Violin Making History

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.

This article is a translation of a study originally published in Dutch:
Wim RAYMAEKERS, De vormkenmerken van de instrumenten der vioolfamilie in de 17de-eeuwse Nederlandse schilderkunst, in Musica antiqua. Actuele informatie over oude muziek, 6, 3, 1989, p.98-105. This text is still relevant and innovative, since it widens our knowledge of archaic violins in the same way the “rediscovery” of the Alemannic school and the Freiberger violins did.
Whatever the meaning, the hidden symbolic messages or the iconographic theme of representations from the Golden Age may be, the elements with which they are composed are often so realistic that they can be studied in detail. This certainly applies to the illustrations of the instruments of the violin family. In addition to the fact that they play a remarkable role in the iconography of that time , they offer, due to their large number and their quality as a document, the possibility to study the visual characteristics of the seventeenth century violin in the Netherlands. They allow us to follow their evolution starting as early as 1620, despite the fact that no extant organological material concerning this material has come to us from well past the middle of the century. This unclarified period between about 1620 and 1660/1670 appears to be a pivotal era, because it is precisely then that the transition from "archaic" to "modern" stylistic features can be observed in Dutch iconography.

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.

…Panormo, Vincent, who is generally alluded to as Old Panormo, was born on the 30 th November, 1734, in a village named Monreale, a few miles from Palermo, in Sicily. He was endowed with much mechanical ability, and, unassisted, from sixteen years of age took delight in making various descriptions of musical instruments. The eldest son of the above-named, Francis Panormo, who attained his seventy-fourth year in 1842, has stated that his father made many descriptions of instruments; but most excelled in violins, violoncellos, double-basses, and hautboys. Vincent Panormo became a resident in several parts of Italy, France, England, and Ireland. The first time he came to England was in 1772, the second in 1789, being driven from France by the Revolution, where it is said "he was doing well". The violins, violoncellos, and double-basses of this maker are deservedly much esteemed, and valued for their pure and Italian quality of tone and appreciated by the professors on these instruments. He died in London about 1813... 3

The origin of the violin is one of the great lacunae in the history of musical instruments. The violin is the product of a long process of development, the standard form emerging in Brescia and Cremona in the third quarter of the 16th century Two important documents in the early history of the instrument are a painting of 1529 in Vercelli and the fresco of a large angel concert in the dome of the Santuario at Saronno (1534–35), which shows 56 instruments including four showing most of the basic characteristics of the violin as it was later to be standardized. The painter of these works, Guadenzio Ferrari (ca. 1481-1546), was also a sculptor and musician, and he may well have designed and built the violins he depicted. His methods of representation and purposeful departures from true perspective are discussed, as are paintings by various other artists in Western Lombardy.

This publication presents the Collection of Musical Instruments and Music Boxes held at the Department of History and Applied Arts.
The collection spans the period from the 17th century to the modern age. For the purposes of this publication we have categorised instruments according to the way they are played. Within each category we followed chronological classification as much as possible. The name of an instrument was followed by the basic standard museology data, which defines instruments in the following order: the maker of the musical instrument, the place and year of manufacture, the materials the instrument is made from, the measurements of the instrument or its parts, the signature (if present) on the instrument, details of how or from whom the instrument was obtained for the museum, the instrument’s provenance (that is, who used to play it), the name of the restoration specialist who restored it and the year of restoration, and the publications, literature, analogies, photograph and description of the instrument.
The material presented in this publication has been hidden in the museum depots for decades and as material source it is intended for use in future research.

Musical instruments in unaltered, original and good conservational condition are cherished by curators, collectors, auctioneers and marketing specialists of museums. However, a close look at historical instruments in collections reveals that many of them have undergone substantial changes during their lifetime. Modern technical methods of investigation have increased the possibilities of detecting alterations which so far had not been found by methods of e.g. style analysis or tracking the provenance. Often, when an 'oldest' or 'unique' instrument turns out to be a pasticcio, the deception is deep.

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.

Nella prima sala a destra entrando nel palazzo di Corso Sforza allora al numero 43, il noto collezionista Giuseppe Strocchi (Bologna 1855-Cotignola 1941) conservava ciò che aveva raccolto con passione e competenza nel corso della sua vita, ben 118 strumenti ad arco selezionati con cura di esperto su 1600 pezzi passati nelle sue mani. La collezione comprendeva in prevalenza violini, ma anche viole, violoncelli e contrabbassi, realizzati da liutai italiani rappresentativi delle più importanti scuole attive fra il XVI e il XIX secolo. Spiccava fra tutte l'antica scuola cremonese che costituiva la parte più preziosa della raccolta con liutai come Stradivari, Amati, Guarnieri del Gesù, per citare solo alcuni dei nomi più noti. Ogni pezzo era debitamente catalogato e recava due cartellini incollati, uno color azzurro ed uno color sep -

Durante los reinados de Carlos III y sobre todo de su hijo Carlos IV se produjo un auge de la actividad musical en la Corte española coincidiendo con la creación de la Real Cámara, y así ha quedado reflejado en la contabilidad del Palacio Real, a través de la cual se pueden reconstruir diversos aspectos de la vida musical española, así como conocer la composición de la colección de instrumentos y su proceso de formación a lo largo de la vida de Carlos IV. A pesar de la escasa importancia que se le ha dado a este hecho a lo largo de los siglos, la figura del luthier es indispensable para la conservación de los mismos, ya que es necesario que los instrumentos se revisen periódicamente con el fin de que prevalezca su estado y sonoridad. El haber hallado un gran número de personas al servicio de la Real Cámara como reparadores de los mismos denota que estos instrumentos tuvieron una vida musical activa, hecho que nos lleva a preguntarnos cuáles fueron las reparaciones necesarias para que cada uno de ellos mantuviera las características sonoras más favorables y si estos arreglos fueron desarrollados de manera adecuada.

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.

Through detailed examination of documents pertaining to the Erat harp manufactory in London (1797London ( -1858, chiefly those from the period 1821-26, this article reassesses the richness of decoration and diversity of colour schemes of the late Georgian harp. The main decorative phases, directly influenced by archaeological discovery and architecture, are well documented, and model names, such as Grecian and Gothic, derive from historical periods. Newly discovered documents provide information about the tools, materials and artists of the Erat manufactory, from which it is possible to trace trends in colour, gilt finish and ornamentation. Accounts detail the purchase of paints, varnishes, gilding and finishing materials, illuminating decorative tastes during the closing years of the Georgian era. In this article the sales of the Erat company, trends in paint colour, gilt type and ornamentation are quantified revealing a surprisingly wide decorative palette; unfortunately, this wide range of paint finishes is not fully represented among surviving Erat harps. Purchases of pigment and gold leaf are examined for the first time. Through inventories compiled in 1821 and 1824, harps in various states of finish, and their corresponding values, are revealed. The influences of interior decoration on the harp, in particular that inspired by the classical revival of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, are discussed.

Questo bellissimo violone in legno di noce fu attribuito da Giuseppe Strocchi e dal liutaio Gaetano Sgarabotto a Gasparo Bertolotti detto da Salò (1540-1609). Esso possiede un'asta sormontata da una magni ca testa di grifo che per la maestria d'esecuzione è ritenuta con una certa sicurezza opera del suo allievo Giovanni Paolo Maggini (1580-1630). Si tratta di un pezzo proveniente dalla collezione Strocchi, iniziata nel 1866 e selezionata su 1600 strumenti acquistati dall'appassionato conoscitore di Cotignola. Nel 1937 essa consisteva in 118 esemplari di liuteria e fu considerata dagli esperti del tempo la raccolta più importante per l'aspetto storico-artistico. Si tratta dell'unico esemplare superstite della collezione Strocchi. Morto il proprietario nel 1941, essa infatti fu trafugata dalle truppe naziste durante gli eventi dell'ultimo con itto mondiale. A nulla era valsa l'opera di salvataggio tentata da Varoli, nel trasferire tutti gli strumenti dal palazzo Strocchi alla villa di famiglia in campagna. Non è noto comunque per quali vie lo strumento che oggi è custodito nella sua casa-studio vi sia pervenuto. I pezzi più importanti, oltre 40 fra violini e violoncelli, sono tuttora catalogati fra le opere da recuperare nel repertorio del patrimonio artistico disperso all'epoca della seconda guerra mondiale.

Le violoncelle a été créé à la fin du XVIIe siècle pour remplacer la Basse de violon lorsque les cordes filées, plus lourdes, ont permis de raccourcir la longueur vibrante, tout en gardant la même tessiture. Cette transformation se situe dans les débuts de la carrière de Stradivarius, et l'on ne lui connait pas de basse de violon, tandis que ses modèles de violoncelle montrent qu'il a participé aux innovations le concernant. Quatre cordiers conservés au Musée de la musique ont été étudiés et des prototypes ont été fabriqués pour étudier les différences de comportement vibratoire de trois modèles. Cette recherche fait suite à cinq ans de recherche sur les comportements acoustiques du cordier de violoncelle, dans le but d'éclaircir certaines questions soulevées par les réglages.

In a long term study of cello tailpieces, we have first identified the vibrating modes of a cello tailpiece mounted on a dead rig [1], and have worked on the possible influence of the wood on theses modes [2]. The influence of the position of the tailpiece on the modes and on the sound has also been explored, by varying the “after-length”, i.e. the distance of the tailpiece to the bridge which leaves a small length of vibrating string. Here, our study takes a more historical path to identify the trends and theories on this “after-length”, and the changes in the history of the cello. Then the few texts of the 19
th
century mentioning its role on the sound of the cello will be studied. A synthesis will be tempted on the effect of setting-up the tailpiece: modal analysis results on the acoustics of the tailpiece and historical research lead us to understand a change in production in the violin trade

Une collection de violons historiques, de Stradivari, Guarneri, Amati, Vuillaume,  porte des accessoires décorés, gravés ou sculptés.
  Chevilles et cordiers, gravés ou sculptés, existent depuis le XVIème siècle. Comment l’histoire des techniques depuis la Renaissance, explique-t-elle la réalisation de ces pièces finement tournées et sculptées ?
Une base de données iconographique a été réalisée pour tenter de comprendre l’origine de cette mode des « Napoleonic fittings ».

Rad donosi dosad neistraženu povijest obrtničko-glazbeničke obitelji Weiser njezinog dolaska iz Šleske u Zagreb na prijelazu iz 18. u 19. stoljeće. Prate se tri generacije istaknutih članova, od razdoblja obrtničkih cehovskih udruženja vezanih uz najstarijeg predstavnika stolara Antuna Weisera Starijeg, preko povijesti radionice zaboravljenog glazbalara i cijenjenog graditelja tambura Ivana Weisera Starijeg, do kratkog prikaza iznimne glazbeničke karijere violinistice Ludmille Weiser. Uz nikad objavljene biografije Weiserovih donose se i mnoge nove spoznaje o tamburi kao tradicijskom glazbalu koje je pod utjecajem hrvatskog narodnog preporoda doživjelo procvat i potpunu preobrazbu iz manufakturnog u vrijedan obrtnički proizvod. UVOD Povijest zagrebačke obrtničko-glazbeničke obitelji Weiser ostala je do današnjeg dana neistražena. Kratko sam o Ivanu i Ludmilli Weiser već pisao u radu o Trgovini glazbala " Tomay i Tkalčić " (Jeić 2010: 140-141). Obzirom da se radi o obitelji koja je od iznimne važnosti za glazbenu i privrednu kulturu grada Zagreba odlučio sam se posvetiti dubljem istraživanju. Moram napomenuti da nisam imao pomoći iz znanstvenih izvora jer je područje gradnje glazbala (pogotovo kordofonih) u Hrvatskoj nedovoljno istraženo. O Ivanu Weiseru, kao o prvom ili barem jednom od prvih graditelja kvalitetnih tambura koje su se

As early as the 17th century, lute and violin varnishes were (unlike varnishes on furniture and paintings) regarded as an integral part of the original instruments, hence worthy of preservation. As a result, most old violins retain at least part of their original varnish.
In recent years multidisciplinary scientific investigations on a large group of instruments have obtained significant new findings. A complementary array of analytical tools (such as light microscopy, infrared spectroscopy as well as gas and liquidchromatography) was applied to determine the structure and the chemical composition of the coats. The results provide new information on the materials that were used by the Masters, with a detailed characterization of the stratigraphy of the coatings. These natural scientific findings allow recognition of distinctive varnishes from diverse lutherie centre.
A two-layer system has been generally established: a ground layer that fills the upper wood cells, and the actual varnish. Italian instruments, from 16th- century lutes to Stradivari violins, reveal an oil- resin-based ground. Instruments from north of the Alps generally show a glue-based ground. Mineral particles have been largely ruled out as main constituents of the ground layer. The actual varnish consists, before the mid-18th century, fundamentally of mixtures of drying oil and resins of the pine family. From a chemical perspective, the main differences among historical instrument varnishes (except the ground layer) reside in the colouring system. While Italian Renaissance lute makers and early luthiers from the north of the Alps coloured their red varnishes with soluble colourants or highly heated resins, Cremonese and Venetians luthiers of the 17th and 18th centuries used very fine crimson lake pigments mixed with inorganic red pigments.
The possibilities and limits of the scientific characterization of varnishes for the identification of historical stringed instruments will be discussed.