Small causes, big effects - we asked musicians at the Konzerthausorchester Berlin what contributes to good sound. In episode 1, we accompany Petr Matěják from our first violin section to his bow maker Petr Auředník, who has his workshop close to Prague.

When a famous master violin is forgotten in a cab or stolen from a dressing room, the news goes around the world. The fact that there is probably (at least) one bow in the missing instrument case is rarely mentioned, at most in passing. But the bow plays a decisive role in how a violin sounds - whether famous or not. Professional violinists know this very well. Alongside 29 violin concertos and various other works for his instrument, the violin virtuoso and composer Giovanni Battista Viotti left behind the aphorism “Le violon, c'est l'archet.” (“The violin is the bow.”). And in every orchestra, there are musicians who dellve deeply into the topic of bows and can advise their colleagues in case they are thinking about buying a new one. In the Konzerthausorchester, one of them is Petr Matěják from the first violins.

In search of the ideal violin and bow combination

The “eternal search” for an ideal version of this fragile, horsehair-strung piece of pernambuco wood, artfully bent into shape, is a “passion”, says Petr. It connects him - just like an enthusiasm for the finesse of high-quality cars - with the bow maker Petr Auředník, who has his workshop in Říčany u Prahy, south-east of Prague. Petr Matěják grew up in the area. From time to time, he packs his occasional musical purchases and chance finds into the trunk of his car and drives down from Berlin to assess the sound with Petr A. “There are always surprises,” he says as we drive beyond Dresden towards the Czech border. “It's a bit of a lottery.”

We stop in front of a detached house in a quiet, green neighborhood above the small town of Říčany u Prahy. Petr Auředník has set up a small workshop in his house, where he carefully handcrafts a bow about every two months. He doesn't need much: two work tables with tools, a rack for bows, a shelf with a stereo system, a small record collection of different genres, which is lined up behind a recording of Dvorák's “Rusalka” with Václav Neumann and the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra. On one wall hangs a tied-up white horse's tail, while only a few strands remain of a second one.

Price increase for bows

The traditional tools and techniques of bow making have not changed much since the end of the 18th century, says Petr A. Nor have the raw materials: wood from Brazil and horsehair from East Asia. But it is precisely these factors that have increasingly complicated his craft in recent years: “Import regulations* and delivery difficulties,” he summarizes the plight and points to a small stack of cut blocks of pernambuco wood that have a future as bows: “What you see here is worth the price of a good car! All bow makers want high-quality, well-seasoned wood, and it's almost impossible to get.” When a bow maker decides to sell off his unused stock because of retirement, one has to be quick.

So, bows are currently becoming more and more expensive. A convincing alternative to the uniquely flexible yet stable pernambuco wood, which grows only in Brazil and retains the shape bent by hand over a flame when it cools, has not yet been found. Some violinists play carbon bows, but sound preferences are very different, says Petr M.: “For me, carbon does not correspond to the hand.”

The horse tail hair, of which only light-colored ones are suitable for bow strings and only within a year and a half of being cut, is also causing trouble at the moment: they are only arriving in Mongolia in scant supply. Since the quality of the hair depends on where and how the horses grow up, the company is dependent on supplies from there, Petr Auředník regrets.

A good ear for sound and an enjoyment of woodwork

He doesn't play a string instrument himself, but he has always had a good ear for sound. As a child, he enjoyed carving small flutes and other things out of wood. It was his mother's idea that he could become a violin maker – and the idea of the violin-making school to specialize in bows: “Because everyone wanted to make violins”. He took it on. To this day, it still makes him happy, even though he now does bow making part-time and also has a job in the municipal administration: “It's an art. At school, I only learned how to hold the tools. It's only through exchanges with musicians over the years that you learn what it takes to make a really good bow.”

Ideal weight

In the orchestra, Petr M. plays for long periods at a time, so it is really important that his bow is not too heavy. In chamber music or when he plays as a soloist, a slightly higher weight is not a burden: “For me, the ideal weight for orchestral playing is 58 grams. Three grams more makes a big difference, and I notice even one more. With a bow that's too heavy, you play yourself to pieces.” According to Petr, the weight of the bow, which is determined by the density of the wood, does not have a great influence on a good sound. But it plays an important role in the technical mastery of the violin – the lighter it is, the less effort is required for technical passages. The exact position of the bow's center of gravity determines how it moves across the strings. 

... and hair care

Incidentally, the bow maker also takes care of the “day-to-day operations”: He stretches the ideal amount of horsehair onto the bow, which, in the best case, needs to be replaced after just a few weeks. The last detail for good sound is the composition of the rosin. It is the bow rosin or colophonium that makes the hair adhere to the strings in the first place: no rosin, no violin sound! Of this, string players take care by themselves – some even experiment with it extensively.

On Sunday morning, a little group laden with violin cases moves through Říčany u Prahy towards the town hall. On the ground floor, chess players bend over their boards. This time, a real small jury is meeting in the hall on the first floor, because Petr Matějak's father, also an orchestra violinist, and two friends of Petr Auředník's with excellent hearing are joining them.

Every hall sounds different

Eight violins and nine bows take part in the audition – theoretically 72 possibilities for a convincing sound. Among them are Petr's concert violin, a historical bow from France borrowed for comparison, and two bows from Petr Auředník, as well as an 80-year-old “50-euro bow” and an inexpensive but promising violin, which Petr is particularly excited to see perform: “However, each hall has its own acoustic conditions – for me as a violinist in the Konzerthausorchester Berlin, what is ultimately most important is how a combination of violin and bow conveys sound in our Great Hall.” He regularly tries out his finds there with colleagues.

The violinist gazes pensively at the violins and bows on the table next to them, as if they were in a waiting room. “I just love this collection.” Then he picks up one and off they go. At first, the hall is filled with the sound of the Tchaikovsky Concerto. The beginning is particularly good for trying things out: all four strings are used, and these bars have many timbres. Petr M. and the jury also pick out sound details particularly well from passages of Mendelssohn and Brahms' violin concertos.

Listening for resonance

When he starts a Bach arpeggio without warning on the 50-euro violin he bought cheaply second-hand, an enthusiastic “Oh” sounds from the row of four listeners. Petr Auředník gives a thumbs up: “Sound doesn't necessarily have anything to do with price, not even with a $2 million Stradivarius,” he will say later. “What matters is how the wood of a bow is constructed and how it makes a violin resonate.”

After about two hours, Petr Matěják is highly satisfied and gives a summary of the “audition”: the instruments he has tried with the Bach arpeggio have potential. And as he had thought, his French Bernardel violin sounds best with his Auředník bow. Why is that?

Winning teams

“The sound of this violin is dark and warm in itself. Petr's bow doesn't dampen the string, but brings out the overtones because the wood resonates very well. It allows the string to vibrate at an ideal amplitude. For example, we compared it to a bow from an unknown German workshop: it makes my violin sound even darker than usual, and the sound has significantly fewer overtones. Therefore, it is somewhat muted and doesn't carry as well into the hall.” Combined with an old French master bow that he had borrowed especially for the occasion, it sounds too “nasal” to the audience.  A violin by the Czech violin maker Vladimir Pilař from 1966 was also in the running: “It has a very fine sound, but it doesn't carry as well as the Bernadel violin. It also benefited from Petr's bow because the overtones are audible, which are quickly lost with a different bow. It needs a very well-fitting bow even more than the Bernadel.”

... and an investment tip

Some Italian master violins by Stradivari and Guaneri del Gesù were recently sold at auction for several million euros. Some of them then disappear from concert stages, at least temporarily, which is sad not least from an artist's point of view. For bows, the previous price record is held by François Tourte, a father of the modern bow in the late 18th century, with a piece selling for 570,000 euros. Are bows the next investment tip? Petr M. laughs: “A high-quality French bow from a well-known bow maker from the 19th century with a certificate is definitely a good investment these days!” But of course it is even more important that it fits the violin.

* Since 2007, it has no longer been legal to trade in newly felled pernambuco wood. The trees are threatened with extinction. The bow makers' initiative IPCI (International Pernambuco Conservation Initiative) has launched a campaign to replant trees in cooperation with Brazilian cocoa farmers. However, this species grows very slowly.