Gasparo da Salò

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Gasparo da Salò (May 20, 1540 - April 14, 1609) is the name given to Gasparo di Bertolotti, one of the earliest violin makers of which historical records exist. His native village was Salò on Lake Garda, Italy. His father and uncle were violin players and involved in artistic works like restoration of instruments. His cousin was a very famous musician and composer working in Rome in the papal chapel. He did not found the school of Brescia, which came into existence in the beginning of XVI century with the Micheli family and, later, roughly contemporaneously with the opening in the middle of the century, of the workshop of Andrea Amati in Cremona, but developed it to a high level. In 1562 he transferred his business from Salò to Brescia, and from incoming tax documents (Polizze d'estimo) of 1568 and 1588 we know that he had a very good trade, buying houses and lands in Brescia and surroundings.

It is debatable whether Gasparo da Salò or others like Gasparo Duiffopruggar or Andrea Amati were the first to produce the violin in its basically modern form. In this last years come evident the opera of the Micheli dynasty from Montichiari (Brescia). However, he produced the complete sort of strings of the Reinessance (violins, violas, cellos, gambas, double basses) in old and new style, and some ceteras, that found a great demand at the time. The instruments from Brescia were more requested that cremonese ones; a letter of Galileo Galilei of 1636 testify it. Some of the violins were decorated. His instruments, now in the most famous museum and collections around the world, were exported in France, how is testified in and his incoming tax of 1588. The sound is very strong, powerful, and speedy, but a little dark, like that of viola da brazzo. Gasparo was also a fine double bass player; a document certify this role in 1604 in Bergamo, a town close to Brescia.

[edit] References

• Farga, Franz, Violins & Violinists. Trans. Egon Larson with Bruno Raikin. New York: Frederick A. Prager, 1969.
• Andrews, Robert, Gasparo Bertolotti da Salo. Berkley 1953.
• Dassenno, Flavio - Ravasio, Ugo " Gasparo da Salò e la liuteria bresciana tra rinascimento e barocco ". Brescia 1990.
• Dassenno, Flavio "Per gli occhi e 'l core. Strumenti musicali nell'arte". Cortefranca, 2004.