Mit der Bogenstange: meaning and use in music

Mit der Bogenstange means with the bow stick: use the wooden stick rather than ordinary bow hair.

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How is mit der Bogenstange played?

Rotate or position the bow so its stick acts on the string, but read the rest of the notation before choosing the motion. Col legno battuto strikes or taps the strings for a dry percussive attack; col legno tratto draws the stick across them for a brittle, rougher sustained sound. The German phrase names the implement and should be clarified when the action is not otherwise evident.

How does mit der Bogenstange sound?

Dry, woody, or rough sound depending on the execution.

In context

Vienna Symphonic Library explicitly separates striking with the bow wood from drawing it across the string and describes their different results. Krewer’s violin-technique dissertation likewise treats col legno battuto and col legno tratto as separate techniques, while Halimi’s score legend prints c.l. and c.l.b. as Italian-derived labels. Those labels are not abbreviations of mit der Bogenstange, so the German phrase remains written out and its action remains context-dependent.

Equivalent terms

  • IT col legno
  • FR avec le bois de l’archet
  • EN with the wood of the bow
  • DA med buestangen
  • DA med buetræet
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