A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Springing Bow

by Paul David

SPRINGING BOW (Ital. Saltato or Spicato; Fr. Sautillé). This kind of bowing is produced by the bow being dropped down on to the string from some distance, whereby, owing to the elasticity of the stick, it is set vibrating, and made to rebound after each note.

There are two principal kinds of springing bow.

1. The Spicato—chiefly used for the execution of quick passages formed of notes of equal duration—is produced by a loose movement of the wrist, about the middle of the bow. Well-known instances of it are the finale of Haydn's Quartet in D (op. 64, no. 5)—

the quick passages in the finale of Mendelssohn's Violin-concerto—

or Paganini's Perpetuum mobile. The Spicato is marked by dots over the notes. The so-called Martelé (hammered), indicated by dashes—

—is not really a kind of springing bow, but merely indicates that a passage is to be executed by short strongly accentuated strokes of the bow, which however has not actually to leave the string as in the 'springing bow.'

2. The Saltato, for which the bow is made to fall down from a considerable distance, and therefore rebounds much higher than in the Spicato. This kind of bowing is chiefly used where a number of notes have to be played in one stroke of the springing bow, as in arpeggios (Cadenza of Mendelssohn's Violin-Concerto), or such phrases as the first subject of the Finale of the same work—

which, if played as a firm staccato would sound heavy. Another well-known instance of the saltato is the beginning of the Finale of Paganini's first Concerto.

3. A kind of quick staccato, much employed by Paganini and the modern French School, must be mentioned here, because it is really a kind of saltato; the bow being violently thrown down, and so being made to rebound a great many times for a long succession of notes in such quick time that their execution by a firm staccato and a separate movement of the wrist for each note would be impossible.

[ P. D. ]