Saga of the 'Cello Bow
On Sunday, 22 January 2009, Isaac had planned a recital featuring himself playing some organ music, plus a whole array of friends performing a nice variety of music. This is just the latest installment in a recital series that has seen at least two, sometimes three programs a year since about 1993, the year that the new Casavant Frères pipe organ was installed at St. Matthew's UMC in Bowie, where he is the musical director.
As happens often enough, I was one of the friends to play that day. Our friend Helen-Jean was playing a sonata by Johann Joachim Quantz (18th century) for two recorders and continuo. I was providing the continuo.
Before the recital we had practiced and then I had left my instrument in its place, ready for our piece, which was up as soon as Isaac played an opening fanfare. In preparation for the 4 o'clock start time, I went to tighten my bow about 5 minutes before then.
It wouldn't tighten! The threads on the frog (technical explanation: the thingie at the hand-end of the bow where the bow hair is attached) had suddenly stripped and this bow was never going to tighten again.
Oh dear. I got a little bit frantic, but less than I might have been expected to I'd say. I went to Isaac in the narthex and explained. Our first thought was to call a nearby friend who had a cello and might be able to loan an emergency bow. She didn't answer her phone!
Isaac had a brainstorm: in our basement at home was the viola of a friend who had stored it there some time ago. It must have a bow.
"A viola bow!" I wondered, but perhaps a viola bow was better than no bow. So I drove home with all seemly haste while Isaac rearranged the program slightly, ran to the basement, and threw open the viola case. In fact, there were two bows. On one the hair had fallen out completely. It was unplayable. The other, however, still retained about half of its hair. Better than nothing? Well, at least the music I was playing for the day did not make great technical demands.
And thus it was that I played the Quantz sonata with a viola bow that had only half its hair. Nevertheless, the performance came off well: we were pleased and our audience was pleased.
My only recourse, really, was to buy a new bow. In some ways it seemed an extravagance for someone with as little income as I currently have, but how could I live without playing, so it also seemed a necessity. I decided I would buy a modestly priced bow, even though that would still cost several hundred dollars.
I quickly settled on a bow made by CodaBow, specifically, the "Diamond NX" model:
Rather than being made from exotic Brazilian wood, the stick is manufactured from a bonded Kevlar core wrapped in a weave of graphite fibers. Look carefully at the stick and you'll see that they let the graphite weave create a snakeskin pattern along the stick in a way that I think is attractive. I actually find the high-tech, modern materials design and manufacture rather appealing, but I am a dorky kind of cellist.
I ordered one (from Cellos2Go, with whom I had a very satisfactory interaction) and it arrived a week ago. I haven't had much time to spend with it yet, but I like its weight and balance. However, I know that it's going to be better than the miserable, bent thing I'd been playing with for the past 40 years or so.
Already I'm imagining myself playing with incredibly enhanced technique!
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on Thursday, 12 March 2009 at 19.58
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well THAT's rather more excitement than one needs before a performance. I hope you enjoy the new high-tech bow.
clearly the frog on your old bow is shot, but can it not be replaced? or is this -um- a retail opportunity??
[with a new high-tech bow, have you considered a high-tech instrument? such as this one? Admittedly this is a violin rather than cello, but shirley if they made this for the fairly petite Vanessa-Mae, they'd make a bigger one for a bigger boy such as yourself.]
on Thursday, 12 March 2009 at 20.18
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Certainly a bit overmuch in the excitement category, but everyone avoided panic and the crowd was familiar and friendly, so we all moved along with grace and good humor.
In fact the frog could be replaced and the bow rehaired, making it usable again. I've even thought that, someday when I have positive cash flow, I might do just that so that I have a backup bow, or one reserved for playing col legno ("with the wood", as in, e.g., "Symphonie Fantistique", mov't 5), as some orchestral players do. But I'm in no hurry since the stick is so awfully bent from years of playing–and the bow was far from premium when I first got it.
I have, actually, thought about expanding into modern instruments and getting an electric cello (such as this, or from this list — I even just read about this fellow who had a five-string cello made for him, which would certainly make it easier to play that 6th Suite of Bach's), but I haven't yet. Perhaps I'll take a collection at the next recital for all the new instruments and accessories.
on Friday, 13 March 2009 at 15.46
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Amazing resilience and ingenuity. Not quite Paganini's one string performance, but more than enough for me!