Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A stroke made by drawing a bow from handle to tip across the strings of a violin or other bowed instrument.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun In violin-playing, a stroke of the bow downward, beginning with the nut: opposed to
up-bow .
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Music) a downward stroke from the heel to the tip of the bow, in bowing a stringed instrument. Contrasted with
up-bow , when the bow is moved in the opposite direction.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a downward stroke from the heel to the tip of the bow
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
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Examples
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He starts his tremolo after a long down-bow wind-up, then seems to be going half the speed of the rest of the section.
Alan Gilbert at the San Francisco Symphony sfmike 2008
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In cello music the down-bow sign is sometimes written [cello down-bow symbol].
Music Notation and Terminology Karl Wilson Gehrkens 1928
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When no bowing is indicated, a phrase beginning with a weak beat commonly has an up-bow for the first tone, while one beginning on a strong beat has a down-bow; but this principle has many exceptions.
Essentials in Conducting Karl Wilson Gehrkens 1928
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The fiddlers best qualified to speak with authority will often disagree absolutely regarding the use of a string, position, up-bow or down-bow.
Violin Mastery Talks with Master Violinists and Teachers Frederick Herman Martens 1903
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The change from up-bow to down-bow and _vice versa_ should be made without a break, exclusively through skillful manipulation of the wrist.
Violin Mastery Talks with Master Violinists and Teachers Frederick Herman Martens 1903
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The process is reversed when playing a down-bow [Symbol: down-bow] harmonic.
Violin Mastery Talks with Master Violinists and Teachers Frederick Herman Martens 1903
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Artists of the German school are more apt to begin a phrase with a down-bow; the French start playing a good deal at the point.
Violin Mastery Talks with Master Violinists and Teachers Frederick Herman Martens 1903
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Loeffler showed me what every good fiddler _must_ learn to do: to leap from the end of the down-bow to the up-bow and _vice versa_ and then hesitate the fraction of a moment, thus securing a smooth, clean-cut tone, without any vibration of the intermediate string.
Violin Mastery Talks with Master Violinists and Teachers Frederick Herman Martens 1903
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And the violinist should never think: 'I must play this up-bow or down-bow.'
Violin Mastery Talks with Master Violinists and Teachers Frederick Herman Martens 1903
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A quick down-bow follows with an immediate release of the string.
Violin Mastery Talks with Master Violinists and Teachers Frederick Herman Martens 1903
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