Violin Making

Vincenzo Trusiano Panormo is usually considered to be one of the finest violinmakers of the second half of the 18th century. However, much of what has been written on his early life is not based on any documentary evidence. This paper reveals new documentary findings concerning the biography of this important instrument maker and on other members of the Panormo family in Italy.

A collection of historical violins, Stradivari, Guarneri, Amati, Vuillaume, carries decorated, engraved or carved accessories.
  Pegs and tailpieces, engraved or carved, have existed since the 16th century.
How does the history of techniques since the Renaissance explain the realization of these finely turned and sculpted pieces?
An iconographic database was produced to try to understand the origin of this fashion of Napoleonic fittings.

The house of Mario Maggi, violin teacher at the School of Violin Making in Cremona, welcomes an important correspondence and an extraordinary collection of musical instruments. The teacher collaborated, since the years of the war for the entire second half of the '900, to the collection of ancient documents and reproductions, reconstructions of musical instruments of Baroque and Renaissance. His is the discovery of the fundamental similarities between the paintings of the early '500 (period of the birth of Andrea Amati) attributed to Campi or Altobello Melone in San'Abbondio and St. Maria Maddalena. 4-string instruments with peaks can be related to the "violets Lanfranco" or with  geigen of Virdung and Agricola and appear as violins archaic precursors of the Renaissance violin.

La storia del violino realizzato nel 1728 da Antonio Stradivari e dai figli Francesco ed Omobono, in uso a Giovanni Battista Viotti e poi ceduto nel 1794 a Domenico Dragonetti (che lo lascia in prestito anche a Niccolò Paganini) e da quest'ultimo legato alla sua morte, avvenuta nel 1846, alla violinista diciannovenne Teresa Milanollo. Il violino porta il nome di «Dragonetti-Milanollo» dai suoli due principali proprietari.

While I was extensively studying the forgotten lutherie style represented in many Dutch paintings from the era between 1620 and 1640, the plan arose to make a reconstruction, not only on paper but also for real. The result is now part of the permanent exhibition in the "Museum Vleeshuis" in Antwerp to illustrate the kind of violins used by minstrels in the16th and 17th century cities of the Low Countries.

La primera parte está dedicada a la historia inicial del violín, es decir a la historia anterior a la constitución como tal de ese instrumento. La presencia de esa parte en mi trabajo se explica porque considero preciso ubicar a Stradivari como un eslabón, por cierto fundamental, en la gran cadena que constituye la evolución de los instrumentos de cuerdas* y arco* en Occidente.
La segunda parte pretende dar un panorama general de la época de Antonio Stradivari. En ella se habla tanto de historia como de arte. Algunos capítulos de esa sección dan comienzo en el año 1500 y otros en el 1600, dependiendo de la importancia de cada caso en función del tema central. Aun cuando Stradivari nace a mediados del siglo XVII, he querido iniciar esta parte antes de ese momento para establecer las
bases, sobre todo histórico-políticas, que hicieron posible el mundo de ese gran laudero.
La tercera parte está enfocada a la historia del violín, ya propiamente dicho, y de la laudería clásica italiana. Para muchos, el periodo de la laudería clásica italiana está
comprendido entre c1600 y 1750. Yo me permití ubicarlo entre 1539 y 1762, es decir entre la fecha del establecimiento de Andrea Amati en Cremona y la muerte de Pietro Guarneri de Venecia. Pero para los propósitos de la presente investigación, en la que se intenta expresar sólo los acontecimientos que pudieron haber influido en el devenir de la obra de Antonio Stradivari, esta parte se ve concluida en 1737, año de la muerte de nuestro laudero. También en esta sección se presenta un panorama general de la laudería que se hacía fuera de Italia en los tiempos de Stradivari.
La cuarta parte está dedicada a hacer un recuento biográfico de Antonio Stradivari y la quinta a la exposición de su obra. A pesar de todo lo que se ha escrito sobre ese gran liutaio, aún queda mucho por investigar, principalmente en lo relativo a
ciertos aspectos de su vida, como puede ser la fecha de su nacimiento, por ejemplo.
Una investigación que intentara arrojar datos no publicados sobre la vida de ese maestro cremonés debería estar basada principalmente en documentos de archivo, tanto de Cremona como de otras ciudades europeas, y ése no es obviamente el caso de esta tesis.
En la sexta parte, la de las conclusiones, se intenta analizar de manera resumida cuáles fueron las condiciones que favorecieron la obra de Antonio Stradivari, en el campo de la historia del violín, de la historia del periodo (política, económica y cultural), del entorno geográfico de Cremona, del ambiente musical, de la historia de la laudería de esa época, así como de la historia personal de Stradivarius y de sus cualidades como laudero.
Por último, este trabajo cuenta con tres apéndices, sobre el devenir de la figura de Stradivari después de su muerte, sobre nomenclaturas de las partes del violín que utilizaba ese maestro laudero y sobre los acontecimientos más importantes de la época de Stradivarius (tanto en el plano histórico-político como en el de la cultura, expresados en un cuadro sinóptico). También aparece al final un glosario de las partes de instrumentos que son mencionadas en esta tesis.

This is a scholarly article, but at the same time a plea for an urgent rewrite of the early history of the violin, this time unhampered by prejudice and entrenched ideas. To me, this is symbolic of the world we are now fighting for: a world where truth is sought in freedom, especially when it is threatened by arguments of authority and ingrained norms.

Traduzione in italiano dell'articolo di Stewart Pollens "Some Misconceptions about the Baroque Violin" scritto per Performance Practice Review e consultabile su http://scholarship.claremont.edu/ppr/vol14/iss1/6/

Molto è stato scritto riguardo al violino barocco, eppure restano molte le convinzioni errate – in particolare che fino al 1750 i manici fossero sempre più corti e non inclinati indietro come lo sono oggi, che l’angolo delle corde al ponticello fosse notevolmente più piatto, e che le corde fossero di calibri inferiori e sottoposte a minor tensione.

In a long term research on cello tailpieces, we have first identified the vibrating modes of a cello tailpiece mount-ed on a Dead Rig [1], and have worked on the possible influence of the wood on these modes. Among musicians and violin makers, several empirical theories exist about an ideal “after-length”, i.e. the distance of the tailpiece to the bridge which leaves a small length of vibrating  string. Here we describe on the parameters involved when varying the “after-length”, and explore the influ-ence of the position of the tailpiece on the modes and on the sound

A collection of historical violins, Stradivari, Guarneri, Amati, Vuillaume, carries decorated, engraved or carved accessories.
  Pegs and tailpieces, engraved or carved, have existed since the 16th century.
How does the history of techniques since the Renaissance explain the realization of these finely turned and sculpted pieces?
An iconographic database was produced to try to understand the origin of this fashion of Napoleonic fittings.

The majority of historical violins have been in continuous use since the time of their creation. As a consequence, they have repeatedly been modified over time. Stringed instruments that have been put aside and unaltered for a long time are extremely rare.
The intention of rendering historical collection instruments playable inevitably implies certain interventions such as setting up a sound post, bridge and strings, readjusting tuning pegs or re- gluing loose parts. A thorough understanding of the impact of such interventions on the material integrity is essential for the discussion of whether to play a historical stringed instrument. The aim of this paper is to present criteria for the evaluation of the invasiveness of restoration interventions to playing order from a material technological point of view.
The discussion is based on recent treatments of two Italian violins from the 18th century: one from the workshop of Antonio Stradivari dated 1708 (Ex-Davidoff), belonging to the collection of the Musée de la musique in Paris, the other from the workshop of Giovanni Battista Gabbrielli, dated 1769 and belonging to a private collection. While the Stradivari violin reveals many previous modifications, the Gabbrielli instrument does not show any signs of restoration.
The contrasting states of preservation are the basis for a comparative study of the invasiveness of restoration measures. The ability to assess the purity of the original materials and detecting potential contamination is crucial for material analytical studies. The discussion further emphasises how the ongoing development of
scientific investigation methods must be taken into account when assessing the information contained in the materiality of musical instruments.

This study is intended for luthiers and musicians curious about a choice of tailpiece, it is an introduction to the contribution of the tailpiece in the overall tone of the instrument, here deliberately limited to the material.
It seeks to establish a link between the perceived sonority, an eminently subjective quality, and the acoustic and modal properties of this intermediate accessory, common to all the instruments of the quartet.

Cremona è universalmente riconosciuta come la città del violino, ma ha anche una storia bimillenaria e un patrimonio culturale notevole. Un nuovo, valido strumento di promozione dell’intero territorio parte dal segmento musicale per rileggere secondo questa chiave l’intera storia della città dalle origini al presente, geolocalizzandola in itinerari originali che hanno come soggetto personaggi, luoghi, iconografie del mondo musicale, messi in atto da professionisti della cultura secondo formule narrative di edutainment e ritagliati su misura per differenti target di pubblico.

In this article, we are reviewing some of the most famous Violin brands and will talk about great artists such Andrea Amati, Antonio Stradivari, Gasparo da Salò, Girolamo and Andrea Guarneri.

در اين مقاله مارك‌هاي مشهور ويلن در جهان مورد بررسي قرار گرفته و از نوابغي چون آندره‌آ آماتي، آنتونيو استراديواري، گاسپارو داسالو، جيرولامو، آندره گوارنري و ديگر سازند‌گان خبره دنيا، نام برده مي‌شود.

Dr. Franjo (Franz) Kresnik (born Wien 1869 - died Rijeka 1943) was an excellent physician and a Central European intellectual, a bohemian mind whose two loves in life made him very special. His passions were medicine and violin making. Most of his life was spent in Susak (now a part of Rijeka, Croatia), where he worked, played music and studied the art of making stringed instruments. He visited Cremona on several occasions and studied a number of violins, drawings and tools made and used by old masters. For his profound knowledge of Cremonese violin making the Italians dubbed him "Uomo che legge violini" (The Man Who Can Read Violins). In his workshop he made fifty-two violins, two violas, two cellos and a string quartet. Some of these instruments are still played in Europe and America. The remaining violins and possessions (tools, manuscripts, drawings, literature and countless diplomas and certificates) have been kept in a memorial room at the Maritime and History Museum of the Croatian Littoral in Rijeka. In addition, a street near the Faculty of Medicine in Rijeka is named after Franjo Kresnik.