General Comments
Down-bows are not used always on beat 1; retakes are sometimes used where not necessary, or where difficult: A retake creates agogic accent by shortening preceding note. Herb Myers speculates that what we have been assuming about the weight of the down-bow on beat one may be due more to the silence before it. Consider the difference between the gigue openings of Muffat and Montéclair: both have a down-bow on beat one, but Montéclair’s is more accented of necessity because of the retake. Maybe the up- and down-bow were considered more equal than we have thought.
Another thing to point out is what might be called “liaison.” While a retake virtually ensures a small silence between the notes, the simple change of direction may be detached or it may be elided. It’s interesting that among all the examples of Muffat, Montéclair, and Dupont, there are only four instances of notated ornaments occurring on retakes: the one in m.4 of the Montéclair Sarabande, two in his Loure, and one in a Gavotte-like mvt. There are only three instances of notated ornaments on craquer bowings: all in the Dupont Minuet (All Myers’ extrapolations?). That’s why the change in the pattern in the 2nd meas., 2nd strain of the Montéclair Sarabande is so intriguing: it seems like the only reason for breaking the pattern is to provide a liaison for the port de voix…just one more thing to think about in making bowing choices.