Exploring the Facts and Folklore Surrounding Rosin
What exactly is rosin? What's the best rosin for your needs?
What does a string player really need to get down to business? An instrument. A bow. Everything else is a mere accessory. Right? Well, not quite. Without rosin to facilitate the dance between strings and hair, you're out of business: no rosin, no music. It turns out that the most humble, least expensive item in your outfit is the secret ingredient that enables the bow hair to engage the string.
Given rosin's central role, there is surprisingly little information about the stuff, aside from marketing copy. Rosin makers are as tight-lipped about their recipes as world-famous chefs, and no studies have been done on how different rosins sound or feel to the player, or even on player allergies to rosin. So how is a poor musician, peering at all the colorful little boxes and bundles in the violin shop, supposed to figure out which one to buy?
The short answer is, whichever one works for you. Some musicians perceive significant differences among rosins, while others are simply not picky. Ultimately, each player's experience is subjective and preferences are highly personal.
"In general, any of the major brands are good," notes Norman Pickering, a giant in the world of violin acoustics. The rosins that work best break up into tiny particles, coating the hair with a thin, uniform coating. "Small particles stick to hair better. It's the larger ones that fly all over the instrument and do no good at the string."
Pickering, who is also a violist, finds the difference in physical action among the major brands to be negligible.
According to Pickering, and many others in the violin business, most people use far too much rosin. "Ninety-nine percent of the rosin falls on top of your instrument. So I use very little," says Fan Tao, a violinist and head of research and development for D'Addario Strings. An avid player, Tao has barely scratched the surface of a rosin cake he started nine years ago and has never needed to have his violin cleaned.
While it's crucial to use enough rosin, over-rosining to get a better grip or improve the tone often has the opposite effect. Bow maker Michael Vann is fond of the following demonstration. He asks a violinist to play for him, perhaps a passage of Bach, and then asks to see the bow. He removes much of the rosin with a soft, clean cloth, and then asks to hear the same passage. Says Vann, the player is always surprised at the bigger, more beautiful tone that ensues with less rosin. He also points out that vigorous rosining, rather than working rosin into the hair, actually melts rosin into a glassy coating on the hair.
What Rosin's Made Of
The main ingredient in instrument rosin is a hard, friable resin distilled from tree sap, usually pine. Larch, fir, and spruce work, but are less prolific, so their resins are more expensive. According to the rosin maker Petz, sap collected early in the spring makes a lighter-colored resin while sap collected later in the year yields the darker stuff. Some dark rosins, however, have color added.
Rosin formulas frequently do include other ingredients, but this is where the information trail abruptly ends. Aside from whatever ingredient is touted in the marketing copy, rosin makers remain mum about their formulas.
One of the best-advertised additives is gold. Many players swear by its ability to produce a warm tone. Asked his opinion of metallic rosins, longtime violin dealer David Kerr of Portland, Oregon, says, "Personally I think metals do nothing to enhance performance and metal dust, I am sure, is bad for varnish.
"Just think what you are doing when you try to wipe the rosin off your violin."
"Pure rosin is all that is needed for good bow adhesion, but is slow to apply," Pickering says. "Additives like beeswax and pitch help [with application], but do not improve the quality of the rosin."
Bow maker and violist Stephen Salchow, of Salchow and Sons in New York, adds that wax will make rosin stickier, a characteristic often appreciated by bassists, who do require more rosin than violinists.
Salchow rosin, developed by Stephen's father, bow maker and cellist William Salchow, is one of the simplest on the market. Resins for their light and dark varieties come from different trees in two different countries. The light resin is simply heated and poured into molds, while the dark has some additional color dissolved in turpentine.
Stephen Salchow doesn't notice much of a difference between the two.
Exceptions to the "rules"
Opinions, advice, and conventional wisdom about rosin abound. But for every rule of thumb, it's easy to find a ready exception to the rule. The differences between light and dark rosins are most commonly discussed among players.
Light is reputed to be harder, less prone to melting, and preferable for treble instruments. Dark is supposed to be softer, more likely to melt, and better at "grabbing." But you can't tell by color alone. Some dark rosins are really light rosins that have had color added, and other ingredients can be contributing to the experience of how the rosin sounds or feels.
Musicians are sometimes advised to use rosins designed specifically for their instruments or climate. Liebenzeller rosin is sold in six gradations of hardness for specific instruments, but Jade rosin comes in just two grades: bass, and everything else. In general, bassists are known for liking dark, sticky rosins, but Salchow was surprised to meet a Japanese bassist living in Germany who uses only Salchow Light, the antithesis of a "bass rosin."
As for the concept of seasonal rosins, Salchow points out that the weather conditions are quite extreme in his native New York City, but he has never noticed a need to change rosins seasonally. Bow maker (and bassist) Peg Baumgartel "starts" freshly haired bows with a medium rosin, neither light nor dark. "It works well in either humid or dry," she says, "or hot or cold climates."
Some players are extremely concerned about mixing rosins, says Julie McKenzie of Johnson String Instruments in Newton, Massachusetts. She has had clients who won't draw a bow on a string that has a second type of rosin on it. Others borrow or try out rosins with impunity.
Baumgartel has found one case in which mixing doesn't match: "It has been my experience that when a metallic rosin, such as 'gold,' is mixed with other nonmetallic rosins, bow hair can become slippery feeling."
While many knowledgeable musicians aren't picky about rosin, some players are simply more sensitive to differences. "I have noticed that different rosins can completely change the sound of instruments," says Baumgartel, who warns not to try out too many different types of rosin at once. "Too many different rosins loaded into the same hair can cause problems, such as a gritty sound with a lot of surface noise."
Instead, she suggests experimenting slowly, taking time to evaluate the differences, and keeping a log of your impression
This article, "Exploring the Facts and Folklore Surrounding Rosin," is part of the Strings Archive, which you can access with a paid site subscription.
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