Historic markings for bowings

• Oct 2, 2016 - 15:18

Apologies for bringing up a question that has nothing to do with Musescore. I don't know another community with this kind of knowledge and Googling got me nowhere with my problem.

Which is this: I am working on a printed edition from the 1870s (Johann Benjamin Gross: Duos for 2 cellos; you find it on IMSLP: http://imslp.org/wiki/24_Small_Easy_Cello_Duos,_Op.42_(Gross,_Johann_Be…). In there I find what looks like marcato markings. Except they make no musical sense as "marcato" in the places where they appear. Also sometimes they are upside down (the pointed top pointing downward). This way it looks rather like an up bow marking.

I am now guessing that this does indeed mean "up bow" and that the "upside up" marcato marking would then mean "down bow". Understood this way the symbols are in appropriate locations though they are very inconsistently placed.

I have however never seen this use of the symbol before. Spohr's "Violinschule"--roughly contemporary--does not use any markings, but the French terms "tiré" and "poussé". Does anybody know if I am guessing right? For the time being I am going with my guess, but I'd like to be more certain about this.

Thanks to anybody who can help!

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