JAVS Fall 2023

strokes. Additionally, the player must move the bow closer to the bridge to play the quick succession of short quarter notes. Combining the right wrist motion with the bow placement and contact point will result in a stroke that produces a sound that is warm yet articulate enough to accompany the woodwind melodies soaring above it. Morphing from spiccato to sautillé requires the V-shaped bow strokes to get smaller and closer to the string as the tempo accelerates, until the bow lands on the string. Rok Klopcic states in his 2021 article, “Spiccato and sautillé - two important bow strokes which are often confused,” that the tempo of quarter note = 100 bpm is the line of demarcation for this change from spiccato to sautillé: Spiccato and sautillé are the two most important off the-string bowings, but they are often confused. One of the reasons might be their relation to speed. There is a common ground where one should be able to make

the change from spiccato to sautille and back without any change in sound or character. If we take (according to Dounis), quarter note = 100 for semiquavers as a demarcation point, spiccato can be played up to this point. For higher speeds we must use sautillé, which can also be played slower. 4 When the tempo reaches this point, it is imperative that the right wrist motions become circular (while placing the bow on the string) which will help transfer the bouncing sound from the bow’s hair into the bow’s stick. Through practice, one can refine this change in the right wrist’s motion to make the transition from spiccato to sautillé seamless.

Excerpt #2

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Journal of the American Viola Society / Vol. 39, No. 2, Fall 2023