AUTHOR=Tomezzoli Aurélie , Michaud Benjamin , Gagné Eric , Begon Mickaël , Duprey Sonia TITLE=Effect of Bow Camber and Mass Distribution on Violinists' Preferences and Performance JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychology VOLUME=12 YEAR=2021 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.769831 DOI=10.3389/fpsyg.2021.769831 ISSN=1664-1078 ABSTRACT=
Little is known about how bow mechanical characteristics objectively and quantitatively influence violinists' preferences and performance. Hypothesizing that the bow shape (i.e., camber) and mass distribution modifications would alter both violinists' appreciations of a bow and objective assessments of their performance, we recruited 10 professional violinists to play their own violin using 18 versions of a single bow, modified by combining three cambers and six mass distributions, in random order. A musical phrase, composed for this study, was played legato and spiccato at three octaves and two tempi. Each violinist scored all 18 bows. Then, experts assessed the recorded performances according to criteria inspired by basic musical analysis. Finally, 12 audio-descriptors were calculated on the same note from each trial, to objectivise potential acoustic differences. Statistical analysis (ANOVA) reveals that bow camber impacted the violinists' appreciations (