Daniel Hope launches The Bow Project

Daniel Hope has launched The Bow Project, a multi-platform documentary and online resource exploring the roots of the violin.

Hope decided to embark upon the voyage of discovery this year to mark 400 years since the first violin sonata was composed, by Giovanni Paolo Cima. So far he has travelled throughout Europe, America and his birthplace South Africa, and this year he will visit India, China and Mongolia.

The Bow Project looks back as far as a time when the bow was solely an instrument of war and reveals the relationships between the violin and its ancestors.

Hope says: ‘The evolution and migration of music has always fascinated me, it’s incredible how this instrument, or distant relatives of it, have wrapped themselves so tightly around the culture and stories of countries across the World’.

Hope’s travels throughout this year will be filmed for a documentary. The Bow Project also has its own website, on which Hope will be releasing project material regularly in order to develop an interactive ethnomusicology resource and stimulate discussion.

Hope is encouraging people to get involved, follow and help with the Project: ‘I really want this to be a global community project, there are so many people playing, listening and enjoying music played on these instruments, I want this to be the place they can come and discover more.’