Edward J Shillitoe

Johann Mathias Sperger was a bass player and composer at around the time of Dragonetti. He played with a bow whose style is not seen very often today. I was asked to make a bass bow of this style and so here it is! It's a little longer than most bass bows but the hair is of a normal length. The other photograph shows the statue of Sperger using this type of bow, which stands in the German town of Rostock.

Here is the bow all finished, in the style of the late 1500's to early 1600's. It weighs 70g and the playing length of the hair is only 55.5 cm. The stick is a reproduction of one in the State Musical Instrument collection in Vienna so I think the dimensions are pretty authentic. However no ivory parts of any such bow have survived as far as I know so I had to recreate them from old images. The stick is maple and the 'ivory' is a modern semi-synthetic material. #earlymusic #baroqueviolin #baroquebow #historicalperformance

On to the next project! This painting is from 1630 by the baroque artist Judith Leyster, and shows one of the styles of bow in use at the time. As far as I can tell there are no bows like this that have survived, so I am going to try to recreate one myself! #earlymusic #baroqueviolin #baroquebow #historicalperformance

This is an early music group from the Juilliard School performing Vivaldi's 'Winter'. The bass player is Jonathan Luik, using one of my Dragonetti bows. Beautifully done Jonathan! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Za3A2aTrVkE

On to the next project! This painting is from 1630 by the baroque artist Judith Leyster, and shows one of the styles of bow in use at the time. As far as I can tell there are no bows like this that have survived, so I am going to try to recreate one myself! #earlymusic #baroqueviolin #baroquebow #historicalperformance

If you are wondering what Dragonetti bows are all about and why some bass players love them so much, take a look at this new video from Severiano Paoli! Thank you for posting it, Severiano! https://www.youtube.com/watch

This is an early music group from the Juilliard School performing Vivaldi's 'Winter'. The bass player is Jonathan Luik, using one of my Dragonetti bows. Beautifully done Jonathan! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Za3A2aTrVkE

It's a New Year and time to make some new bass bows! Here is a batch of six that I have started - three are copies of Mr. Dragonetti's bow, one is a copy of a bow in the museum of the conservatory in Paris, and two are copies of a late nineteenth century French bow owned by Cornell University. The little plane in the middle was a surprise from Santa Claus!

Here is Markneukirchen a little town of 7000 people in Saxony, on the Czech border. In the early 1900’s it was the source of 80% of the world’s musical instruments. Almost all American instruments came from here at that time and there was a branch of the American embassy to handle all the exports. Nowadays there are still over 100 instrument makers, but no airport, no train station, no taxi stand and apparently not one person who speaks English!

Had a good time at the Pittsburgh Double Bass Symposium last weekend! Several great recitals, workshops and people to meet! I sold a couple of bows and took in an interesting restoration project. Thanks to Aaron White for coordinating! Here are a few pictures:

We're getting ready for the Pittsburgh Bass Symposium next week. Here are some old and some new bows we will be showing! Hope to see you there!

Germany is a very musical place. In most cities as you go down the escalator to the subway you see advertisements for fashion, cars, holidays and so on. But here in Munich you might also see ... ... a bowmaker!

Good luck to all at the Bass Convention this week! Sorry I'm not there - I'm getting ready for Oberlin!

Just heard that bass player Ray Bohn will be using one of my bows for his recital tomorrow (May 2nd) at 4:00. An all Stravinsky program on a Dragonetti bow! It will be live streamed here: https://www.facebook.com///vb.31504315/10101335649759286/

Just heard that the well known player Mark Morton is performing Bach suites 4, 5, and 6 tonight (April 5th) using one of my bows! 8:00 pm central time, live streamed here: https://www.youtube.com/user/ttuschoolofmusic