:: Art of the Bow with François Rabbath ::

Michael Fanelli wrote an in-depth enthusiastic review of the Art of the Bow in the November, 2006 issue of the American String Teacher (Vl. 56, No. 4, pg. 112). He concludes:
“The Art of the Bow is one of the most important treatises and state-of-the-art instructional audiovisual tools we have available in 2006 both for the studio and classroom. The scholarship and pedagogical theories rank with the works of Galamian, Flesch, Dounis, and Rolland. One waits in anticipation for the Art of the Left Hand.”

In this major new DVD presentation the formidable bowing technique of Francois
Rabbath is exhaustively analysed using state-of-the-art video game technology
alongside more conventional methods. In employing the talents of Ball State
University’s Biomechanics Lab, producer and director Hans Sturm takes advantage
of technology previously used to perfect Tiger Woods’ golf swing.

Read the DVD Review from Double Bassist Magazine (PDF)

Read the DVD Review from Bass Player Magazine (PDF)

Read the DVD Review from Bass World Magazine (PDF)

Read the “La revue de la Basse et de la Contrebasse” article (PDF)

Read the Bass World Magazine article (PDF)

Video game technology captures bass virtuoso’s bow technique (PDF)

Among Francois Rabbath’s many current projects is a DVD entitled “Art of the Bow”. Working in conjunction with Professor Hans Sturm at Ball State University, Indiana, US, the project [video taped] Rabbath playing from four different angles. With a DVD’s controls, viewers can slow down playback of these recordings to observe Rabbath’s actions scene by scene.

Sturm and his team also used high speed motion capture tools to [analyze] the movement of Rabbath’s bowing arm, employing the same technology used in video games and films such as the Matrix. In the University’s Biomechanics Lab, the team attached a series of lighted points to Rabbath and used 200 frames-per-second high speed cameras to record his movements. As a result, the University has been able to show in depth the subtleties of seven different families of bow stroke using a series of computer generated animations. The work was devised as a joint project between the departments of Music Performance, Music Engineering, Biomechanics and the Human Performance Laboratory at Ball State.

After viewing a prototype of the project, Rabbath agreed to take part and completed his role in the work in early June 2004. By this stage, the project had amassed 8 hours of video footage, 35 biomechanical trials, 2.5 hours of interviews and live concert footage, plus a collection of still photographs.

- Patrick Neher
Double Bassist Magazine, Autumn 2004