François Tourte

[3] After his father's death, Tourte, in collaboration with the violin virtuoso G. B. Viotti, made important changes in the form of the bow in the Classical period between 1785 and 1790.

The final important change credited to Tourte is the screw in the frog (or nut) to moderate the tension in the hair.

He is also credited with the invention of the spreader block, which fixes the hair of the bow in a flat ribbon, and so prevents tangling.

His bows, dating from the end of the eighteenth century and the early decades of the nineteenth, had a marked effect upon the timbre of violins and upon performance practice, enabling new forms of expression and articulation to be developed, and in particular, facilitating the increased use of legato.

Some thirty documents recently discovered in French archives provide further fresh insight into this maker's life and work."