# Rapidfire bowing technique: what's it called?



## 13hm13 (Oct 31, 2016)

Won't bother to describe with words. Just watch/listen here... between these two beginning/endpoints of the Bach piece:










Don't just say "Tremolo " or "Staccato" but define it further. Also, any other uses --like the one above (i.e., cadenza)?


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## Taplow (Aug 13, 2017)

The technique is called _sautillé_ ... the bow is bounced rapidly on the string at its springiest point, somewhere in the middle. It's usually used for rapid runs of notes, rather than on a single note like this. So what he's playing is a sort of sautillé-tremolo, which I've not seen before. Sautillé bowing is difficult to master.

You may be interested in this Wikipedia article: Bowing Techniques

I should note that Bach's score does not indicate this (or any) particular bowing style. This is the choice of the performer, Gottfried von der Goltz in this instance.


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## amfortas (Jun 15, 2011)

Bump stock bowing.


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## 13hm13 (Oct 31, 2016)

Taplow:
Good info!

Some more on this technique in this video...






Any other notable uses of sautillé in the classical repertoire?


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## Taplow (Aug 13, 2017)

While sautillé was certainly doable with the baroque bow, as the Freiburger Barockorchester video shows, and may have been known during Bach's time, it seems it would not have been widely used. This is the first instance I've ever seen or heard of it in period performances of baroque works. It even sounds quite different with a baroque bow, probably because the bow does not allow for the same degree of pressure control as the modern Tourte bow. The Cambridge Companion to the Violin (Stowell, Robin ed., 1992) suggests that such virtuosic bowing styles were only made truly possible by the introduction of the transitional bow during the classical period.

Leopold Mozart's _Versuch einer gründlichen Violinschule_, published in 1756, makes no mention of it whatsoever. Such techniques were therefore most likely introduced into the standard bowing repertoire during the period of showmanship and virtuoso brilliance of the late 18th century and early 19th century - a period that gave birth to the likes of Viotti and Paganini.


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