Donald Satz wrote:

>Arte Nova, a super-budget label, has released a set of the Bach Sonatas &
>Partitas played on a curved bow.  I've never heard of a curved bow and would
>appreciate some insight as to what it is and how its musical impact differs
>from the norm.

This is the so-called Bach Bow, which was a 20th-century design intended
to make it possible to play simultaneous 3 and 4-part chords on the violin.
It has no historical significance.  I have seen a picture of it.  It is
bowed outward like a hunting bow, and has a complicated frog assembly
containing I believe a thumb hole so that the thumb can monitor the tension
on the hair, which is very loose so that it will bend across all four
strings.  You can get an idea what that would sound like by taking the frog
off a traditional bow, and run the stick beneath the violin with the hair
lying across the four strings, and holding both the stick and the frog in
the right hand.  It sounds a bit like a reed organ or hurdy-gurdy.

I didn't know there was a contemporary recording of someone actually
playing on one.  It has absolutely nothing to do with HIP practice, since
there was no such bow in Bach's time.

Chris Bonds