Sunday, October 15, 2006

Weight of a bow

Heard at Suffolk Strings this afternoon that a recommended weight for a viola bow is between 69 and 75grams (I think!). So rushed home to check my bows - older crappy bow 59g - new lovely bow - 72g!!! Hurrah! But haven't so far found any validation for this remark on t'internet yet...just that you should use a weight that suits you. But it makes sense - a lighter bow tends to be much harder to control particularly in fast bouncy music.

On the same kind of theme it was the Planets concert last night. Brilliant music. They had a girls' choir in for Neptune - The Mystic because there's an etheral passage towards the end of the movement enhanced by a female choir singing out of sight - and sounding quite faraway and mysterious. Choir stood outside the main auditorium which was all well and good until they decided to close the door for the last few bars to make it sound even more muffled and further away. If only someone had thought to practise with the door which made the loudest most laborious clunking and banging noises as it was being closed...so much for mystery!

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