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DeamhanFola - Posted - 05/31/2012: 07:38:09
Hi all,
I was in Cremona last week and thought the forum might appreciate some photos of the master's own tools.
Mandogryl - Posted - 05/31/2012: 07:42:21
Cremona is on my list.
Thanks for posting those.
forestabri - Posted - 05/31/2012: 07:57:24
Great stuff, thanks!
DeamhanFola - Posted - 05/31/2012: 08:06:01
the mould used for 'Il Cremonese'
Edited by - DeamhanFola on 05/31/2012 08:09:13
DeamhanFola - Posted - 05/31/2012: 08:11:31
Stradivari made guitars too
DeamhanFola - Posted - 05/31/2012: 08:13:41
more decoration tracings
DeamhanFola - Posted - 05/31/2012: 08:18:33
what those tools produced
coelhoe - Posted - 05/31/2012: 08:22:09
There is a large violin making museum in Mirecourt, France, as well. Several tool collections, molds, and so forth. Free, as I recall
DeamhanFola - Posted - 05/31/2012: 08:23:25
other views
Apologies for the blurriness of the f-hole photo, but as you can tell, I was shaking at this stage being in a room with many Strads, Amatis, and del Gesus, (among others)
Mandogryl - Posted - 05/31/2012: 08:26:15
It is amazing how little the technology has changed over the centuries.
Mandogryl - Posted - 05/31/2012: 08:28:26
I wonder if the Hellier was on loan to the museum, what with the fine tuner not being historically correct.
DeamhanFola - Posted - 05/31/2012: 08:41:06
quote:
Originally posted by Mandogryl
I wonder if the Hellier was on loan to the museum, what with the fine tuner not being historically correct.
As I understand it, the Strads are periodically loaned out and are played. You can actually hear one played if you make arrangements 15 days in advance.
This seems to be the opposite approach to that of the museum housing the Medici Strads in Florence, which have period gut strings in what appeared to be awful condition. It seems unlikely that anyone has played on those strings in a while, more's the pity. The fingerboard of the Medici viola was very interesting--it didn't appear to be ebony, and was inlaid with a mother of pearl shield and a parallelogram that outlines its entire length, not unlike purfling. It is supposedly the only unaltered example of a Stradavari viola in existence. Can't show you, as no photography was permitted in that museum.
Edited by - DeamhanFola on 05/31/2012 08:42:11
baregrass - Posted - 05/31/2012: 08:49:32
Thanks for posting those photos! Very interesting stuff. As has been remarked here already, isn't it amazing that so little has changed since then.
Cremona and Venice; 2 places I would really like to visit.
giannaviolins - Posted - 05/31/2012: 14:33:27
Quite nice. I have no excuses, my tools are better!
Looked at some Strads today. Fun always. Ole Bull, for one.
bowbag - Posted - 06/01/2012: 05:51:04
Very interesting thread, thanks DeamhanFola.
p1cklef1sh - Posted - 06/01/2012: 07:35:35
quote:
Originally posted by Mandogryl
I wonder if the Hellier was on loan to the museum, what with the fine tuner not being historically correct.
I was laughing! Oh look, a fine tuner! your post cracked me up even more!
p1cklef1sh - Posted - 06/01/2012: 07:40:05
It would be interesting if they would let some master violin maker of today use Strads tools and molds etc and make one to see how it would stack up to the originals. Wouldnt it be interesting if its the exact measurements and curves that produce that sound and not the ancient hardwoods that are now extinct. hmmm.
Jolie Louisianne - Posted - 06/01/2012: 07:49:16
Thanks for posting these photos
p1cklef1sh - Posted - 06/01/2012: 07:51:44
quote:
Originally posted by GeeDubya
And Wikipedia has an interesting account of the owners of the Hellier strad, which is apparently currently owned by the Smithsonian: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hellier_Stradivarius
And I thought these were rare instruments, I cant believe how many are on loan to someone! amazing.
coelhoe - Posted - 06/02/2012: 09:34:41
The Strads, Amatis, and the Guarnarii held by the Library of Congress are available for examination by professional luthiers upon written request. It was only by accident that I got play briefly on one of each in the spring of '78. I happened to working at the L of C when a request from one of the winners of the Arizona violin competition was being approved. At that time, requests to examine the instruments had to come through one's own Congressional Representative's office. The Curator of the instruments, the friend of a friend, knew of my passion for the violin / fiddle and called me to say that he would take the violins out of their display cases a bit earlier that day if I wanted to try them.
It was interesting also because about eight weeks earlier I had submitted a written request with a resume "through channels" to examine just the Del Gesu but had been denied. The "Ass't Librarian for Musical Instruments" was a patronage position and the pompous tweedy fellow who held the spot at the time had expected some sort of political courtship before submitting "his" violins.
These are also played several times a year, but I do not know what the Smithsonian policies are.
Tom Berghan - Posted - 06/06/2012: 19:03:41
Great photos!
I used to work near the city of Parma which is very close to Cremona and I visited the same museums you did and saw these same display cases. (Awesome!) I asked one of the curators for the location of Stradivari's shop. She gave me the location and I went there. The shop was torn down many many years ago and now there is a large bank on the site.
My thought at the time was "Oh yeah - perfect - a freakin bank - the only thing that would be better (not) would be a McDonalds!" Ashes to ashes - dust to dust.
Addie - Posted - 06/06/2012: 19:20:34
Nice! These are nice strait-on shots, including the # ! You can look up the descriptions in Sacconi.
Here’s my scale drawing for the thicknessing tool.
DeamhanFola - Posted - 06/07/2012: 09:06:41
quote:
Originally posted by Tom Berghan
Great photos!
I used to work near the city of Parma which is very close to Cremona and I visited the same museums you did and saw these same display cases. (Awesome!) I asked one of the curators for the location of Stradivari's shop. She gave me the location and I went there. The shop was torn down many many years ago and now there is a large bank on the site.
My thought at the time was "Oh yeah - perfect - a freakin bank - the only thing that would be better (not) would be a McDonalds!" Ashes to ashes - dust to dust.
Don't know if they changed it since you've been there, but Stradivari's house/workshop is now a wee shop. See photos below.
I had read the Hill brothers' disparaging remarks about the citizens of Cremona, and had taken them with a grain of salt until I arrived there. The Hills (and others) criticized Cremona's lack of interest in its violin makers and its fixation on bourgeois moneymaking: according to the Hills, after Stradivari's death no one local saw any importance in conserving any of Stradivari's tools etc and turned their attention to linen making. It was only because of the efforts of foreign collectors that those tools survived, and it's only relatively recently that they have been returned to Cremona (like the violins themselves), and that Cremona has created museums. Similarly, the violin-making school that now exists there is (as I understand it) a product of recent decades. Somewhere like Mirecourt actually has an uninterrupted violin-making tradition that has much greater continuity than Cremona, whose luthiers apparently essentially died out in the town for 150-200 years or so.
Now, individual luthiers are literally on the same brown signs that give tourists directions to landmarks like churches. I'm of two minds about this: on the one hand, they've literally become commodified tourist attractions: on the other, at least someone is giving attention to luthiers, even if it's a bit cynically done.
I saw more BMWs and Mercedes in Cremona (both per capita and in terms of sheer numbers) than anywhere else that I visited in Italy. Along with that, there seemed to be more of a snobbish mentality than anywhere else as well. Maybe it's because Cremona is this tiny town in the middle of farm country that is envious of nearby Milan. For instance, in the Stradivari Museum, the physical layout of the museum forces you to go through several rooms of second-rate local Renaissance paintings ('second rate' by the standards of Florence, etc anyway) before you got to the violins. It's almost as if some people of Cremona are embarrassed of the thing that put their town 'on the map' so to speak, and want to compete with the name-brand centres of art. A pity.
Having said all this, I met a number of locals who were absolutely lovely and helpful as well--I don't mean to categorically dismiss the whole town.
Edited by - DeamhanFola on 06/07/2012 09:14:16
