Gezogen

As Printed on a Score

Printed over string parts, alone or as lang gezogen or breit gezogen, to ask for sustained, drawn bow strokes; it holds until a contrasting bowing word (kurz, gestrichen) or the passage ends. Elsewhere it can mean drawn out in time.

How Composers Use It

Bruckner uses it often in string writing to mean full, sustained bows that carry the line, often set against short strokes (kurz). It is a bowing and tone instruction more than a tempo word; to slow the music, use gedehnt or breiter. Make the contrast explicit with an opposing word when the strokes should change.

Example

Bruckner, Symphony No. 5 in B-flat major, second movement (Adagio), first violins, m. 49: “gezogen”, with “kurz” two bars later.

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