Gasparo da Salò

Gasparo da Salò.

Gasparo da Salò (May 20, 1542, Salò - April 14, 1609) is the name given to Gasparo Bertolotti, one of the earliest violin makers and an expert double bass player. Around 80 of his instruments are still in existence: violins (small and large), alto and tenor violas, viols, violones and double basses, violas with only a pair of corners, ceteras.

Career

He was born in Salò on Lake Garda, in a family with legal, artistic, musical and craft interests. His grandfather Santino, a land and flock owner who it is believed likely produced musical gut strings, moved from Polpenazze to Salò, capital of the Riviera del Garda, possibly in search of the greater opportunities then available in Salò, whose music scene was very rich and vibrant. Gasparo was the son and nephew of two accomplished musicians, Francesco and Agostino, who were violin players and composers of the highest professional level, distinguished enough to be referred to in surviving documents as the "violì” or in extended form, to avoid doubts, the "violini."[1]

In addition to being an expert in musical instruments,[2] Gasparo's uncle Agostino was the first Kapellmeister of Salò and his son Bernardino, Gasparo's cousin, was a virtuoso musician (violinist and trombonist), who worked in Ferrara at the powerful Este music court, and then in Mantua for Vincenzo Gonzaga I, during which time he was a contemporary of Monteverdi, and finally in Rome as "Musician of His Holiness the Pope in the Castle of S.Angel."

Gasparo's musical education took place during a period of growing refinement and professionalism among the musicians and violin players of Salò and Brescia, many of whom played in the Basilica of St. Marco in Venice, as among the musicians of many European courts from the early 1540s onward. His deep education in musical performance, undertaken by his noted musical family, is evidenced in a document found in Bergamo concerning music in San Maria Maggiore dated 1604, in which Gasparo is cited as a very talented violone player.

When his father died, around 1562, he moved to Brescia. It appears Gasparo immediately rented a house and set up shop in the neighborhood hub of musical life, the Contrada Antegnati, known for the presence of a very famous dynasty of organ builders and other skilled multi-instrumentalists, from 1528 granted from the Brescia City Council, with a professional patent (first example in Europe), all of whom were located in the Second Quadra St. John, in front of the Palazzo Vecchio del Podestà (now Via Cairoli). From his ability almost immediately to rent a house with a shop in this sought-after neighborhood, and considering the slight possibility of a substantial inheritance, given his conspicuously large number of brothers and sisters, we can surmise that Gasparo was enjoying some measure of success in the family's traditional string making trade. His business was successful enough to allow him to marry Isabetta Cassetti, the daughter of an artisan potter and glassmaker three years later. During this time Gasparo cultivated a deep relationship with Girolamo Virchi, one of the most prominent artist-craftsmen of the city, cited in a 1563 document as "maestro de musica instrumentis." And in 1565 Virchi became godfather to Gasparo's child Francesco, the first of six others, three sons named Marcantonio, two of whom died in infancy, and three daughters.

In addition, in that neighborhood there lived two very famous organists of Brescia Cathedral, Fiorenzo Mascara and his successor Costanzo Antegnati, and a noted violin player, Giuseppe Biagini. Like many other Brescian virtuosi multi-instrumentalists (they normally played 4 or 5 aerophones, one string, and from the middl of the century the new viola da braccio or violin), Mascara was also an excellent viola da gamba player. This direct knowledge of, and friendship with,Virchi and Antegnati's work opened up new artistic horizons resulting in improvements to the sound and design of strings and stringed instruments. An Appraisal of the Policy of 1568 (a tax return) testifies to a flourishing business, which continued to grow significantly. In 1575 he bought a house in the Cossere district, his historic headquarters, and subsequently manufactured many instruments. His workshop quickly became one of the most important in Europe in the second half of the 16th century for the production of every type of stringed instrument of the time.

Gasparo developed the art of string making to a very high level, and passed on this tradition to five known students: his eldest son Francisco, the Frenchman Alexandro de Marsiliis (from Marseille, France), Giovanni Paolo Maggini from Botticino in the surroundings of Brescia, Jacomo de Lafranchini from Valle Camonica, and a maker known only as Baptista. Exports reached Rome, Venice and France,[3] as is clear from the Policy of 1588, where is clearly written the export in France (probably also of the particular model called by Monteverdi "violin piccoli alla francese" hitherto "little violins in French syle) and other documents; and he bought strings and precious woods for his art from Rome and Venice. The business allowed him to acquire extensive landholdings in the territory of Calvagese, with adjoining manor houses and farmhouses. Gasparo is known to have provided substantial assistance to his sister Ludovica, and acted as guardian to the three sons of his wife's brother, Rocco Cassetti, presumed dead, along with his own wife, in the plague of 1577.

He died April 14, 1609. The short but significant death act survives and reads: "Messer Gasparo Bertolotti maestro di violini is dead & buried in Santo Joseffo". The exact location where his remains lie among the graves of the Brescian musical pantheon, in company with Antegnati Costanzo, Don Cesare Bolognini and Benedetto Marcello, is not known; probably is in a common grave of carpenters guild. One of his most famous double basses, with a rapidity of response similar to that of a violin (owned by the 18th - 19th century virtuoso Domenico Dragonetti) is preserved today in the Basilica of San Marco in Venice;[4] a second, exceptionally rare bass, possibly the only surviving example of a classical violone contrabasso with a six hole peg box, was discovered by the Roman master luthier and restorer Luigi Ottaviani in the stores of the Museum of Musical Instruments in Rome, where it is now displayed. The third double bass is preserved in storage beneath the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, Canada as part of a collection donated by R. S. Williams. A fourth has been acquired by the Salodian family Biondo from M° Leonardo Colonna, one of the double bass player of Teatro alla Scala of Milan, and is now on display in one room of the City Council Palace in Salò, and is used in many concerts in the Gasparo da Salò Summer Festival. Another of his violins is on display at the Lobkowicz Palace in Prague.

Artistic life

It is debatable whether Gasparo da Salò or others like Gasparo Duiffopruggar or Andrea Amati were the first to produce the violin in its modern form; surely Gasparo developed an instrument of modern character, very powerful in tone (the mystery of the power has solved thinking that violas da braccio and violins at that time had to play mixed with cornettos and trombones in open air places like St. Mark Square in Venice during processions) and very quick in response. It appears Gasparo's patterns were later studied by Stradivari between 1690 and 1700 for the violin type referred to as the "Long Strad," one of the master's most distinguished and desirable models. There is reason to believe that Brescian instruments were in fact the most popular and sought after throughout Europe in the Renaissance period, as they were more requested in high musical courts than Cremonese ones until 1630, when the plague killed the best known Brescian masters, after which time Cremona started to became the center of the violin maker's trade.

Although the Brescian masters did not survive the plague, their prolific and accomplished output of instruments certainly did, as a letter from Fulgencio Micanzio to Galileo Galilei dated 1636 makes clear: "the instruments from Brescia are easy to buy..." and another document states " because you can find it in every corner...". You can find a lot of brescian strings listed in many inventory of music instrument maker or instruments dealers in Europe, like that published by Francoise Lesure in 1954, where the following instruments are listed: 63 lutes from Padua, 17 from Venice, 24 violins from Brescia, 15 lots of strings of Firenze, 21 of Siena.. It is also notable that the word "violino" appears in Brescian archival documents at least as early as 1530 and not in Cremona until some fifty years later. Some of the brescian violins were wonderfully decorated, while others have some rough features of finishing but almost all the real genuine surviving examples, of the master, of his workshop, or of the school or pupils, are noted for their beauty of tone and powerful projection.

Gasparo himself built many violins that conform to the measurements of the modern violin, in an era where the precise measurements of the violin family of instruments were not yet standardized, as well as a small number of models built on a smaller pattern (probably "alla francese"). In addition to violins, he built violas of different sizes from small to very large (39 cm to 44.5 cm, both alto and tenor, in turn large or small in size, sometimes with only two corners), violas da gamba, cellos, violones, and probably lyre and lironi.

In surviving documents Gasparo is referred to as “maestro di violini," (violin master) as early as 1568. This title was given to violin makers and was clearly distinct in contemporary documents from the title of "sonadore de violini" (the violin players). The title of maestro di violini appears to have been in use from at least 1558 in Brescia, and is first attributed to the master luthiers Guglielmo Frigiadi and Francesco Inverardi prior to the arrival of Gasparo, who at that time was still in Salò. We know comparatively little of Gasparo's chief rival for the distinction of having created the first modern violin, Andrea Amati, lacking as we do the wealth of documentary evidence referencing Amati's violin making that we have for Gasparo. Eleven documents are known to exist referencing Amati, compared with slightly less than a hundred for Gasparo. Of the eleven, only one document clearly mentions the work of Amati, and it is comparatively late, dating from 1576, eight years after the document referenced above, and it states simply: "l'arte sua è de far strumenti da sonar” ("his art is of making instruments to play"). Conspicuously absent is any mention of the acclaimed Amati violin, which seems to have been manufactured from the early 1560s, apparently with great success.

From 1581 and until 1588 the various written references to Gasparo as a master violin maker are further augmented with various Latin titles such as "artefici (or artifex) instrumentorum musicorum” (maker of musical instruments) and the Italian title “artefice d'istrumenti musici” (maker of musical instruments) and “instrumenti de musicha” (Instruments of music) in order to emphasize his mastery of all kinds of instruments. In 1585 he resumed use of the old tradition title of "master of violins”, which would continue to be his specialty from 1591 until his death, with the exception of a brief period in February and March 1597 wherein he is referred to as "magister a citharis," the citharis being a special and sought after instrument also known as the cetra, or more commonly the cetera. The 1588 archival document (a tax return) clearly mention the export of Gasparo's work in France.

About eighty of Gasparo da Salò's instruments are known to have survived to the present day, and they stand confidently among the works of Stradivarius, Guarnerius, Amati, Jacob Stainer, and his pupil Giovanni Paolo Maggini as unique examples of the highest mastery attained in Brescian or indeed European violin making of his era, possessing exceptional tonal characteristics. Owing to their exceptional tone and beauty, Gasparo's patterns are frequently emulated in exacting modern commercial recreations. These modern tributes to Gasparo are themselves merely the latest arrivals in what has become a long and distinguished tradition of copying and emulating the great master's work. Charles Beare's analysis of the best works of Guarneri del Gesu's latest period, including the famous Vieuxtemps violin of 1741, seems to demonstrate that Guarneri very strictly copied the arching used by Gasparo, which helped develop an instrument of modern character, with very powerful tone and projection.[5]

Virtuosi have also long recognized Gasparo's violins' violas' and double basses exceptional qualities. In 1841 the Norwegian virtuoso Ole Bull bought a very richly decorated da Salò originally made in 1570 for the trasure chamber of Archduke Ferdinand I of Tyrol and used it on tour along with a magnificent Guarneri del Gesu and Nicolo Amati large model, for nearly forty years of frenzied, fiery improvisation and recital. In addition, the best of Gasparo's violas and double basses are used by some international performers today instead of comparable examples by Stradivarius. The reasons cited tend to be Gasparo's full bodied, "dark" and penetrating tone, fast response, and great power and projection.

Gallery

Media related to Gasparo da Salò at Wikimedia Commons

  1. ^ Singleton, Esther (1917). The orchestra and its instruments. New York: The Symphony society of New York. p. 50. VIOLIN By Gasparo da Salò 

References

  1. ↑ Documents are reproduced in A. M. Mucchi, “Gasparo da Salò” , 1940
  2. ↑ Catalog "Gasparo da Salò architetto del suono", pg. 16
  3. ↑ Instruments of Gasparo da Salò were probably exported to France by Abramo Tieffenbrucker. See Pio, Stefano (2012). Viol and Lute Makers of Venice 1490 -1630. Venezia, Italy: Venice research. pp. 278–283. ISBN 9788890725227.
  4. ↑ Pio, Stefano (2002). Liuteri & Sonadori, Venezia 1750 -1870. Venezia, Italy: Venice research. ISBN 9788890725210.
  5. ↑ Catalogue of the international exhibition on Giovanni Paolo Maggini held in Brescia in 2007

See also

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