Brief excitement over ancient statesman bowing in a certain way (8)
I believe the answer is:
spiccato
'brief excitement' is the definition.
The definition suggests a singular noun which matches the answer.
'ancient statesman bowing in a certain way' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'statesman' could be 'cato' (I've seen this before) and 'cato' is located in the answer.
'way' could be 's' (Compass direction - South) and 's' is found within the answer.
The remaining letters 'pic' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
'over' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Another definition for spiccato that I've seen is " instruction to violinists".)