Received: 4 April Accepted: 28 September The goal of this study is to investigate the perception of different bow mass distributions using an experimental violin bow. The position of the centre of mass and the moment of inertia were independently modified through five distinct mass configurations, which were tested by multiple violinists. Various perceptual tests, including three discrimination tests and a free evaluation test, were conducted.
Furthermore, the free evaluation test revealed that the perceived bow weight was influenced by both parameters, while the quality of bouncing bow strokes appeared to be more influenced by the moment of inertia. Bows primarily consist of two parts: the hair that comes into contact with the strings, traditionally made from horsehair to which rosin is added to enhance adhesion, and a wooden stick Fig. This study focuses on the latter. When playing, violinists hold the bow with their right hand and control, among others, the following key bowing parameters: speed, position along the string, and vertical force applied to the strings.
These different parameters trigger various vibrational regimes of the strings, which are then transmitted through the bridge to the corpus soundbox and ultimately into the air, resulting in distinct sounds [ 1 ]. Violinists master the control of these bowing parameters to achieve the desired sound in line with their interpretive intentions.
Figure 1 Overview of the violin bow main parts, without hair. Despite being an essential element for most violinists, the bow has not received the same level of attention from researchers as the violin until the latter part of the twentieth century. One of the earlier attempts to unveil the relationship between bow mechanical properties and their perceived qualities was conducted by Bissinger in [ 2 ].
He conducted modal analysis and bounce tests on eight violin bows, followed by evaluations by an expert violinist. They could not establish correlations between quality criteria and physical properties such as mass, centre of gravity, stiffness, or hair tension. However, they identified three critical playing properties that were consistently important to all violinists: balance, flexibility, and responsiveness.
