Frogs on Bows? The Strad, May 2012: The tortoise and the frog
External links
*
ttps://web.archive.org/web/20131019122950/http://www.thestrad.com/latest/blogs/the-tortoise-and-the-frog The Strad, May 2012: The tortoise and the frogwww.galliane.com
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