The Short

STRING BOWING 277
strokes were an indispensable part of every violinist's technique by the last quarter of the nineteenth century, in what
circumstances would they have been used in the music of mid-to late nineteenth-century composers?
Several quite distinct schools of string playing existed between about 1750 and 1880; these were distinguished from
one another by a number of stylistic traits, but above all by their approach to bowing. The opposite poles in the mideighteenth
century were represented by the French and Italian schools. As mentioned in chapter 5, the French tradition
of short and well-articulated bowing was preferred by Quantz, at least for the accompaniment of lively pieces, to the
‘long dragging stroke’ of the Italians. This seems also to have been very much the approach recommended by Löhlein
and Reichardt. In this style the bow was raised from the string for rests or to separate longer notes in faster tempos,
but was normally used on the string with more or less short strokes for quicker notes. As Quantz observed:
It was said above that the bow must be somewhat raised from the string for notes which have a little stroke over
them. I only mean this to be so in the case of notes where there is sufficient time. Thus in allegro the quavers and in
allegretto the semiquavers are excepted from this if many follow one another: for these must certainly be played
with a very short bowstroke, but the bow will never be lifted or separated from the string. For if one wanted always
to lift the bow as far as is required for the so-called Absetzen, there would not be enough time remaining to return it
again at the right time, and notes of this sort would sound as if they were hacked or whipped. 494
The Italian style of bowing which Quantz contrasted with the French seems to have been that associated primarily with
Tartini. Schubart referred to the ‘majestic sustained stroke’ possessed by members of the Tartini school, and, while
objecting that this ‘may hinder the speed of performance and not be suited to winged passages’, he admitted that it
made these players ‘unsurpassably good for the church style, since their bowing has just so much power and energy as
is required for the true expression of the pathetic church style’. 495 Having commented favourably on Leopold Mozart's
method, Schubart objected: ‘however, his bowstroke is too Tartini-ish, and not suitable enough for presto’. 496 Yet
earlier, he had remarked: ‘He certainly leans towards the Tartini school, but he nevertheless allows the pupil more
freedom in bowing than that school’. 497
There were other important contributions to violin playing from groups and individuals during the second half of the
century. The French style described by Quantz was never a model for solo playing, and the majority of soloists, even
French violinists such as Pierre Gavinès (whom Viotti called ‘the French Tartini’), learned much from the Italian style.
The same influence was strong in Mannheim. But it is apparent that the austerity of Tartini's bowing
494 Versuch, XVII, 2, §27.
495
Ideen, 59.
496
Ibid. 298.
497
Ibid. 158.