The BACH.Bow is a curved bow designed to make true polyphony playable on bowed string instruments. Its elevated camber and lever-controlled hair tension allow musicians to perform seamlessly on one, two, three, or all four strings. This design delivers full resonance and sustained chords, offering a level of polyphonic clarity traditional concave bows cannot achieve.
During development, Mstislav Rostropovich provided artistic feedback on early BACH.Bow prototypes. Composers such as John Cage and Dieter Schnebel wrote music specifically for the BACH.Bow, exploring its unique sonic possibilities. Today, solo violin and cello works by Johann Sebastian Bach gain remarkable transparency and structural balance when performed with this polyphonic bow.
Founded in 1996 by Michael Bach, the BACH.Bogen Studio in Stuttgart and Wissembourg continues to develop and handcraft curved bows for violin, viola, cello, and bass. Musicians can rely on each BACH.Bow to expand their expressive range and explore the full spectrum of polyphonic bowing.
