Editing Musical bow (section)

== History ==

{{multiple image|caption_align=center|header_align=center
 | align = right
 | image1 = Ragaputra Sarang painting, from Bundi, showing "The Divine Musician playsa a pinaki vina".jpg
 | width1 = 145
 | alt1 = Indian Musical bow in art
 | caption1 = India, ca. 1725, Bundi style. A divine musician plays a hunting bow with its tip placed in a resonance pot. Possible [[pinaka vina]] or [[ravanahatha]].<ref name=journal>{{cite journal |journal= National Center for Performing Arts Quarterly Journal |author= Joep Bor |title= The Voice of the Sarangi, An Illustrated History of Bowing in India |pages= 38–47|volume= 15 & 16 |date= 1986–1987 |url= https://archive.org/details/MusicRes-Periodicals|quote= [Three issues of this quarterly journal were combined into one; Volume 15 (issues 3 and 4) and Volume 16 (issue 1).]}}</ref>
 
 |image2=Illustration of Homme masque en Bison jourant de la flute Wellcome M0004767.jpg
 |width2=150px
 |alt2=engraving of cave wall art
 |caption2=Lithograph of scene from the [[Cave of the Trois-Frères|Trois Frères cave]], showing a figure on the wall whose bow(?) has been thought to possibly be musical.
}}

There is speculation that the [[hunting bow]] may have been used as a musical instrument from as early as circa 13,000 B.C.<ref>{{cite journal|title=The Origin of Musical Instruments and Sounds|author=Bo Lawergren|page=36|journal=Anthropos|volume=83|issue = 1/3|edition=83|year=1988|publisher= Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH|jstor = 40461485}}</ref> [[Henri Breuil]] surveyed the [[Trois Frères]] in France caves and made an engraving that attempted to reproduce a c. 13,000&nbsp;B.C. cave painting into a black-and-white lithograph engraving.<ref name=frerescavedate>{{cite web|url= http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/prehistoric/trois-freres-cave.htm| title=Trois Freres Cave|access-date=March 27, 2015|quote=Henri Breuil surveyed the cave... a detailed study was published by H.Breuil and R.Begouen of the hundreds of engraved drawings in the deep gallery known as the "Sanctuary"...Its walls are filled with some 280 engraved (often superimposed) images of bison, horses, stags, reindeer, ibexes, and mammoths... }}</ref> His engraving showed a mysterious figure, a "man camouflaged to resemble a bison," in the midst of a mass of herd-animals, "herding the beasts and playing the musical bow."<ref name=frerescavedate/><ref name=Garcia>{{cite web |url= http://algargosarte.blogspot.com/2014/10/el-arte-rupestre-paleolitico-en-las.html|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20180902031447/http://algargosarte.blogspot.com/2014/10/el-arte-rupestre-paleolitico-en-las.html|url-status= dead|archive-date= 2 September 2018|title= EL ARTE RUPESTRE PALEOLÍTICO EN LAS CUEVAS FRANCESAS. LA CUEVA DE LASCAUX. |last=Garcia |first= Alfredo|date=5 October 2014 |website=algargosarte.blogspot.com |quote=[Concerning a pair of images below the text; the top image is a line drawing showing a herd of animals drawn over one another with the hunter and bow in the pack; the other image is a photo of the cave wall with that image, enhanced to show the hunter and animals directly in front of him distinctly:] En Les Trois Frères destacaría su estilo tan naturalista... Es famosa la escena que del hombre camuflado como un bisonte, ¿Un chamán o un cazador?, que persigue o conduce a otros animales y que he destacado del conjunto superpuesto de abajo.|trans-quote=In Les Trois Frères I would highlight his naturalistic style...The scene is famous, that of the man camouflaged to resemble a bison, (a shaman or a hunter?), that pursues or leads other animals, and that I have stood out from the set superimposed below...}}</ref><ref name=Walter>{{cite book |last= Walter |first= Eugene Victor|date= 1988|title= Placeways: A Theory of the Human Environment |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=-cFXcXKI5tIC&q=%22musical+bow%22%2C+%22Trois+Fr%C3%A8res%22&pg=PA89|location= Chapel Hill, North Carolina|publisher=UNC Press Books |page=89 |isbn= 978-0-8078-1758-2 |quote=a semi-human figure dances in the midst of the animals...herding the beasts and playing a musical bow. He wears the head and fur of a bison with human legs... }}</ref> The artwork is confused, and those who are trying to reproduce the art in color have had to work to bring out legible images.<ref name=Garcia/><ref name=Walter/> One interpretation of the "magician-hunter" image considers his hunting-bow to be a musical bow, used as a single-stringed musical instrument.<ref name=Walter/><ref name=vanCampen>{{cite web | last1= Campen | first1 = Ank van| title= The music-bow from prehistory till today | url= http://www.harphistory.info/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=65&Itemid=17&lang=en | website= HarpHistory.info| access-date= March 26, 2015|quote=A cave-painting in the "Trois Frères" cave in France dating from about 15,000 years ago. The magician-hunter plays the musical bow.}}</ref>

Whether the bow in the cave illustration is a musical instrument or the hunting tool in a Paleolithic hunt, musicologists have considered whether the bow could be a possible relative or ancestor to the [[chordophone]]: the [[lute]], [[lyre]], [[harp]], and [[zither]] family. Curt Sachs said that there was good reason not to consider ''hunters' bows'' as likely musical bows.<ref name=bowtolute1>{{cite book |last=Sachs |first=Curt |date=1940 |title=The History of Musical Instruments |url=https://archive.org/details/historyofmusical00sach|url-access=registration |location=New York |publisher=W. W. Norton & Company |page=[https://archive.org/details/historyofmusical00sach/page/56 56–57] |isbn=9780393020687 }}</ref> One reason was that the oldest known musical bows were 10 feet long, useless for hunting, and that "musical bows were not associated with hunters' beliefs and ceremonies."<ref name=bowtolute1/> Sachs considered the musical bows important, however. He pointed out that the name for the Greek lute, ''[[pandura]]'' was likely derived from ''pan-tur'', a Sumerian word meaning "small bow."<ref name=bowtolute>{{cite book |last=Sachs |first=Curt |date=1940 |title=The History of Musical Instruments |url=https://archive.org/details/historyofmusical00sach|url-access=registration |location=New York |publisher=W. W. Norton & Company |page=[https://archive.org/details/historyofmusical00sach/page/136 136–137]|isbn=9780393020687 }}</ref> He considered this evidence in support of the theory that the musical bow was ancestral to the pierced lute.<ref name=bowtolute/>

The bows used for music required a resonator, a hollowed object like a bowl, a gourd, or a musician's mouth, in order to produce audible sound.<ref name=bowtolute1/> Although the musical bow could be manipulated to produce more than one tone, instruments were developed from it that used one note per string.<ref name=bowtolute1/><ref name=Dumbrillp179>{{cite book |last=Dumbrill |first=Richard J. |date=1998 |title=The Archaeomusicology of the Ancient Near East |location=London |publisher=Tadema Press |pages=179, 231, 235–236, 308–310}}</ref> Since each string played a single note, adding strings added new notes for instrument families such as [[African harp|bow harps]], harps, and lyres.<ref name=Dumbrillp179/> In turn, this led to being able to play [[Dyad (music)|dyads]] and [[chord (music)|chords]].<ref name=Dumbrillp179/> Another innovation occurred when the bow harp was straightened out and a [[Bridge (instrument)|bridge]] used to lift the strings off the [[Neck (music)|stick-neck]], creating the lute.<ref>{{harvnb|Dumbrill|1998|pp=308–310}}</ref>
 
Musical bows are still used in a number of cultures today. It can be found as far south as [[Eswatini]], and as far east as eastern Africa, [[Madagascar]], and [[Réunion]]. and also outside of Africa, as in the case of [[berimbau]], [[malunga]] (derivations of the African musical bow) or the [[Appalachian mouth-bow]].