A loose wrist only in fiddling?

Fiddlers profess the importance of the loose wrist movement. Some of the finest fiddlers have explained to me how different fiddle bowing is from bowing by violinists. They emphasize that in order to play a good sound fiddle tune, it is imperative to have a loose wrist. It has come to their attention that violinists, on the whole, do not use that technique. To me this is a very interesting observation.

In order to use the circular bow movement, as tends to be the norm among Baroque musicians, one cannot ignore the wrist. The wrist in these strokes will have to be loose. The intense use of the lower part of the bow and the fast, crisp passages in Baroque music invite a loose wrist. A typical 16^th note phrase with repeated string changes - as one can find for instance in the music of Johann Sebastian Bach and Antonio Vivaldi - loses its character, intensity and speed if they are executed solely with the arm. One can imagine a frantic arm-waving violinist, who may well be in trouble. Good violin technique involves the use of a loose wrist. However, the wrist is not the power source but rather the conductor of power driven by the arm. Violinists use the arm to support a full and varied sound. Therefore the use of the wrist is integrated in the total bowing technique of any good violinist. The use of the wrist is really dependent on the music itself and the style of music.

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