Bowings, OR: How the Buggery Do You Articulate String Parts?

So I'm not an instrumentalist by any means. The only instrument I actually play (if you could call it that) is piano. So I've got no idea what to do articulation-wise when it comes to strings. Being someone who doesn't really know what I'm doing, should I write in bowings? What are the general rules to follow when writing bowings? I know this question is horrendously vague, but... I've got no clue what I'm doing. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

First of all, there are two different directions of bows - upbow and downbow. Phrases should generally begin on a downbow, as downbows sound stronger. Upbows are generally used for one-bow pick-ups.

There are a variety of different articulations strings can execute. Detache bowings are standard, unarticulated bowings and will sound somewhat legato and maybe slightly accented, like tonguing on a wind instrument. Staccato (short), spiccato (bouncy), marcato (accented), tenuto (held for full length) and slurred bowings are other articulations commonly found. I would suggest that you slur no more than a few seconds unless you want us to change bows while slurring (which is an option in some cases). (If you want advice about a section, you can show us a section and we can help you.)

The best instrumentation book you can get for free: Treatise on Instrumentation (Berlioz, Hector) - IMSLP

Strings are actually fairly simple, in comparison to winds, or, even worse, piano. :P (I'm a violist.)

lol, Qmwne beat me to it. But I will add-on and reiterate

well, besides stylistic things there are basically three things you need to be aware of:

The First is that by rule of thumb is, unless noted, players will just keep going down, up, down, up... unless told other wise.

"Up bow" -(the direction is from the tip of the bow towards the frog (the hand)) This looks like a "V" and is placed over the notes you specifically want Upbow; and yes, they can be used multiple times in a row.

"Down Bow" -(the direction is from frog to tip) This looks like a "Table" or something similar and is placed over the notes you specifically want downbow; same application as Upbow

"Slurs and Ties" -These instruct a player to play all connected notes in the one bow movement (the one they entered with).

___And please keep in mind that string players have a limited amount of bow.

Unless you're asking for a special effect, I advise to not indicate the bowings. You'll just piss of the strings and most likely not do it right anyway.

As a previous very very amature violinist in an orchestra, I'll back up the bowing claims ... the conductors I usually performed with usually ignored the V and Table symbols and told us how they wanted it to be performed.

Pharsing is useful though so I will pass on some simple advice my orchestration lecturer gave me:

Aim to get each bar starting on a downbow.

e.g You have three notes in your bar. Without pharsing marks, the strings would end up on an upbow for the next bar. Adding a slur between the second and third note will make both of these be on an upbow and then your next bar will start on a downbow.

I'm inclined to agree with Flint. I am a string player, and I don't indicate specific bowings myself most of the time (upbow/downbow). I do, however, give strong suggestions with the use of slurs. If you want a series of notes to be played smoothly, put a slur over it; the players will take this seriously, and even if they break up the phrase into more than one bow, it'll get played pretty much the way you wanted.

I agree with that too. Slurs and articulations - definitely. If you want several notes on one bow and not just up-down-up-down, you should indicate it by slurring the notes, while keeping in mind that a bow only has a limited length. It's not always easy for someone unexperienced with string instruments to imagine how much can fit on one bow, because it depends on tempo, dynamics, the desired tone, the amount of rosin used (there are huge differences with contrabassists there for instance), etc. But generally, even without playing a string instrument, you can more or less imagine it by just playing air violin with an imaginary instrument and moving your imaginary bow (which is what I do). In doubt, ask a string player.

I very rarely indicate actual up- and downbows, except for two cases:

1. When I'm looking for a particular effect that only works well with a specific bowing.

2. When I'm writing something orchestral for a performance and there's absolutely no rehearsal time, so the musicians have to be able to sight-read it without having to discuss bowing first.

I'm very sceptical about the mentioned "the conductors usually ignored the bowing indications" though. I'm not saying there's no interpretational freedom and that a conductor may not at times do something that might not have been the intention of the composer - but it should be treated the same as any other score element. If you consciously ignore a bowing that a composer specifically indicated, that's not much different than playing a different pitch than indicated. (Of course it depends on whether the bowing is really from the composer or an editor, and also on the historical context of the piece.)

You don't need to play a bowed instrument to write bowings. You do, however, need to think about whether or not a player will have any trouble with it. I find the above-mentioned "air-bowing" method a good one, as well as trying to visualise the part being played.

Also, I have a girlfriend who's a 'cellist who I will often double-check things with if I'm still unsure.

That said, I agree with Flint if you're new to writing for strings. Try to put some in, especially the slurs, as have been mentioned, if you particularly want that kind of effect. But, really, if you're ever in doubt, don't put anything in. If you want a section legato, for instance, write that on the score without any particular bowings and the string players will work it out for how they think works best for them and for the piece.

the conductors I usually performed with usually ignored the V and Table symbols and told us how they wanted it to be performed.

In my experience, conductors have never really messed around with bowings, but only enforced those marked. For those not marked, our section leaders generally decide what makes most sense. I agree with those above; there are cases in which marking bowings is important, and all other times, please leave them out. They just clutter the page after a certain point, expecially if it's just up-down-up-down. And if you really don't know what you're doing, we'd rather you just let us make a fairly good guess at your intentions and make them up ourselves.

Articulations, especially slurs, should generally be marked. However, a fast piece in the classical style will almost always be spiccato, so that isn't as important to mark. Usually, you can just mark articulations for a few bars and we'll get the point if they remain fairly constant for a long section.

In my experience, conductors have never really messed around with bowings

I don't know - maybe its because I was an amature teen and never grew beyond that but I went to a region orchestra, the first day of our rehersals we all took out our pencils and the conductor dicated to us how she wanted us to play it including ignoring most of the bowings. Its happened to be a few times to me now though since then too.

Sounds control-freaky to me. I wouldn't presume to ignore a slur if Beethoven put it there.

Sounds control-freaky to me. I wouldn't presume to ignore a slur if Beethoven put it there.

I was never told to ignore a slur but rather the V and Table symbols.

Ah, that's different. Sorry, I misunderstood.