Italian violin makers. Italian violin makers Lesser known Italian violin makers

Perhaps no other instrument has glorified its creator as much as the violin. The phrase "Stradivarius violin" has already become a household word. However, one should not forget that in addition to Stradivari, there were other great masters who took their place in the history of this wonderful instrument.

Some of the earliest violin makers were Gasparo Bertolotti (or "da Salo") (c. 1542–1609) and Giovanni Paolo Magini (c. 1580–1632) from Brescia in northern Italy. But still the glory of the world violin capital rightfully belongs to Cremona. It was in this city that the masters Amati, Stradivari and Guarneri worked.

Amati

The first were members of the Amati family. Andrea Amati (c. 1520 - c. 1580) was the founder of the dynasty. His teachers are unknown. Andrea, along with Bertolotti and Magini, made the first violins, which differed from the later samples taken as the standard. There is also documentary evidence of the existence of violins, which were used 30 years (and maybe even earlier) before the appearance of the first instruments known to us by Andrea Amati, dating back to 1564. The most famous member of the Amati family was Nicolò Amati (1596–1684). He brought the type of violin developed by his predecessors to perfection. In some large format violins (364-365 mm), the so-called Grand Amati, he enhanced the sound while maintaining the softness and tenderness of the timbre. With the elegance of form, his instruments make a more monumental impression than the work of his predecessors. The varnish is golden yellow with a slight brown tint, sometimes red. Also, he went down in history as a teacher of Antonio Stradivari. But after his death, the workshop was closed, and the Amati violin school disappeared.

Amati violin

Stradivarius

Antonio Stradivari (c. 1644–1737) is the most famous violin maker whose over 1100 instruments (over 600 of which are known today) are considered the pinnacle of violin craftsmanship of all time. Almost the entire life of the master was devoted to the improvement of his art and the manufacture of magnificent instruments that covered his name with unfading glory. As a student of Amati, he long sought to create a violin that sounds the same as the violin of his teacher. Having achieved this sound, he went further and created his own design of violins. He paid much attention to the varnish covering the violin. The voices of his violins are like a sonorous gentle female voice, the voice of a girl singing in Cremona Square. Unfortunately, his sons could not adopt the gift and knowledge of their father.

violin Stradivarius

Guarneri

The third place in the great triumvirate of the Cremonese is occupied by the Guarneri family. The oldest of the masters of this family, Andrea Guarneri, studied with Nicolo Amati, but did not achieve much success. The most famous representative was Giuseppe Guarneri (or Giuseppe del Gesu) (1698-1744), who made instruments with a strong personality and strong sound. His violins were in no way inferior, and perhaps even superior to the Stradivari violins. The voice of his violins is much warmer and richer. It was on the Guarneri violin that the famous violinist Niccolò Paganini played.

violin Guarneri

By 1750 the glorious violin-making period was over, although Germany, France, England and other countries, as well as Italy, continued to make violins.

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Italian violin makers created such wonderful musical instruments that they are still considered the best, despite the fact that many new technologies for their manufacture have appeared in our century. Many of them are still in excellent condition, and today they are played by the most famous and best performers in the world.

A. Stradivarius

The most famous and master of affairs is Antonio Stradivari, who was born and lived all his life in Cremona. To date, approximately seven hundred instruments made by him have been preserved in the world. Antonio's teacher was the equally famous master Nicolo Amati.

The exact date of birth of A. Stradivari is unknown. After learning from N. Amati, he opened his workshop and surpassed his teacher. Antonio improved the violins created by Nicolò. He achieved a more melodious and flexible voice of the instruments, made a more curved shape, decorated them. A. Stradivari, in addition to violins, created violas, guitars, cellos and harps (at least one). The great master's students were his sons, but they failed to repeat the success of their father. It is believed that he did not pass on the secret of the magnificent sound of his violins even to his sons, so it has not been unraveled until now.

Amati family

The Amati family are violin makers from an ancient Italian family. They lived in the ancient city of Cremona. Founded the Andrea dynasty. He was the first violin maker in the family. The exact date of his birth is unknown. In 1530, he and his brother Antonio opened a workshop for making violins, violas and cellos. They developed their own technologies and created modern type instruments. Andrea made sure that his instruments sounded silvery, gentle, clear and clean. At the age of 26, A. Amati became famous. The master taught his work to his sons.

The most famous string maker in the family was Andrea Amati's grandson Nicolo. He perfected the sound and shape of the instruments his grandfather made. Nicolo increased the size, reduced the bulges on the decks, made the sides larger and the waist thinner. He also changed the composition of the lacquer, which made it transparent and gave it shades of bronze and gold.

He was the founder of a school for violin makers. Many famous manufacturers were his students.

The Guarneri family

Violin makers from this dynasty also resided in Cremona. Andrea Guarneri was the first violin maker in the family. Like A. Stradivari, he was a student of Nicolo Amati. Since 1641, Andrea lived in his house, worked as an apprentice and for this he received the necessary knowledge for free. He left the house of Nikolo in 1654, after he got married. Soon A. Guarneri opened his workshop. The master had four children - a daughter and three sons - Pietro, Giuseppe and Eusebio Amati. The first two followed in the footsteps of their father. Eusebio Amati was named after his father's great teacher and was his godson. But, despite such a name, he was the only one of the children of A. Guarneri who did not become a violin maker. The most famous in the family is Giuseppe. He surpassed his father. The violins of the Guarneri dynasty were not as popular as the instruments of A. Stradivari and the Amati family. The demand for them was due to not very expensive cost and Cremonese origin - which was prestigious.

Now there are approximately 250 instruments made in the workshop of Guarneri in the world.

Lesser-Known Italian Violinmakers

There were also other violin makers in Italy. But they are less known. And their tools are valued less than those created by the great masters.

Gasparo da Salo (Bertolotti) is the main rival of Andrea Amati, who challenged the right of the founder of the famous dynasty to be considered the inventor of modern violins. He also created double basses, violas, cellos and so on. Very few of the instruments he created have survived to this day, no more than a dozen.

Giovanni Magini is a student of G. da Salo. First, he copied the tools of the mentor, then improved his work, relying on the achievements of the Cremonese masters. His violins have a very soft sound.

Francesco Ruggieri is a student of N. Amati. His violins are valued no less than the instruments of his mentor. Francesco invented small violins.

J. Steiner

An outstanding German violin maker - Jakob Steiner. He was ahead of his time. During his lifetime, he was considered the best. The violins he created were of greater value than those made by A. Stradivari. Jacob's teacher, presumably, was the Italian violin maker A. Amati, since his works trace the style in which the representatives of this great dynasty worked. The identity of J. Steiner remains mysterious to this day. There are many secrets in his biography. Nothing is known about when and where he was born, who his mother and father were, what family he came from. But his education was excellent, he spoke several languages ​​- Latin and Italian.

It is assumed that Jacob studied with N. Amati for seven years. After that, he returned to his homeland and opened his workshop. Soon the Archduke appointed him court master and gave him a good salary.

Jakob Steiner's violins were different from others. Her deck arch was steeper, which made it possible to increase the volume inside the instrument. The neck, instead of the usual curls, was crowned with lion heads. The sound of his products was different from the Italian samples, it was unique, clearer and higher. The resonator hole had the shape of a star. Varnish and primer he used Italian.

Names for eternity
In the 16th and 17th centuries, large schools of violin makers developed in several European countries. The representatives of the Italian violin school were the famous Amati, Guarneri and Stradivari families from Cremona.
Cremona
The city of Cremona is located in Northern Italy, in Lombardy, on the left bank of the Po River. Since the 10th century, this city has been known as a center for the production of pianos and bowed strings. Cremona officially bears the title of world capital of the production of stringed musical instruments. Nowadays, more than a hundred violin makers work in Cremona, and their products are highly appreciated by professionals. In 1937, on the bicentenary of the death of Stradivarius, a violin-making school, now widely known, was founded in the city. It has 500 students from all over the world.

Panorama of Cremona 1782

Cremona has many historical buildings and architectural monuments, but the Stradivarius Museum is perhaps the most interesting attraction of Cremona. The Museum has three departments dedicated to the history of violin making. The first one is dedicated to Stradivari himself: some of his violins are kept here, samples of paper and wood with which the master worked are exhibited. The second section contains works by other violin makers: violins, cellos, double basses made in the 20th century. The third section tells about the process of making stringed instruments.

The outstanding Italian composer Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643) and the famous Italian stone carver Giovanni Beltrami (1779-1854) were born in Cremona. But most of all Cremona was glorified by the violin makers Amati, Guarneri and Stradivari.
Unfortunately, while working for the benefit of mankind, the great violin makers did not leave behind their own images, and we, their descendants, do not have the opportunity to see their appearance.

Amati

Amati (ital. Amati) - a family of Italian masters of bowed instruments from the ancient Cremonese family of Amati. The mention of the name Amati is found in the annals of Cremona as early as 1097. The founder of the Amati dynasty, Andrea, was born around 1520, lived and worked in Cremona and died there around 1580.
Violin making was also done by two famous contemporary Andrea - masters from the city of Brescia - Gasparo da Salo and Giovanni Magini. The Breshan school was the only one that could compete with the famous Cremonese school.

From 1530, Andrea, together with his brother Antonio, opened his own workshop in Cremona, where they began to make violas, cellos and violins. The earliest tool that has come down to us is dated 1546. He still retains some features of the Breschan school. Starting from the traditions and technology of making stringed instruments (viols and lutes), Amati was the first among his fellow workers to create a violin of the modern type.

Amati created violins in two sizes - a large (grand Amati) - 35.5 cm in length and a smaller one - 35.2 cm.
The violins were with low sides and a fairly high vault of soundboards. The head is large, skillfully carved. Andrea was the first to determine the choice of wood characteristic of the Cremonese school: maple (lower decks, sides, head), spruce or fir (top decks). On cellos and double basses, the bottom soundboards were sometimes made of pear and plane tree.

Having achieved a clear, silvery, delicate (but not strong enough) sound, Andrea Amati raised the importance of the profession of a violin maker. The classical type of violin he created (the outlines of the model, the processing of the vaults of the decks) remained basically unchanged. All subsequent improvements made by other masters mainly concerned the power of sound.

At twenty-six, the talented violin maker Andrea Amati had already "made" a name for himself and put it on the labels attached to the instruments. The rumor about the Italian master quickly spread throughout Europe and reached France. King Charles IX invited Andrea to his place and ordered him to make violins for the court ensemble "24 Violins of the King". Andrea made 38 instruments, including treble and tenor violins. Some of them have survived.

Andrea Amati had two sons - Andrea-Antonio and Girolamo. Both grew up in their father's workshop, were partners of their father all their lives and were probably the most famous violin makers of their time.
The instruments made by the sons of Andrea Amati were even more elegant than those of their father, and the sound of their violins was even more gentle. The brothers enlarged the vaults a little, began to make a recess along the edges of the decks, lengthened the corners and slightly, quite a bit, bent the efs.

Nicolo Amati

Girolamo's son Nicolo (1596-1684), Andrea's grandson, achieved particular success in making violins. Nicolò Amati created a violin designed for public performances. He brought the form and sound of his grandfather's violin to the highest perfection and adapted it to the requirements of the time.

To do this, he slightly increased the size of the body ("large model"), reduced the bulges of the decks, increased the sides and deepened the waist. He improved the tuning system of the decks, paying special attention to the impregnation of the decks. I selected wood for the violin, focusing on its acoustic properties. In addition, he ensured that the varnish covering the instrument was elastic and transparent, and the color was golden-bronze with a reddish-brown tint.

The design changes made by Nicolo Amati made the violin sound stronger and the sound spread further without losing its beauty. Nicolò Amati was the most famous of the Amati family, partly because of the sheer number of instruments he made, partly because of his illustrious name.

All of Nikolo's instruments are still prized by violinists. Nicolo Amati created a school of violin makers, among the students were his son Girolamo II (1649 - 1740), Andrea Guarneri, Antonio Stradivari, who later created their own dynasties and schools, and other students. The son of Girolamo II could not continue the work of his father, and it died out.

Guarneri.

The Guarneri are a family of Italian string instrument makers. The ancestor of the family, Andrea Guarneri, was born in 1622 (1626) in Cremona, where he lived, worked and died in 1698.
He was a student of Nicolò Amati and made his first violins in the Amati style.
Later, Andrea developed his own violin model, in which the ffs had irregular outlines, the top of the decks was flatter, and the sides were rather low. There were other features of Guarneri's violins, in particular their sound.

The sons of Andrea Guarneri - Pietro and Giuseppe - were also great masters of violin making. The elder Pietro (1655 -1720) worked first in Cremona, then in Mantua. He made instruments according to his own model (wide “chest”, convex vaults, rounded hilts, rather wide curl), but his instruments were close in manufacture and sound to his father's violins.

Andrea's second son, Giuseppe Guarneri (1666 - c. 1739), continued to work in the family workshop and tried to combine the models of Nicolò Amati and his father, but, succumbing to the strong influence of the work of his son (the famous Giuseppe (Joseph) del Gesú), began to imitate him in the development strong and masculine sound.

The eldest son of Giuseppe - Pietro Guarneri 2nd (1695-1762) worked in Venice, the youngest son - also Giuseppe (Joseph), nicknamed Guarneri del Gesu, became the largest Italian violin maker.

Guarneri del Gesu (1698-1744) created his own type of violin, designed to be played in a large concert hall. The best violins of his work are distinguished by strong voices with thick, full tones, expressiveness and variety of timbre. The first to appreciate the advantage of Guarneri del Gesù violins was Niccolò Paganini.

Violin by Guarneri del Gesu, 1740, Cremona, Inv. №31-a

Belonged to Xenia Ilyinichna Korovaeva.
Entered the State Collection in 1948.
Main dimensions:
body length - 355
top width - 160
bottom width - 203
smallest width - 108
scale - 194
neck - 131
head - 107
curl - 40.
Materials:
lower deck - from one piece of maple-sycamore semi-radial cut,
the side is made of five parts of sycamore maple, the upper deck is made of two parts of spruce.

Antonio Stradivari

Antonio Stradivari or Stradivarius is a famous master of stringed and bowed instruments. It is believed that he lived and worked in Cremona because one of his violins is stamped "1666, Cremona". The same stigma confirms that Stradivari studied with Nicolò Amati. It is also believed that he was born in 1644, although the exact date of his birth is unknown. The names of his parents are known - Alexandro Stradivari and Anna Moroni.
In Cremona, starting in 1680, Stradivarius lived in St. Dominic, where he opened a workshop in which he began to make stringed instruments - guitars, violas, cellos and, of course, violins.

Until 1684, Stradivari built small violins in the Amati style. He diligently reproduced and improved the teacher's violins, trying to find his own style. Gradually, Stradivari freed himself from the influence of Amati and created a new type of violin, differing from Amati violins in timbre richness and powerful sound.

Beginning in 1690, Stradivari began to build larger instruments than the violins of his predecessors. A typical "elongated violin" Stradivari is 363 mm long, which is 9.5 mm larger than an Amati violin. Later, the master reduced the length of the instrument to 355.5 mm, at the same time making it somewhat wider and with more arched vaults - this is how a model of unsurpassed symmetry and beauty was born, which went down in world history as the "Stradivarius violin", and covered the name of the master himself with an unfading glory.

The most outstanding instruments were made by Antonio Stradivari between 1698 and 1725. All violins of this period are remarkable for their remarkable finish and excellent sound characteristics - their voices are similar to a sonorous and gentle female voice.
Throughout his life, the master created more than a thousand violins, violas and cellos. Approximately 600 of his violins have survived to our time, some of his violins are known by their own names, for example, the Maximilian violin, which was played by our contemporary, the outstanding German violinist Michel Schwalbe - the violin was given to him for life use.

Other celebrated Stradivari violins include the Betts (1704) at the Library of Congress, the Viotti (1709), the Alard (1715), and the Messiah (1716).

In addition to violins, Stradivari made guitars, violas, cellos, and created at least one harp - more than 1,100 instruments by current count. The cellos that came out of the hands of Stradivari have a wonderful melodious tone and outward beauty.

Stradivari instruments are distinguished by a characteristic inscription in Latin: Antonius Stradivarius Cremonensis Faciebat Anno in translation - Antonio Stradivari of Cremona made in the year (such and such).
After 1730 some Stradivari instruments were signed Sotto la Desciplina d'Antonio Stradivari F. in Cremona )