Sautillé Bow Stroke
Sautillé is a bow stroke that utilizes the natural spring of the bow to bounce the bow off the string. It is not the same as controlled spiccato, even though both strokes are bouncing bow strokes and sautillé is often referred to as "spiccato". Controlled spiccato is used for slower tempos while sautillé is for fast virtuoso passages. Controlled spiccato is directly controlled with the hand and arm. Sautillé, in contrast, is a close cousin to ricochet where the bounce of the bow has a momentum of its own and the momentum is maintain by the hand and arm. There are several other technical differences between spiccato and sautillé, revealing that both bow strokes have little in common other than they both utilize a bouncing bow stroke.
Controlled Spiccato
- Shoulder as pivot joint
- Active motion in upper arm
- Wrist as pivot joint
- Active motion in hand
- Concave arc creates bounce
Sautillé
- Pivot joint elbow
- Active motion forearm
- Wrist as pivot joint
- Passive motion in hand
- Convex arc creates bounce
As you can see, about the only technical similarity between the two bow strokes is that the wrist serves as a pivot joint. Otherwise, the strokes are completely different.
