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        <name>Corilon violins</name>
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    <updated>2026-06-14T17:05:18+02:00</updated>
    
        <entry>
            <title type="text">Dominique Peccatte and the Peccatte family of bow makers</title>
            <id>https://www.corilon.com/us/library/master-portraits/peccatte</id>
            <link href="https://www.corilon.com/us/library/master-portraits/peccatte"/>
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                                            Dominique Peccatte, François Peccatte, and Charles Peccatte – History and significance of the great French family of bow makers, Peccatte, bow makers in Paris and Mirecourt
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                 The Peccatte family of bow makers was active from the 1830s to 1918 and shaped French stringed bow making with works that had a formative influence and are still highly sought after by musicians and collectors today. Given their importance to the history of craftsmanship and music, it is surprising that the Peccattes – unlike other equally influential bow-making dynasties such as the  Knopf  family in Markneukirchen, Saxony, did not establish extensive family and teacher-student relationships. Instead, their entire reputation rests on the work of just three masters – Dominique Peccatte, his brother François Peccatte, and François&#039;s son Charles Peccatte – of whom François also died before he could reach his full potential. 
 Dominique Peccatte and the Peccatte family of bow makers: overview 
 
  Dominique Peccatte  
  The early Dominique Peccatte  
  Dominique Peccatte between Paris and Mirecourt  
  The work and influence of Dominique Peccatte  
  François Peccatte  
  Charles Peccatte  
  Charles Peccatte – early influences  
  “Peccatte in Paris”  
  Charles Peccatte and Eugène Sartory  
 
 &amp;nbsp; 
 Dominique Peccatte (1810–1874) 
 The young Dominique Peccatte at J. B. Vuillaume 
 Dominique Peccatte (1810–1874) was born in the violin-making town of  Mirecourt , but began his professional life as an apprentice hairdresser and wig maker, following in his father&#039;s footsteps. As the family was well established and quite wealthy, it is not easy to understand why the young Dominique Peccatte apparently abandoned the path laid out for him while still in training. However, the recommendation that Nicolas Vuillaume gave to his brother  Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume  in 1826 proved that he had made the right decision, thus opening the door to the young talent.meister-portraits/jean-baptiste-vuillaume-notes-on-life-and-work in 1826, opening the door to Vuillaume&#039;s up-and-coming Paris workshop for the young talent. 
 Dominique Peccatte turned to bow making under the guidance of Jean Pierre Marie Persoit (c. 1783–c. 1854) at Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume&#039;s workshop, where he found excellent opportunities for development in this inspiring environment. He remained with Vuillaume for ten years, whose appreciation for Peccatte is evidenced, among other things, by the fact that he bought him out of impending military service in 1830. 
 Dominique Peccatte between Paris and Mirecourt 
 In 1836, Dominique Peccatte moved to François Lupot, probably already with the prospect of one day taking over the workshop of his aging master, which he did after Lupot&#039;s death in 1838. As an experienced, mature master at the height of his powers, Dominique Peccatte quickly built up an excellent reputation among musicians and leading Parisian violin makers; his discoverer, J. B. Vuillaume, was also among his customers. 
 His own workshop also provided the setting for a reunion with his brother François Peccatte, who worked for Dominique between 1841 and 1843. François had followed in the footsteps of his successful brother Dominique and also become a bow maker; now he was able to hone his skills with him, and the Peccatte brothers clearly laid the foundations for a professional partnership that would intensify years later. The coincidence with the death of their father invites speculation about the reason for this long working stay; what is certain, however, is that the brothers worked closely together during these years, as documented by several bows with a rod made by one and the frog by the other. 
 In 1843, François returned to Mirecourt, followed in 1847 by Dominique, who had sold his Paris workshop to his long-time employee Pierre Simon. His fortune and his still thriving business enabled Dominique Peccatte to devote more time to viticulture and other activities without giving up bow making entirely until his retirement in 1872, two years before his death on January 13, 1874. 
 The work and influence of Dominique Peccatte 
 One of the most significant influences on Dominique Peccatte&#039;s work was undoubtedly his teacher Jean Pierre Marie Persoit, whose work combined the tradition of François Xavier Tourte, which was dominant at the time, with the style of François Lupot. 
 With the opening of his own workshop, Peccatte&#039;s personal style became apparent and rapidly gained influence in French bow making from the 1840s onwards. Beyond the often-mentioned characteristic shape of the axe-like head, his work is distinguished by details such as the deeply cut frog mouths and elegantly tapered legs, but also by the slightly triangular, downward-widening cross-section of his otherwise round sticks, which gives them greater lateral stability. 
 Dominique Peccatte had a direct influence on the work of his brother François Peccatte, his pupil Joseph Henry (1823–1870) and his colleague and successor Pierre Simon (1808–1881). His nephew Charles Peccatte did not seek stylistic inspiration from the work of his uncle and his father François Peccatte until later in life, which makes the Peccatte family tradition seem even more pronounced than it already is. 
 François Peccatte (1821–1855) 
 François Peccatte was Dominique Peccatte&#039;s younger brother by 11 years, and it does not take much speculation to conclude that his decision to become a bow maker was influenced by his brother&#039;s good example. He also followed Dominique to Paris and probably tried to gain a foothold there before 1840. Regardless of where he began his career, the time he spent with his brother between 1841 and 1843 was the formative period that made François Peccatte the outstanding master he was—or could have been. 
 The start was promising with his own workshop after he returned to Mirecourt: almost from the beginning, he was able to employ several people and apparently made clever use of the price advantage that the Mirecourt wage level gave him over the competition in Paris. The fact that he continued to run his studio independently after Dominique Peccatte returned to Mirecourt in 1847 also suggests that he had a stable livelihood – there was apparently no need to join forces with his wealthy and well-established brother. Occasional collaborations are nevertheless known and suggest that this decision was not motivated by family discord. 
 In 1852 and 1853, François Peccatte returned to Paris for a short time – without giving up his business in Mirecourt – and worked for J. B. Vuillaume for unknown reasons. 
 On October 30, 1855, his untimely death in Mirecourt ended a career that was still very promising from both a business and artistic perspective. The relatively large age difference between the two Peccatte brothers would have provided opportunities to rebalance their position in the market for fine French violins; the great talent of François Peccatte promised interesting developments in the family style, which might have had an even greater impact if François had been able to train good students and successors. 
 Charles Peccatte (1850–1918) 
 Charles Peccatte – early influences 
 Charles Peccatte (1850–1918) was born in Mirecourt, the son of François Peccatte and nephew of Dominique Peccatte. Following the early death of his father in 1862, he also turned to bow making. After apprenticing with his stepfather Auguste Lenoble (1828–1895), he moved to J. B. Vuillaume in 1865, again following in the family footsteps and undoubtedly supported by the connection that François and Dominique had established with Vuillaume and always kept alive. 
 At Vuillaume, Charles Peccatte worked under  François Nicolas Voirin  (1833–1885). Although the legacy of the two older Peccattes was still alive in French bow making, especially at Vuillaume, Charles was less influenced by the family tradition—which was as brief as it was powerful—than by Voirin, who was the creative driving force and defining influence behind bow making at Vuillaume at that time. family tradition than by Vuillaume, who was the creative driving force and defining influence behind bow making at Vuillaume at that time. 
 “Peccatte à Paris” 
 In 1870, Charles Peccatte left the Vuillaume workshop and attempted to set up his own business – a venture that, for unknown reasons, was only partially successful. The brand name “PECCATTE A PARIS,” which he used for the first time during this period, quickly disappeared for many years. In 1874, he initially returned to Auguste Lenoble&#039;s workshop and worked part-time as a civil servant until around 1880 in order to support his family. 
 After moving to the vicinity of the Paris Opera, the situation gradually improved; Charles Peccatte&#039;s work now gained the recognition that his great name promised, as documented by a silver medal in Antwerp in 1885 and another in Paris in 1899. From 1900 onwards, he was no longer able to cope with the incoming orders on his own and had some of his work done by colleagues, some of whom were well-known. 
 But his personal art was also at its peak during this period, and almost 30 years after it was first used, the stamp “PECCATTE A PARIS” gained a new raison d&#039;être – and a new meaning: as the hallmark of the workshop bows from the house of Charles Peccatte. This successful period of peak creativity lasted until 1910, but it is likely that Peccatte continued to work until his death on October 22, 1918. 
 Charles Peccatte and Eugène Sartory 
 Among the assistants employed by Charles Peccatte during his most successful period was  Eugène Sartory  (1871–1946), whose early work was strongly influenced by his employer and can be considered the most significant teacher-student relationship of Charles Peccatte&#039;s career. Since Peccatte&#039;s work during this period was characterized by a certain return to the artistic heritage of his father and uncle— as can be seen, for example, in the somewhat stronger execution of the arches compared to the influential, slimmer model by Lamy – it does not seem entirely unjustified to draw a delicate line of tradition from Dominique and FrançPeccatte to Charles Peccatte to Eugène Sartory. 
 Originally published by Corilon violins. 
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                            <updated>2025-05-14T19:00:00+02:00</updated>
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        <entry>
            <title type="text">The Knopf family of bow makers in Markneukirchen</title>
            <id>https://www.corilon.com/us/library/master-portraits/knopf-bow-makers-germany</id>
            <link href="https://www.corilon.com/us/library/master-portraits/knopf-bow-makers-germany"/>
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                                            The Knopf family of bow makers in Markneukirchen – historical overview and notes on the lives and work of their most important masters
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                 The Knopf family of bow makers in Markneukirchen: a historical overview and notes on the lives and work of their most important masters. 
  The Knopf bow makers of Germany  
 
  Christian Wilhelm Knopf (1767–1837)  
  The origins of the Knopf family  
  Christian Wilhelm Knopf as a bow maker  
  The second generation of the Knopf bow maker family  
  Outstanding masters of the third Knopf generation  
  Johann Wilhelm Knopf (1835–1915)  
  Carl Heinrich Knopf (1839–1875)  
  Heinrich “Henry” Richard Knopf and the fourth generation of the Knopf family  
  Side lines: Other members of the Knopf dynasty  
  The “Herrmann Knopf Dynasty” – a genealogical addendum  
 
 Christian Wilhelm Knopf (1767–1837) 
 In 1767, the year Christian Wilhelm Knopf – the progenitor of the influential Knopf bow-making dynasty – was born, the region around his hometown of  Markneukirchen  was already in the midst of a historic boom that would transform the tranquil Bohemian-Saxon “music corner” into a global center of musical instrument making. This development also shaped Knopf&#039;s biography and is reflected in some of the detours this great personality of German craftsmanship had to take before finding his calling as a bow maker. 
 The origins of the Knopf family 
 At that time, his family had already been captivated by the economic appeal of the newly flourishing crafts and the business opportunities they offered for at least a generation:    While Knopf&#039;s ancestors were mainly tailors (and it is quite possible that the family name reflects a long-standing connection between his ancestors and this profession), by the middle of the 18th century the family had already turned to violin trading and string making, which also provided young Christian Wilhelm Knopf with part of his livelihood. However, the fact that such subcontracting work was not particularly lucrative is impressively demonstrated by his second profession as a soldier (musketeer), which he was still pursuing when he married in 1791. The inglorious end of his father, Johann Gottlob Knopf (1732–1786), also provides an insight into the social circumstances of the Knopf family at that time: After he fell to his death while drunk on his way home from the “Bierhauße,” the death register notes that he “had not led a good life” – an ambiguous phrase that casts a shadow over the beginnings of this illustrious family history. 
 Christian Wilhelm Knopf as a bow maker 
 It is not known whether Christian Wilhelm Knopf learned the bow-making trade from his father; although there are indications that he too had been involved in the construction of string bows, no works by him have survived and it is uncertain whether he could have trained his son in this art. Thus, it remains a mystery who Christian Wilhelm Knopf apprenticed with and what influences he absorbed – a regrettable gap in our knowledge, given the great significance of his work for German and European bow making. However, his work shows that he was inspired by John Dodd (1752–1839) and, even more so, by François Xavier Tourte (1747–1835), role models whom he quickly caught up with thanks to his remarkable talent. Celebrated by his contemporaries as the “German Tourte,” Christian Wilhelm Knopf has indeed had a lasting influence on the history of bow making: through innovations such as the metal frog track, improvements to the screw, his work, which is still in high demand today, and the inspiration and knowledge he passed on to posterity, not least through his four sons, who all followed in his craftsmanship. 
 The second generation of the Knopf bow-making family 
 Christian Wilhelm Knopf Jr. (1799–1835), Karl Wilhelm Knopf (1803–1860), Christian Friedrich Wilhelm Knopf I (1808–1874) and his younger brother of the same name, Christian Friedrich Wilhelm Knopf II (1815–1897), expanded the business established by their father and earned a good reputation with their work, which continued to be decisively inspired by Tourte and added a new and important branch to the increasingly diverse field of musical instrument making in Saxony. String bow making, which had been denied its own guild in Markneukirchen in 1790, rose to become a recognized craft, not least thanks to their efforts, with the best masters setting internationally acclaimed standards. 
   Family tree of the Knopf bow makers of Markneukirchen 
 Outstanding masters of the third Knopf generation 
 Johann Wilhelm Knopf (1835–1915) 
 By the middle of the 19th century, the Knopf family had long since left behind the tailoring trade, string making, and the hardships of earlier times. Trained by their fathers, the next generation matured in their well-established workshops, promising to set new artistic and business standards. Johann Wilhelm Knopf, a son of Karl Wilhelm Knopf, enjoyed an excellent reputation that almost eclipsed that of his grandfather. After opening his workshop in Dresden in 1884, he set milestones in German string bow making that bear the brand mark “W. KNOPF DRESDEN.” 
 Carl Heinrich Knopf (1839–1875) 
 The Knopf family&#039;s bow-making tradition reached another high point in the work of Carl Heinrich Knopf, another son of Karl Wilhelm Knopf, who, like his brother Johann Wilhelm, had been trained by his uncle Christian Friedrich Wilhelm Knopf II. His travels took him to none other than Ludwig Bausch in Leipzig, from where he returned to Markneukirchen in 1859. In 1860, following the death of his father, he took over the management of the Knopf workshop, which at that time supplied renowned customers including Richard Weichold in Dresden, Ludwig Bausch &amp;amp; Sohn in Leipzig, and even Charles Bruno in New York and Nikolai Kittel in Saint Petersburg. 
 Several awards at national and international competitions confirmed the excellent reputation of Carl Heinrich Knopf, who had long been considered one of the best masters of his art and who left behind works that are unparalleled to this day in terms of their musical qualities and magnificent craftsmanship. In 1868, he moved his workshop to Dresden and shortly thereafter to Berlin, where he worked until his untimely death at the age of almost 36. In addition to a large number of the finest bow sticks, approximately 30 violins made by his hand have also been preserved. 
 Heinrich “Henry” Richard Knopf and the fourth generation of the Knopf family 
 The sons of Carl Heinrich Knopf – Albert Knopf (1863–1884) and Heinrich “Henry” Richard Knopf (1860–1939) – did not remain in Germany after their father&#039;s death and moved to the USA. Both were talented craftsmen who turned their attention to bow making and violin making. They received an excellent education, first following family tradition and learning from their father and his brothers, then Henry perfecting his art with Otto Bausch in Leipzig and G. Christian Adam, Oswald Möckels&#039; teacher in Berlin. After 1880, both moved to New York, where Adam died of tuberculosis just four years later. Heinrich “Henry” Richard Knopf became one of the first violin makers in New York City and established himself extremely successfully in the circle of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. Approximately 450 string instruments and 1,000 bows have been preserved from his highly productive hand, the latter bearing the brand mark “H. R. KNOPF.NEW YORK.” His later work in bow making reveals the strong influence of Eugène Sartory, whose first representative in the US he became, and was in high demand among the leading soloists of his time. 
 With the Great Depression, business conditions deteriorated even for such a well-known workshop, and in 1929 Heinrich “Henry” Richard Knopf decided to end the history of the Knopf family of bow makers after more than 100 years. He sold his workshop to Rembert Wurlitzer; his two sons took up other professions. 
 Side lines: Other members of the Knopf dynasty 
 Like Albert and Heinrich “Henry” Knopf, other members of the fourth generation of the Knopf family and other branches of the family completed their training in the family workshops of their fathers and uncles, where they developed into successful masters of both violin and bow making: 
 
 Christian Wilhelm Knopf (1856–1882) was a bow maker; the son of Christian Friedrich Wilhelm Knopf II suffered a tragic fate and spent most of his life in an institution for the mentally ill. 
 August Ferdinand Muck (1866–1937), a son of Christian Friedrich Wilhelm Knopf II, learned bow making from his father&#039;s brother of the same name. 
 August Moritz Knopf (1857–1899) came from another branch of the family, which traced its roots back to Johann Georg Knopf Jr. (1767–1829), a brother of Christian Wilhelm Knopf. He was one of the most important members of the family, working in Dresden for Richard Weichold, Louis Lowenthal, and Julius H. Zimmermann in Moscow. 
 
 The “Herrmann Knopf Dynasty” – a genealogical addendum 
 Although the history of the Knopf dynasty ended in 1929 with the closure of Heinrich “Henry” Richard Knopf&#039;s business, there is still a link between this important chapter in music history and the present day. The marriage of Carolina Wilhelmine Knopf (1832–1917) to Christian Friedrich Herrmann (1819–96) created a link between these two great bow-making families from Markneukirchen – whose legacy lives on today in the workshop of Michael Mönnig, a great-great-grandson of the couple, and his son Thomas Mönning. 
 Originally published by Corilon violins. 
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                            <updated>2025-04-22T10:00:00+02:00</updated>
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        <entry>
            <title type="text">Lorenzo Storioni: The last great Cremonese </title>
            <id>https://www.corilon.com/us/library/master-portraits/lorenzo-storioni-cremona</id>
            <link href="https://www.corilon.com/us/library/master-portraits/lorenzo-storioni-cremona"/>
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                                            Lorenzo Storioni, the last great Cremonese master, crafted unique instruments still prized today for their sound and lasting influence on modern luthiers.
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                  Lorenzo Storioni, one of the last great luthiers of Cremona, made instruments that are still highly valued today. Find out more about his unmistakable artistic approach, his lasting influence and why Lorenzo Storioni violins are still in demand among musicians and collectors.  
  Lorenzo Storioni (1744–1816) &amp;nbsp;was one of the last great violin makers from the Cremonese school, following the golden era of legendary craftsmen like  Antonio Stradivari  and Giuseppe Guarneri. Born and raised in Cremona, he is widely regarded as a key figure in the world of violin making due to his distinctive approach and innovative techniques. Storioni&#039;s violins are known for their bold craftsmanship and slightly unconventional designs compared to his predecessors. He embraced a more experimental approach, often departing from the polished, flawless standards of the earlier Cremonese masters. His instruments have a distinctive character with slightly asymmetrical features, giving them a more rugged and individualistic feel. This made his violins stand out and contributed to their enduring appeal among musicians and collectors alike. 
 Lorenzo Storioni often worked with locally sourced wood, using Italian spruce for the top plate and local Italian maple for the back and sides. His violins are noted for their rich, warm sound, which comes from his precise varnishing technique and his ability to work the wood in a way that enhances acoustic resonance. Storioni’s work is also recognizable by its thick, dark varnish, often a reddish-brown or luminous golden color, which added both aesthetic appeal and functional protection. 
 Storioni&#039;s influence on modern violin makers 
 Though Lorenzo Storioni is sometimes seen as the last link in the chain of Cremonese violin making, his influence continues to reverberate in modern luthiery. His willingness to experiment and break from tradition inspired future generations of violin makers to innovate and develop their own styles while respecting the fundamental principles of sound and construction. 
 Why Lorenzo Storioni&#039;s violins are still sought after 
 Despite being created over two centuries ago, Storioni&#039;s violins are still highly prized by professional musicians and collectors. His instruments, while fewer in number compared to other Cremonese makers, are renowned for their tonal quality and unique aesthetic. Today, Lorenzo Storioni’s violins can be found in the hands of elite performers and are frequently seen at prestigious auctions, fetching high prices.&amp;nbsp;  
 Are you looking to own a  fine violin ? Explore our exclusive collection of high-quality violins, including rare pieces inspired by the craftsmanship of Lorenzo Storioni. Click here to discover our collection of fine violins. 
 Key facts about Lorenzo Storioni: 
 
 Lorenzo Storioni (1744–1816) was a prominent violin maker in Cremona. 
 His violins are known for their bold, experimental designs and rich sound. 
 Storioni&#039;s instruments remain highly valued by musicians and collectors. 
  Lorenzo Storioni&#039;s violins are a testament to the enduring beauty of Italian lutherie.  
 
  &amp;nbsp;  
 Lorenzo Storioni may not be as famous as Stradivari or Guarneri, but his contributions to the art of violin making remain invaluable. His distinctive style, innovative techniques, and lasting influence make him one of the most important figures in the history of string instrument crafting. 
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                            <updated>2021-10-19T00:45:00+02:00</updated>
                    </entry>

    
    
        <entry>
            <title type="text">The Gagliano family and violin making in Naples</title>
            <id>https://www.corilon.com/us/library/master-portraits/the-gagliano-family-and-violin-making-in-naples</id>
            <link href="https://www.corilon.com/us/library/master-portraits/the-gagliano-family-and-violin-making-in-naples"/>
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                                            Gagliano – a brief summary of the Neapolitan family of violin makers and the oeuvre of Alessandro Gagliano, Nicolò Gagliano and Gennaro Gagliano
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                  The Gagliano family of luthiers have a remarkable standing in the history of their craft. Their profound influence is due to their superior artisanry and the innovative influence of the masters they produced, the unusually long continuity of their family tradition – and last but not least, the many excellent-quality and rich-sounding instruments which helped define the understanding of the Italian violin. To this day they continue to enrich the world of music in the hands of outstanding soloists.  
 Alessandro Gagliano – the&amp;nbsp; pater familias &amp;nbsp;and founding father of violin making in Naples 
 Alessandro Gagliano was the&amp;nbsp; pater familias &amp;nbsp;of a violin-making dynasty and considered the founder of the craft in his home town of Naples. Like many of the great personalities in the history of violin making, countless legends swirl around the story of his life and the origins of his art. For example, the Russian nobleman, diplomat and art collector Nicolai Borisovich Yusupov – who, by the way, had the rare honour of being one of the owners of the famous Ex-Lipiński violin by  Guarneri del Gesù  – told the entertaining tale about winning a duel against the young Alessandro, who then had to seek refuge in the forests of northern Italy and passed his time there by trying his hand at crafting instruments; this later inspired him to become an apprentice under none other than  Antonio Stradivari  in Cremona. Although the story of fleeing into the woods was never taken particularly seriously, for quite some time musical literature perpetuated the assumption that Gagliano trained with Stradivari, and this thought was further supported by Alessandro Gagliano’s labels, which proudly declared that he was an “alumnus Stradivarius.” In light of the distinctive nature of his violin model and his technique, however, this is no longer thought to be true. 
 Like many other details about the history of the Gaglianos, whose biographical data remained largely unresearched until fairly recently, it was also unclear for quite some time who Alessandro Gagliano learned his trade from. It may have been masters from Füssen, Germany such as Jacob Diefenbrunner or Christoph Railich, both of whom were active in Naples as lute makers and thus may have been his predecessors or teachers. There is, however, no proof of these assertions. 
 Nicolò Gagliano (Nicolo I) and the Stradivari heritage 
  Nicolò Gagliano  (Nicolaus Gagliano) is regarded as the most influential violin maker of his family, even though his brother Gennaro and son Giuseppe were his worthy peers as masters of historic and style-defining relevance. Whereas Nicolò’s father and teacher Alessandro worked with a violin model that showed no major influence from the  violin making tradition of Cremona , Nicolò Gagliano’s oeuvre demonstrates a profound understanding of Antonio Stradivari’s work and a comparable sense of innovation. His craftsmanship attained standards which led some his violins to be incorrectly seen as authentic Stradivaris. The fact that his personal accomplishments thus did not receive scholarly attention until rather late in no way diminishes the outstanding reputation which his violins and the few surviving Gagliano celli have earned in the world of music to this day. 
   
 Gennaro Gagliano – the brother 
 Experts rank Gennaro Gagliano (Januarius Gagliano) higher than his older brother Nicolò, although the ranking given to these historic violin-making luminaries is an issue of subordinate importance given the quality of their oeuvre. Both brothers share an orientation towards the great Cremonese masters, but Gennaro’s creativity was not particularly evident as a further refinement of the powerful Stradivari model. Instead, his mastery was more apparent in his personal style, the unmistakable elements of which especially include the interplay of colours in his varnish. Furthermore, based on the conclusions that can be drawn using surviving instruments, Gennaro appears to have been more interested in Amati’s violin model than Nicolò was. 
 Both brothers ultimately focused on crafting top-tier celli with great success, and in this genre they not only made instruments which to this day are amongst the finest ever created. The Gagliano brothers also defined a more narrow cello model which went onto become characteristic for Neapolitan violin making. 
 Ferdinando, Antonio and Giuseppe Gagliano – the third generation 
 The Gagliano family’s artisanal tradition took root in the work of Nicolò Gagliano’s three sons and matured into the Neapolitan school which gave Naples its status as the second most important historic centre of Italian violin making after Cremona. Ferdinando, Antonio and  Giuseppe Gagliano  were trained in one of the world’s finest workshops. Although detailed information about the collaborations between the two generations is not available, Ferdinando does not appear to have learned his craft from his father, but rather from his uncle Gennaro, whose style and approach to work is clearly evident in Ferdinando’s instruments – unlike Giuseppe, who was trained by his father Nicolò. 
 Even though there was a great deal of continuity within the family style, this generation nevertheless created its own accents and made them a permanent part of Neapolitan tradition. One example is the typically curved shape of a peg box with a delicate scroll which harkens back to Giuseppe Gagliano and was cited in Naples well into the 20 th century. 
 Giovanni Gagliano (Giovanni I) “the nephew” and the fourth generation of the Gagliano dynasty 
 Despite the fact that Giovanni Gagliano as Nicolò’s son&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;was part of the third generation of his family, he is often counted as belonging to the fourth generation in scholarly literature. For one thing, all of the members of this generation were his sons; for another, the links between his work&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;and their work are much closer than to that of his brothers. 
 One hallmark of the fourth generation of the Gaglianos is a particular trend towards simpler, more streamlined and thus more cost-effective processes. Compromises in the quality of the tone woods, backs without purfling, and less attention to detail in the peg box, scroll or purfling were not the effect of any lack in talent or training; instead, these shortcuts are to be seen as pragmatic concessions to the era of rising industrial manufacturing of instruments in the late 18th and early 19th century. They were a way to accommodate the conditions of a changing market. 
 The family’s typical style still manifest itself in individual pieces, however, and even many of these simpler works regarded as superficial and lacking in distinction had a surprisingly good Italian sound. In their own way, they showed that Giovanni had been the beneficiary of outstanding training under his uncle Gennaro – which is why he referred to himself as “Nepos Januarius,” “Gennaro’s nephew” on his labels – and he certainly shared this heritage with his descendants. 
 The family left the violin-making tradition after nearly 200 years with Vincenzo Gagliano, a son of Raffaele and the great-great-grandson of Alessandro Gagliano, who had dedicated himself to creating strings. 
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            </content>

                            <updated>2021-02-03T16:30:00+01:00</updated>
                    </entry>

    
    
        <entry>
            <title type="text">Giovanni Paolo Maggini – notes on his life and work</title>
            <id>https://www.corilon.com/us/library/master-portraits/giovanni-paolo-maggini-notes-on-his-life-and-work</id>
            <link href="https://www.corilon.com/us/library/master-portraits/giovanni-paolo-maggini-notes-on-his-life-and-work"/>
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                                            Violin maker Giovanni Paolo Maggini (1580 - 1632) and old Italian violin making in Brescia - notes on the life and work of a key figure in the history of violin making
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                  Giovanni Paolo Maggini (1580 - 1632) , an early Italian violin maker of Brescia, is one of the influential historical figures in early Italian violin making and, along with his teacher Gasparo da Salò, the second great master of the  Brescia school . 
   
 Giovanni Paolo Maggini – Life and work: Overview 
 
  Giovanni Paolo Maggini and early Italian violin making  
  G. P. Maggini as a student of Gasparo da Salò  
  The Maggini violin: Epochs of the work biography of Giovan Paolo Maggini  
  Giovanni Paolo Maggini&#039;s death and legacy  
 
 Giovanni Paolo Maggini and early Italian violin making 
 Giovanni Paolo Maggini was born in 1580 in the Lombard town of Botticino di Sera near Brescia. As a boy of barely 8 years old, he left the modest circumstances of his parental home to learn the violin making trade from Gasparo da Salò - and eventually become one of the most important masters of his time himself. Maggini&#039;s remarkable development, his obvious success in the musical world of the early 17th century and his fame that continues to this day are characteristic of this epoch in the history of musical instruments, in which the violin began to emancipate itself from its late medieval predecessors, the viols and the instruments of the viola da braccio family, to finally find in the work of the great Cremonese  Antonio Stradivari &amp;nbsp;the fundamental definition of its construction principles that are still valid today. 
 Fueled by the burgeoning musical culture of the early Baroque period, violin making offered talented craftsmen such as G. P. Maggini and his teacher Gasparo da Salò, one of the earliest known violin makers in the narrower sense of the word, the prospect of making a living so substantial that they had ample scope for the experiments that allowed the violin model to mature within a few decades - which encouraged the demand for even better and even more magnificently appointed stringed instruments all the more. 
 G. P. Maggini as a pupil of Gasparo da Salò 
    In 1588, at a young age, Maggini came as an apprentice to the long-established Gasparo Bertolotti, known as da Salò, whose Brescian workshop was famous beyond the borders of Italy for its innovative, beautiful-sounding instruments. Why this profession was chosen for the boy and who opened the door for him to train in this renowned house is not known. We do know, however, that Giovan Paolo Maggini remained with da Salò until he was 21 years old, during which time he received one of the best educations a liutaio of his time could wish for. 
 The Maggini violin: Epochs of the work biography of Giovan Paolo Maggini 
 As an apprentice and collaborator of da Salò, Giovanni Paolo Maggini was naturally bound to the master&#039;s procedures and specifications, but even the first phase of his independent work is still clearly influenced by his teacher&#039;s violin model. One will not be doing the young master Maggini too much injustice if one sees this as a thoroughly pragmatic decision - after all, da Salò&#039;s model was well established on the international market; and the fact that G. P. Maggini did not take too much care with the choice of wood and the constructional details at this time probably does not speak for a lack of training or talent, but rather for a certain pragmatism with which he built up his economic existence. 
 Initial experiments with different woods, including unusual materials such as poplar, sycamore, walnut, and pear, herald the second phase in his work, in which Maggini worked on a comprehensive reformulation of the violin as a still-young type of instrument. Lavishly decorated works with magnificent inlays, some made of mother-of-pearl and ivory, stand for the aesthetic further development of G. P. Maggini&#039;s art, while a comparatively large violin model, initially higher arched and later flatter again, represents his great interest in a more powerful tone. 
 From these experiments and an assumed close study of works by the  Amati family in Cremona  - Giovanni Paolo Maggini was a contemporary of the great Nicolà Amati, 16 years his senior, and thus occupies an interesting intermediary position between the generations, if only biographically - the mature  Maggini violin  with its low ribs, elongated sound holes of an unmistakable shape and the often double purfling, which was to become an often copied feature of his style among later violin makers, finally resulted. More crucial to the sound of these violins, however, is that over the years Giovanni Paolo Maggini had studied, calculated, and optimized in detail the proper distribution of top and back thickness. 
   
 Giovanni Paolo Maggini&#039;s death and legacy 
 When G. P. Maggini fell victim to the plague in 1632, his workshop was presumably taken over by Santo de Santis, a friend, who continued it from then on under the name &quot;Pietro Santo Maggini&quot; and was long thought in the literature to be a son of Maggini. Among the unanswered questions of the Maggini legacy is the extent to which Pietro Santo Maggini, a skilled carpenter, built instruments himself - or whether he had access to a more extensive legacy of finished or semi-finished work. 
 While the immediate impact of Giovanni Paolo Maggini on subsequent generations is largely obscure, as none of his students achieved preeminent importance, research nevertheless assumes that Maggini&#039;s work more than marginally influenced the work of Cremonese &quot;competitors&quot; Andrea  Guarneri  - grandfather of the famous del Gesù - and Antonio Stradivari. Like most of the old Italian classics, Giovanni Paolo Maggini was initially forgotten when  Jakob Stainer &#039;s violin model exerted its dominant influence on the Baroque era, but found a new appreciation with the return to the Lombard roots of violin making, which was expressed not least in frequent imitations of Maggini&#039;s unique ornamentation since the early 19th century. 
 Originally published by Corilon violins. 
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                            <updated>2020-07-15T09:00:00+02:00</updated>
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        <entry>
            <title type="text">Antonio Stradivari – a story of sound and echoes</title>
            <id>https://www.corilon.com/us/library/master-portraits/antonio-stradivari-a-story-of-sound-and-echoes</id>
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                                            Violin maker Antonio Stradivari is seen as the ultimate historic standard in the field of violin making. What do we know about the great master, and what is the secret of the Stradivari violin?
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                   Antonio Stradivari  (Italian violin maker, c.1644–1737, Cremona) was one of the most historically influential violin makers and the Stradivarius violin model defined the standards in violin making that are still fundamental today. Antonio Stradivari&#039;s late work from the so-called &quot;Golden Period&quot; was an artistic revolution; the incomparably good sound of a Stradivarius violin has occupied violin makers and researchers for generations.&amp;nbsp;Today, Antonio Stradivari violins are traded at prohibitive prices of $ 10 - 15 millions.  
 How did his ingenious, influential Stradivari violin model come about - and why are Stradivarius violins among the most expensive stringed instruments traded today? 
   
 Antonio Stradivari, Cremona: overview 
 
  Stradivari and Amati: who was Antonio Stradivari’s teacher?  
  Antonio Stradivari&#039;s violin model  
  Stradivari’s secret &amp;nbsp; 
  Overview of the phases in Antonio Stradivari’s oeuvre   
  The perpetual crown princes: Omobono and Francesco Stradivari  
  The last genuine Stradivarius violins &amp;nbsp; 
  Stradivaris from a conveyor belt: a brand is inflated  
  How much does an authentic Stradivari violin cost?  
  Antonio Stradivari&#039;s heirs: the master&#039;s great successors  
 
 Antonio Stradivari and the musical revolution of Cremona 
  Antonio Stradivari &amp;nbsp;(Antonius Stradivarius)&amp;nbsp;lived during a period of profound transitions, and in its nearly Biblical duration of well over 90 years, his lifetime spans more than an epoch of European musical history. As is so often the case in many old stories, there are a few gaps here that historic research has not yet been able to close. For example, it is regrettable that we cannot definitively ascertain what year the greatest luthier in the history of violin making was born. However, if we accept as fact his own markings on a Stradivarius violin label dated 1727 on which Antonio Stradivari wrote that he crafted the violin at the age of 83, we can assume that he was born in 1644. 
   
 It was the era of Spanish rule in Italy, and  Cremona  suffered under this government as much as it did from the social and economic impact of the major plagues of the 1630s. In light of that situation, Antonio Stradivari’s family, which was one of the city’s traditional bloodlines, left Cremona and settled elsewhere in safety. This is presumably why Antonio Stradivari’s birth was not documented in any church register. 
 Stradivari and Amati – who was Antonio Stradivari&#039;s teacher? 
 By a similar token, there is no conclusive evidence as to the circumstances in which he learned the craft of making violins and lutes, nor is it known who his teacher was. Did he perhaps first train as a carpenter? And could his teacher truly have been the great  Nicolo Amati  in Cremona? Antonio Stradivari personally appeared to allude to this by designating himself alumnus Nicolai Amati on labels in his early violins. But does this truly mean there was a teacher-student relationship between them, or was the young luthier Antonio Stradivari simply paying tribute to the undisputed pioneer of his craft – an homage that was not completely free of a certain entrepreneurial cleverness?&amp;nbsp; 
 Antonio Stradivari violin model 
 In whatever fashion Stradivari may or may not have been a student of Amati, one thing is certain: Antonio Stradivari’s success in becoming a luthier meant the success of skilled interpreter of Amati&#039;s work, and Stradivari owed his rapid ascent not to his revolutionary reformulation of the violin model which earned him his exceptional place in the history of musical instruments. Instead, he owed it to his faithful implementation of principles inspired by Amati, and, last but not least, to the aesthetic beauty of his work. The fact that Antonio Stradivari had Amati templates in his workshop until his death is an indication of the relevance he ascribed to the relationship to his &quot;master” – no matter whether the term is meant literally or figuratively here. It was not until approximately 1684 at the age of around 40 that he he began experimenting and initiated a transition that was astonishing in its radical effects: 
 
 In the ten or so years that followed, the bodies of his instruments varied in their length and width, and above all, Stradivari gradually lowered the table. This was a critical step in improving the sound, since a flatter top can resonate more easily than one with a higher arch. 
 The sound holes grew broader in the course of this period. 
 Last but not least, Stradivari made thorough modifications to the formula for the varnish he used. 
 
 By making these modifications along with many other minor adjustments, the master appears to have focussed his attention on achieving a sound that was more powerful, resonant and assertive and to merge this with the acoustic merits of his previous work. A great deal of speculation has been made about the reasons for this sudden transition, and it is likely that there is a grain of truth in every attempt at a theory which explains Antonio Stradivari&#039;s motivation. There is no denying that brilliant ideas and artisanal curiosity played a part, whereas the good response his new violins received from excellent soloists and composers confirmed that his primary concern was defining a new profile of acoustic standards in the music of his day. The expansion of the orchestra and the development of the solo concerto and the concerto grosso are both plausible explanations for the revisions he made to his work, or rather for the revisions which were made throughout the entire mainstream of Italian baroque violin making, a circle where Antonio Stradivari successfully managed to create loyalty amongst a very interesting clientele. The fact that many other masters in addition to Stradivari began to experiment as well is often overlooked; the Italian violin-making period around 1690 can be described as a phase of sometimes bold experimentation in which the comparatively young standards of the violin family were in flux. 
   
 Antonio Stradivari&#039;s secret 
 The question remains, however: what was the critical characteristic that defined the remarkable quality and the exceptionally good sound of the new Stradivari model which reached its full maturity around 1695? New conjecture about this question arises at regular intervals – was it perhaps the varnish, and did it have a secret formula that, as an exciting legend would have it, Stradivari&#039;s descendants have kept under lock and key to this day? As entertaining as such speculation ― and its less spectacular equivalents ― may be, these theories are in no way to be considered a serious analysis of this epoch-defining oeuvre. A stringed instrument is a complex system whose quality is never a matter of a single element; it depends on each and every one of its components being of a consistently high quality. 
  Even the varnish, which Antonio Stradivari&#039;s clients appreciated (albeit more for its aesthetic quality), was a contributing factor but cannot be regarded as &quot;the&quot; secret of &quot;the&quot; Stradivari violin. The violins of the great Cremonese master Antonio Stradivari are historic achievements in violin making, which owe their rank in musical history to many individual aspects, one of which is the way in which these components created a harmonious whole. To this day, studying these issues in detail remains one of the best educational tools for luthiers who want to perfect their expertise and their craftsman ability. 
 Overview of the phases in Antonio Stradivari’s oeuvre 
 
 
 
 „Amatisé“: Antonio Stradivari’s earlier work, which was patterned after Nicolò Amati, presumably his teacher 
 1667&amp;nbsp;–&amp;nbsp;ca.&amp;nbsp;1684/85 
 
 
 Transitional period:   Working with the Maggini model; lowering the table and modifying the thickness of the top to expand the sound; creating the larger &quot;Longuet&quot; model 
 1684/85&amp;nbsp;–&amp;nbsp;ca.&amp;nbsp;1695 
 
 
 Further refinement of the Stradivari model 
 1695&amp;nbsp;–&amp;nbsp;98 
 
 
 The “golden years” 
 c.&amp;nbsp;1700&amp;nbsp;–&amp;nbsp;1720 
 
 
 Later work 
 c.&amp;nbsp;1725&amp;nbsp;–&amp;nbsp;37 
 
 
 
 The perpetual crown princes: Omobono and Francesco Stradivari 
 Of Antonio Stradivari&#039;s eleven children, only Francesco Stradivari (born in 1671) and his brother Omobono Stradivari , who was eight years younger, followed in their father&#039;s footsteps – and spent their careers in their father’s shadow. It may seem surprising that the Stradivari family workshop did not undergo a smooth transition to the next generation despite its remarkable financial successes, but that was due to Stradivari himself. His exceptional mastery and productivity on into an advanced age – more specifically, until his death well past the age of ninety – left no space for Francesco Stradivari in particular to develop on his own.   Even though Antonio&#039;s later instruments show a certain imprecision here and there, their sound still fulfils all of the expectations of the finest musicians, then and now – and as a result, his personal creations remained the ultimate benchmark, even in the generation that followed him. Omobono Stradivari was the only one who dared to strike out on his own, leaving for Naples at the age of 18 and probably turning his back on violins, only to return eventually and help his father and brother at the workshop. 
 The influence of Stradivari père appears to have been so dominant that only vague information is known about the sons&#039; work: it is assumed that they never managed to emancipate themselves from the status of being highly qualified hired hands, and they only survived Antonio by a few years. As a result, the personal artisanal accomplishments of Omobono are all but lost to history, whereas Francesco Stradivari did manage to have somewhat of an influence on the 1730 &quot;forma B&quot; cello model and the mandolins produced at the Stradivari workshop. The rest of his legacy, which encompassed over 50 years of work, has been obscured by history. 
 The last genuine Stradivari violins 
 So what remained after the master and his sons died and no other talented students took their place? The Antonio Stradivari workshop was left without a direct descendant. Initially, there were still many instruments left that the father bequeathed to different members of his family, although this only represented a small number of the estimated 1,000 or so instruments which Stradivari and his sons produced in the course of their remarkably long careers. Some 650 have survived to date, although this figure is not conclusive due to the unknown provenance of many pieces. Most of them are considered investments and kept in well-secured safes or can be admired in museums – not only in the world-famous  Museo del Violino  in Stradivari’s home town of Cremona, but in many other countries around the world. Only a few remain in the hands of musicians, usually as loans, and this is a regrettable state of affairs which is due in no small part to the global success to the Stradivari &quot;brand&quot; since the 19th century and the subsequent financial speculation surrounding historic masterpieces of violin making. 
 Stradivaris from a conveyor belt: a brand is inflated 
 The interest in old Italian masters in general and Stradivari in particular which began to explode in the late 18th century was also responsible for the fact that “assembly-line Stradivaris&quot; began to be manufactured in practically all of the important centres of industrial violin production. Replicas of labels, marks and catalogues featuring Stradivari&#039;s unprotected name were used for advertising – another powerful testament to the influence of a master who embodied the very opposite of mass production, given his singular nature and the way in which his work was tied to his person.  Nevertheless, to a certain extent the factories in Saxony (Germany), France and elsewhere were justified in their approach, since even their millions of products were defined by the innovative strength which the Stradivari myth had raised to new levels centuries ago. Whereas a mass-produced Chinese violin could not possibly be farther away from the famous &quot;Messiah&quot; or &quot;Hellier,&quot; to name only two of his world-famous instrumental luminaries, the mass-market version would not exist at all without the historic Stradivari model. 
 &amp;nbsp; 
 How much does an authentic Stradivarius cost? 
 The legendary value of genuine Stradivari violins regularly captivates public attention, such as it did in the year 2016, when a violinist left her €2.4 million Stradivarius lying in a regional train.    And the latest record-breaking auction results always consistently find their way into the media, such as when the famous “Lady Blunt” was sold, the Stradivarius which has undergone the greatest increase in value to date: in 1871 the violin was sold at Sotheby’s for the equivalent of approximately $200,000 in today’s money, but in 2011 the Lady Blunt generated the breathtaking sum of $15.9 million at Tarisio. The fact that the proceeds of this auction were donated to victims of the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami may have had a further impact on the final sum. Be that as it may, however: such figures reflect the massive increase in the prices of top-quality historical instruments, especially those by Stradivari. There is no end in sight to this development. 
 Antonio Stradivari&#039;s heirs: the master&#039;s great successors 
 The direct influence that Antonio Stradivari had on the generations of  Italian violin makers  that followed was not initially as great as one might assume in light of his fame today. The violins patterned after Amati continued to enjoy great popularity, particularly in Italy; their musical properties corresponded to widespread musical preferences, particularly in the field of chamber music. Jakob Stainer&#039;s work also exerted an impact that endured even into parts of the 19th century, and various local schools shaped the diverse nature of European violin making in the early 18th century; examples include the distinctive models by Caspar Hopf in the “music corner” region of Saxony and Bohemia, or the work of Jacob Krauchdaler who influenced southern Germany and northern Switzerland. 
 Nevertheless, a line can clearly be drawn connecting Antonio Stradivari to the finest luthiers of our time, even if this tradition is not as evident in a straightforward trajectory of teacher-student relationships as it is in the repeated use and analysis of the historic templates Antonio Stradivari created. The features of these instruments are not only part of the fundamentals that young luthiers learn; they are also the connecting element in the artistic development of many excellent masters. One example is Christoph Götting, who worked on several Stradivaris violins during his many years at  J. &amp;amp; A. Beare in London , and in the course of this process, he gained important insights he applied not only to his own instruments but to his life’s work: varnish. In a similar fashion, Stradivari’s instruments have served as an ongoing source of inspiration for Parisian master  Stephan von Baehr , who began to consider the work of the great Cremona violin makers early in his career as an employee of Andreas Kaegis – and ultimately matured into one of the most interesting luthiers of our day, in no small part due to the inspiration of a period that lies in the past yet remains dynamic. 
 &amp;nbsp; 
  Related information:  
  Guarneri &amp;nbsp;- Cremonese violin making in Stradivari&#039;s shadow 
  Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume  
 On the life of the&amp;nbsp; Tyrolean violin maker Jakob Stainer  
  Samuel Zygmunowicz  : understanding Stradivarius 
  Jérôme Thibouville-Lamy – J.T.L.&amp;nbsp;  
 &amp;nbsp; 
 Originally published by Corilon violins. 
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            </content>

                            <updated>2019-12-11T09:00:00+01:00</updated>
                    </entry>

    
    
        <entry>
            <title type="text">Amati – the family that invented the violin</title>
            <id>https://www.corilon.com/us/library/master-portraits/amati-the-family-that-invented-the-violin</id>
            <link href="https://www.corilon.com/us/library/master-portraits/amati-the-family-that-invented-the-violin"/>
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                                            The Amati dynasty of luthiers dominated the world of stringed instruments for over 100 years in Cremona, making critical contributions to the development of the modern violin model.
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                 Nicolo Amati and the Amati dynasty of violin makers 
 The Amati dynasty of luthiers dominated the world of stringed instruments for over 100 years in Cremona, making critical contributions to the development of the modern violin model – in conjunction with Antonio Stradivari, who based his work on the entire Amati family oeuvre, perfected the design and construction principles of the violin, and elevated them to their current standard.  
 
  Andrea Amati and the &quot;invention&quot; of the modern violin  
  The details of Andrea Amati&#039;s violins  
  Antonio and Girolamo Amati: the Amati brothers  
  Nicolò Amati  
  The “great Amati” model by Nicolò Amati  
 
 Andrea Amati and the &quot;invention&quot; of the modern violin 
 Andrea Amati was born around 1505, and contrary to the statements of earlier music scholars, he probably was not a member of the family of patricians that shared the name. It is thus unclear whether Amati already had the financial means as a young master that would have allowed him to acquire top-tier tone woods from Venice; if so, this would have served as a partial explanation for his ability to establish his workshop so quickly. It is likely, however, that Amati simply profited from the rapid development which was taking place in the musical culture of Renaissance Italy, and the quality and style of his instruments clearly appealed to the wealthy upper class as well as religious dignitaries and institutions that were making significant investments in their artistic representation. 
 One of Amati&#039;s better decisions in this context was to focus his efforts on making stringed instruments, a choice that was by no means a matter of course during his training with Giovanni Liunardo da Martinengo. Like the luthiers of his generation – and the majority of those that followed in later generations – he certainly started out by learning the art of making plucked stringed instruments first and foremost, only to shift his attention to the violin family with unparalleled focus, and in pursuing this endeavour in depth, he ultimately wrote musical history. 
     Amati family tree  
 The details of Andrea Amati&#039;s violins 
 Andrea Amati is widely considered the &quot;inventor&quot; of the violin, although his historic achievement, like most of the major accomplishments in human history, was by no means an inspiration that occurred in a vacuum. Instead, he succeeded in introducing dynamic innovations in the violin models of his day; at that time, the design of these violins was still rooted in the late mediaeval period which had just ended and which was undergoing a process of constant transition, as were so many other elements of European culture at that time. 
 His trail-blazing and bold modifications included changing the position of the bridge, which Amati placed higher and closer to the fingerboard, thus reducing the resonant length of the strings in comparison to the older viola-da-braccio models. By also moving the sound holes further down the body and changing their shape, he created important and immediately conspicuous determinants of the new style of violin, which probably also included the standardised shape of the scroll (a feature that can likely be attributed to Amati as well). Another aspect that had an even more vital effect on the acoustic properties of the violin was a technical innovation which was not visible in and of itself: presumably Amati applied construction principles he had learned from the lute, and by building an inner substructure, he succeeded in creating much thinner walls and smaller areas to be glued, which dramatically improved the resonant properties of the entire body. 
 The most likely factor in the massive success of Amati&#039;s workshop was probably the huge advancements he made in the quality of the sound, a phenomenon for which Andrea Amati&#039;s work was renowned. Amati violins were leap years ahead of their time, musically speaking, given that in this phase of musical history there was not yet any solo literature which allowed performers to exhaust the possibilities of their instruments, especially in terms of using the full fingerboard. 
 The international success of Amati violins is due in no small part to the musicians who came to know Amati&#039;s work in Cremona and took it with them to faraway lands as they played. Researchers are still debating whether the legendary large-scale commission of richly ornamented instruments for Jean-Baptiste Lully&#039;s orchestra at the French royal court actually occurred; the order was said to have been arranged by Catherina de Medici. What remains uncontested, however, is the historic influence which Amati and his oeuvre had on all subsequent generations of luthiers. 
     
 Antonio and Girolamo Amati: the Amati brothers 
 The first of Andrea Amati&#039;s immediate successors were obviously his two sons, Antonio and Girolamo Amati, who optimised their father&#039;s violin model and refined it to perfection. Like their father, the brothers, who gave their instruments a shared label, focused exclusively on crafting stringed instruments. 
 After their father&#039;s death in 1577, it became apparent that his sons were truly worthy heirs in terms of their willingness to experiment and their creativity, and consequently they were successful in implementing significant improvements to the Amati model in every significant area. 
 In addition to refining the purfling and harmonising the silhouette, they also narrowed the sound holes and enhanced the acoustics of how the table was designed; in comparison to their father&#039;s work, they increased the edge fluting, thus achieving not only an improvement in aesthetics but an increase in the tension of the top, which in turn contributed to the greater responsiveness and acoustic appeal of their work. The enduring historic accomplishments of the brothers Amati include, amongst other things, establishing a smaller size from the viola, a standard which Stradivari immediately implemented and which has remained the prevailing benchmark to this day. 
 Like nearly every other biography of a non-member of the nobility during this period, there are several unanswered questions about the Amati brothers&#039; lives, the greatest of which is likely to be why Antonio sold his stake in the workshop to Girolamo. This transfer was documented as having occurred in 1588, which was only 11 years after Andrea Amati&#039;s death, yet the incident does not appear to have had any impact on their work together, which apparently continued unaffected. Even after Antonio&#039;s death in 1607, Girolamo continued to use their shared violin label until 1630, the year in which he himself fell victim to the plague. 
 Nicolò Amati 
 The success of Antonio and Girolamo Amatis&#039; workshop had created the ideal prerequisites for any successor – especially if they, like Girolamo&#039;s son Nicolò, had learned the trade from childhood onward at one of the leading violin-making workshops in Italy. Nevertheless, the 34-year-old master found himself in difficult straits after the unexpected death of his father. Northern Italy had been ravaged by famine and plague, and after Maggini in Brescia succumbed to the disease as well in 1632, Nicolò found himself operating the last of the truly superior violin-making ateliers in the country. It is not known in detail how he coped with this situation, which was probably quite overwhelming and marked by a chronic lack of staff, yet it is striking that very few instruments have survived from the first decade of that period. 
 Despite all of these obstacles, Nicolò Amati used this time to fundamentally reorient himself ― very much in keeping with the tradition of his family, which had taken times of transition in their biography to review previous generations&#039; achievements and make important optimisations to the prevailing Amati model of each respective time. Whereas he still crafted instruments in his father&#039;s style between 1630 and 1640 and labeled them accordingly, at the same time Nicolò was laying the cornerstone for a &quot;new Amati&quot; which would ultimately have the same significance in the history of violin making as his grandfather&#039;s innovative choices did. 
 The “great Amati” model by Nicolò Amati 
 The fundamental re-interpretation of Andrea Amati&#039;s violin model was the cornerstone for the enduring financial success that lead Nicolò Amati&#039;s workshop out of the period of crisis whilst also paving the way for the works of the Cremonese school that followed. 
 The main definitive modifications included reinterpreting and lowering the table whilst increasing the tension of the top, which Nicolò achieved by making the edge fluting – one of his father&#039;s and uncle&#039;s most important innovations – even deeper. This development along with the higher ribs created a new sound in the violin which corresponded to the performance standards of that period: multiple choruses and large-scale orchestras. 
 Nicolò Amati also made history in his work as a teacher and is the master to whom the great figures of the Cremonese school owe their training and inspiration. Even though there is little direct evidence of Francesco Ruggeri, Andrea Guarneri and Antonio Stradivari training at Nicolò Amati&#039;s workshop, there can be no doubt whatsoever about his massive influence upon them. And it is also quite probable that he thus created the intense competition in Cremona which made the life of Girolamo II Amati, his son and student, so difficult and ultimately dimmed the bright light of the Amati family starting in the 17th century. 
  Related articles:  
  Italian violins  in Corilon violins online catalog 
  Markneukirchen: violin making  in “German Cremona” 
  International violin making competitions  -- an overview 
  Contemporary violin makers  - the modern artisans 
  Samuel Zygmuntowicz : understanding Stradivarius 
 How to select a violin, provenance, value and  violin appraisal  
 Originally published by Corilon violins. 
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                            <updated>2019-12-10T17:27:00+01:00</updated>
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        <entry>
            <title type="text">Guarneri: Cremonese violin making in Stradivari&#039;s shadow</title>
            <id>https://www.corilon.com/us/library/master-portraits/guarneri-cremonese-violin-making-in-stradivari-s-shadow</id>
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                                            Guarneri del Gesu and the Guarneri family of violin makers – notes on biographies and works
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                 Andrea Guarneri – the pater familias 
 The life and work of Andrea Guarneri, a major historic figure and the pater familias of a great family of Cremonese luthiers Guarneri, are both closely linked to the history of the Amati workshop. A boy from the farming village of Casalbuttano, he learned his craft from  Nicolò Amati , was practically treated as a member of the family, and may well have owed his ability to establish himself in the premiere league of baroque Italian violin making to the fact that Amati&#039;s workshop had more business than it could manage. 
 The Guarneri violin makers – overview: 
 
  Andrea Guarneri – the pater familias  
  Giuseppe Giovanni Battista Guarneri (I) – the faithful  
  Pietro Giovanni Guarneri – Pietro da Mantova  
  Pietro Guarneri “filius Joseph” – Pietro di Venezia  
  Giuseppe Guarneri “del Gesù” – a true peer of Stradivari  
 
 &amp;nbsp;  
 It has not been clearly determined when Guarneri began training under Nicolò Amati; the late 1630s are plausible, but at any rate in 1641 he was documented as a member of the workshop and household. In 1645 Guarneri was a witness at Amati&#039;s wedding, which indicates a much closer bond than the one that would already have intertwined the life and work of a master and a journeyman in that era. It can be assumed that Amati regarded his talented student as a confidante who was a possible candidate for taking over his workshop later on – and Guarneri remained a person he continued to rely upon after his first son, Girolamo Amati, was born in 1649. 
 Upon marrying in 1653, however, Guarneri began to take steps towards establishing his own career and began to work as an independent master in the immediate vicinity of Amati. In a gesture of both respectful homage and of strategically wise alignment, he proudly designated himself &quot;ex Allumnis Nicolai Amati“ on his first labels. 
 It is indeed true that Andrea Guarneri’s craft was predominantly defined by his teacher’s influence, even though the instruments of the student never quite reached the detail-obsessed precision and overall harmonious quality of his mentor’s work. Perhaps Guarneri was not familiar with the intricacies of putting the finishing details on a new instrument, since at Amati’s workshop the master himself usually performed those tasks. 
  It was not until many years later that Guarneri attempted a few innovations; the more closely positioned sound holes was one such endeavour that is not necessarily to be ranked among the more successful experiments in violin making history. By contrast, however, some of his few still-extant gambas are truly masterpieces that can hold their own against any other instrument. Another accomplishment was his smaller interpretation of the cello which corresponded to the growing soloist demands of the musical culture of his day. It ranks among the trail-blazing achievements of the original Guarneri workshop; as time passed, the influence of his sons’ work became evident at an increasing rate. 
 Giuseppe Giovanni Battista Guarneri (I) – the faithful 
 Andrea Guarneri&#039;s younger son Giuseppe Giovanni Battista spent his entire life following in his father&#039;s footsteps – as a student, journeyman and successor to the workshop, and later he remained there with the family he started in 1690. His close ties to his father and to the latter’s status as the second most influential luthier after Amati can also be seen in the label Giuseppe used from 1698 on, when he began to indicate that he was “filius Andreae.”    
 Despite the fact that Giuseppe Guarneri always remained true to the paths he pursued, his professional biography nevertheless indicates a few dark and enigmatic phases which hint at a troubled and turbulent life. The transition after Andrea&#039;s death was already fraught from a financial perspective, since Giuseppe had to pay out several heirs, including his older brother, Pietro, who had fallen out of favour. Shortly thereafter, Cremona became drawn into the chaos of the War of Spanish Succession which went on until 1707. And after stability returned following Austria’s victory, Giuseppe had to make his way under the same difficult circumstances his father had struggled with: he always came in second when the top luthiers of the era were compared. Andrea ranked after Amati, and Giuseppe ranked after Stradivari, who himself at the time was merely the most predominant luthier amongst the many competitors in Cremonese violin making. 
 It is thus no surprise that Giuseppe Guarneri’s oeuvre is very inconsistent, and in addition to creating true masterpieces in the art of violin making – which prompted no less a luminary than Charles Beare to name him one of the greatest violin makers in history – he also produced instruments made of remarkably simple materials and crafted with conspicuous shoddiness. From 1715 on, his sons offered him support, but his work abruptly ended in 1720, even though he went on to live for around another 20 years. Exactly why no more Giuseppe Guarneri instruments can be confirmed from this point onward remains one of the unresolved questions amongst musical scholars. 
    Guarneri family tree 
 Pietro Giovanni Guarneri – Pietro da Mantova 
 Unlike his brother Giuseppe, Andrea Guarneri’s eldest son Pietro Guarneri did not spend his entire career under his father’s roof. Both brothers learned their trade at home, as it were, and initially stayed on after they had children of their own, but in 1679 Pietro decided to leave Cremona and move to Mantua – a step his father never forgave him for, but one which proved to be wise, since Pietro made a much better life for himself away from home. 
 In Mantua, a position at the court ensemble of Duke Ferdinando Carlo Gonzaga secured Pietro’s livelihood after having been trained as both a violin maker and a violinist; ultimately he became known as “Pietro da Mantova” so as to distinguish himself from his nephew with the same name. Largely free of local competition, he was also able to establish himself as an excellent violin maker who made a name for himself in musical history. In contrast to Giuseppe, who had stayed in Cremona, it is clear that Pietro worked for clients who paid properly; consequently, he did not have to make any compromises in terms of the materials or labour he invested in his instruments. The resulting works included some exceptionally lovely violins and a cello, all of which are compelling in their elegance and a style which, while not revolutionary, is distinctive. 
 The fact that he created a fairly modest number of instruments – we now know of some 50 in total – was certainly due to his working at multiple tasks throughout his life. In addition to his music, he was also successful as a manufacturer of strings, and in 1699 the Duke granted him the privilege of a monopoly. 
 Despite the fact that his business clearly went well, Pietro Guarneri da Mantova remained without a successor; one can only speculate that he may not have had time to train one of his sons or another suitable apprentice. What is certain is that his art had an effect on other violin makers, including the Mantuese luthiers Balestrieri and Camilli – as well as his nephew Pietro Guarneri (“filius Joseph”) and his own brother Giuseppe, who followed more in Pietro’s footsteps than in his father Andrea’s in many ways. 
 Pietro Guarneri “filius Joseph” – Pietro di Venezia 
 The details of Giuseppe Guarneri’s biography cannot be documented after 1720, but it was during this enigmatic period that his son Pietro came into his own, the “Venetian Guarneri,” who was also known as Pietro di Venezia or “filius Joseph.” His first personal label is dated 1721, which is to say shortly after the time in which his father’s work appears to have ceased. It is thought that he then left Cremona and worked as an assistant to a Venetian master before becoming an independent master there. The first record confirming his presence in Venice is dated 1725, and there is evidence of at least a private connection to the Sellas (Seelos) family of lute makers. 
 As was the case for his uncle, Venetian Pietro’s decision to turn his back on Cremona was ultimately the correct one. Between 1730 and 1750 he created a formidable number of violins and a few celli which hold a special status in comparison with the other luthiers in his family. He did in fact uphold some of the Guarneri traditions, such as the structure of the table relative to the top and back, but in terms of his personal style, he merged the predominant influence of Stradivari with the Venetian tradition. In particular, the varnish (which plays no small part in how well an instrument sells) clearly reflected the preferences of the prevailing tastes of Venice at that time. And as was common in his new hometown, Pietro decorated his label with floral ornaments – but did not fail to include the attribution “figlio di Giuseppe” and a reference to his home town, “Cremonese.” 
 Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesù – a true peer of Stradivari 
 Whereas Pietro da Mantova and Pietro di Venezia Guarneri sought their fortunes (and found them) outside of Cremona, Bartolomeo Giuseppe Guarneri [&quot;del Gesù&quot;] (Guarneri del Gesù)&amp;nbsp;took a very different path than that of his uncle and brother after the apparent economic collapse of his father&#039;s workshop. Although little is known about the certain years in the life of the man who is considered the greatest luthier in history alongside  Antonio Stradivari , it appears that he did little to pursue his art between 1723 and 1730; for the most part, the few surviving Guarneri instruments from this period that might have been his work cannot be clearly attributed. 
 Upon returning to Cremona in 1731, Guarneri del Gesù&amp;nbsp;directly took up where he had left off as an apprentice and assistant in his father&#039;s workshop – and thus returned to an inspiring phase in which he had a great deal of creative liberty to experiment. This is a key reason as to why the late phase of the Giuseppe Giovanni Battista Guarneri workshop is now seen as the early phase in the oeuvre of Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesù. 
 In the fifteen years that followed, Guarneri del Gesù&amp;nbsp;continued to experiment in his work. There were, however, three main identifying characteristics that served as a constant in all his pieces: 
 
 His signature, which gave him his nickname and featured the Christogram IHS and an ornamented cross, 
 His use of the unusual and linguistically archaic spelling “Cremonȩ” instead of “Cremonae” 
 And of course the truly unique acoustic properties which elevated Guarneri’s violins into the ranks of instruments preferred by the world’s finest violinists such as Heifetz, Stern and Zukerman. This passion for Guarneri instruments began with Niccolò Paganini’s esteem for the legendary “Cannone.” 
 
 &amp;nbsp; 
 All of the other characteristics of the Guarneri violin were subject to a constant state of flow with Giuseppe Guarneri, who was readily willing to break with all of the aesthetic and craftsman traditions – including those that his own family helped define – in his pursuit of a warmer and more powerful sound. 
 This attitude was already evident in Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesùs&amp;nbsp;early work when he actively explored the innovations of his famous and highly successful neighbour Antonio Stradivari – quite unlike his father, who appears to have deliberately ignored the competition. Scholars attribute the significant acoustic improvement in of some of the Giuseppe Guarneri violins in the late 1710s to Stradivari’s influence, who had made his way into the Guarneri workshop via del Gesù. From 1730 onward, Guarneri turned his attention to the Brescia school and enhanced the table, silhouette and the position of the sound holes in keeping with the work of da Salò and Maggini. 
 Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesù&amp;nbsp;thus achieved his most notable accomplishments around 1735, and his historic legacy is due in no small part to his brilliant craftsmanship and success in blending the finest characteristics of the Cremonese and Brescian traditions, the two most influential and highly refined Italian violin-making schools. 
 The remaining nine years until his early death were marked by an increasing disregard of all of the aspects of the violin that were incidental or irrelevant to its sound. As a result, Giuseppe Guarneri emphasised acoustic properties more and more as he selected his woods, not allowing himself to be charmed by even the loveliest of grains. The execution of his work became hastier and more marked by evident disinterest; the colour of the varnish became more a matter of coincidence; the sound holes were not symmetrically carved and seemed to be positioned more by the master’s intuition of the top’s vibration properties instead of by aesthetic concerns. 
 Unlike  Antonio Stradivari , Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesù did not implement the principle of trial and error during only a single phase of his oeuvre: he did so until the very last day of his working life. Perhaps it is this brilliant spirit of openness which has allowed Guarneri violins to enjoy some of the popularity they continue to experience amongst outstanding artists – not to mention the excellent sound, which continues to set standards some 300 years later. 
 &amp;nbsp; 
  Related information:  
  Antonio Stradivari &amp;nbsp;- a story of sound and echoes&amp;nbsp; 
  Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume  
 On the life of the&amp;nbsp; Tyrolean violin maker Jakob Stainer  
  Jérôme Thibouville-Lamy (J.T.L.) &amp;nbsp; 
 &amp;nbsp; 
  Useful links:  
  Library - text about the history of stringed instruments  
  Online catalogue &amp;nbsp;| Premium violins, violas, cellos and bows (audio sound samples)&amp;nbsp; 
 Originally published by Corilon violins. 
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                            <updated>2019-12-09T17:29:00+01:00</updated>
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        <entry>
            <title type="text">Jakob Stainer (Jacobus Stainer) – the wanderer</title>
            <id>https://www.corilon.com/us/library/master-portraits/jakob-stainer-the-wanderer</id>
            <link href="https://www.corilon.com/us/library/master-portraits/jakob-stainer-the-wanderer"/>
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                                            The Tyrolean violin maker Jakob Stainer (Absam, 1618-1693) set standards - on Jacobus Stainer, the Stainer violin and the life of a violin maker in an era of uncertainty 
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                 On the history of Jakob Stainer (Jacobus Stainer), a violin maker in an era of uncertainty 
 The life story of the Tyrolean violin maker  Jakob Stainer (1618-1683) , also called Jacob Stainer / Jacobus Stainer, who lived in Absam near Innsbruck and Mittenwald, is an enigmatic blend of coarse anecdotes, unparalleled artisanal achievements, and a spirit that was surprisingly contemporary. The resulting biography paints an unconventional portrait of the paradoxical historical period, the epoch at the beginning of the Thirty Years’ War in which the most important European luthier outside of Italy was born. In its peaks and troughs, Stainer’s biography reflects the tensions of its day, an era of uncertainty which yielded a musical luminary who was restless and repeatedly failed whilst still setting standards. 
 The story of Jakob Stainer: Overview    
 
  Jakob Stainer&#039;s early life  
  The apprentice years: Was Jakob Stainer a student of Amati?  
  A journeyman&#039;s wandering: Jakob Stainer as a young luthier  
  A story of financial drama  
  Stainer establishes himself in Absam  
  Rough edges: Jakob Stainer as a product of his time  
  The heresy trial again Jakob Stainer  
  Economic turbulence  
  Jakob Stainer&#039;s illness and death  
  Notes on Jakob Stainer&#039;s oeuvre  
 
 &amp;nbsp; 
 Jakob Stainer&#039;s early life 
 Jakob Stainer’s life began in some of the most simple and impoverished circumstances imaginable. He was born as the son of a miner sometime around 1618 – although scholars discuss varying dates between 1617 and 1621. Nevertheless he was able to go to school and received basic musical training as a member of the boys’ choir in Hall or at the court of Innsbruck. Statements in later letters would imply that he at least learned the basics of playing the violin, a qualification he later described as being “quite necessary and useful” for violin makers. 
  The apprentice years: Was Jakob Stainer a student of Amati?  
 Historic research has not been able to determine exactly how Jakob Stainer found his way to violin making, and the question as to his teacher remains a mystery that has given rise to a great deal of speculation. Did he complete the first years of his training with a carpenter in his home region of Tirol, as the rules of his guild dictated? And did he then go to Cremona or perhaps even work in the famous Amati workshop, as one enigmatic violin label would imply? We do not know. There is a great deal of evidence that Jakob Stainer knew about the innovations of Italian violin making – and knew them well – but as a young craftsman in training, he focused intensely on southern German traditions. His greatest legacy on musical history was the way in which he perfected this tradition and turned it into the standard of an era in violin-making history. It is thus conceivable that he may have been trained in Italy but with a German luthier who lived there, perhaps in Venice where he apparently had ties; there is, however, nothing to corroborate this hypothesis. 
 A journeyman&#039;s wandering: Jakob Stainer as a young luthier 
 In the late 1630s Jakob Stainer had established himself within his field and was leading the life of a wandering craftsman who sold his instruments directly to those who commissioned them, to other interested parties, or at markets; otherwise he earned his living by making repairs wherever they were needed. In his home of Tirol, several such opportunities presented themselves thanks to the dynamic trade that took place along the road between Verona and Augsburg, a route that still exists today as the Autobahn A12/E60 and connected the villages along the Inn valley like a string of beads. His earliest signed violins date back to the year 1638; a sale to the Salzburg court was documented from the year 1644, and commissions from Munich and the court of Innsbruck followed shortly thereafter. These transactions confirm the growing successes of the young luthier who was able to increase the price of his violins from around four guilders to around 20 in this period, and he was also able to start a family during in 1645 in the midst of these gradually improving circumstances: his first daughter was born just before he married Margareta Holzhammer, the daughter of a mining foreman from Hall. In keeping with the sad statistics of the day, only three of Jakob and Margareta Stainer’s nine children survived their parents. 
 A story of financial drama 
 One of the defining characteristics of Stainer&#039;s biography was the debt that marred his career from an early phase onward. These business challenges opened certain doors to him ‑‑ the son of a miner ‑‑ but they also followed him, not only throughout his life but beyond his death as well. The period in which Stainer created the majority of his oeuvre as a luthier and became one of the most influential figures in European violin-making history can also be told as a story of financial drama: loans taken and granted, interest payments, arrears and massive liquidity crises. To a certain extent, Stainer&#039;s biography is thus typical for the transition to early capitalism, which was one of the major developments of its era. 
 Even the earliest documents of his business arrangements serve a stellar example of this situation. In 1646 Jakob Stainer took on a debt that had belonged to his father-in-law, who had become financially overwhelmed by his obligations as a mine foreman and owed Archduke Ferdinand Karl a considerable sum. Stainer offered to pay the debt by providing the Archduke instruments and gradually let his father-in-law repay him. This was a remarkable and clever manoeuvre which both allowed the young luthier to sell his violins whilst also creating a point of access to the Archduke’s court. Stainer ultimately received a payment of 50 guilders for the initial delivery of 30 guilders’ worth of instruments and strings – and immediately put these short-term liquid assets towards a trip to Venice with the express goal of purchasing raw materials. 
 This business trip lasted around a year and a half, and when Stainer returned, the family debt was transferred to court musician Christoph Hegele and then cancelled shortly thereafter. This was an odd end to this transaction and triggers speculation: perhaps the court had lost patience after Stainer&#039;s long absence? Had the entrepreneurially inclined master discovered new and better options? These are some of the many unresolved questions about Jakob Stainer’s biography. 
 Further journeys led Stainer, ever the wanderer, to Munich, Venice, Bozen and Brixen from 1650-55. The fact that he became godfather for the first of many times in 1652 and personally served as a guarantor to a bond in 1653 both indicated that his financial situation and, by extension, his bourgeois status had stabilised. In 1655 he sold an elaborately ornamented violin in Munich for 30 guilders – the same sum he had owed the Archduke only a few years earlier and for which he had parted with several instruments to settle his debt. 
 Stainer establishes himself in Absam 
 His growing successes and an inheritance allowed him to settle in Absam in 1656 and open a workshop. He acquired the house where he was to work and spend the rest of his life; he did so by swapping houses within the family and paying his relative the difference of a hefty 150 guilders, for which he went into debt. 
 In 1658 Stainer was appointed an Archducal servant and purveyor to the court by Count Ferdinand Karl of Tirol as a belated reward for his many years of service at the court of Innsbruck. This title was a key factor in his success; as an immediate result, he received commissions from the Spanish royal court, and the radius of his influence steadily expanded well beyond the borders of German-language countries and even to Italy. Composer and virtuoso Antonio Veracini, for example, owned 10 Stainer violins, which comprised half of his collection. 
 Rough edges: Jakob Stainer as a product of his time 
 Jakob Stainer lived in the conflict-rich period of the 17th century, an era of political and societal unrest and upheaval, of transition that affected every aspect of people’s lives. Stainer’s life played out in Habsburgian Tirol, one of the key regions of the Counterreformation – a place which nevertheless was affected by revolutionary Protestant teachings that made their way even to the smallest villages, sometimes openly and sometimes in a clandestine fashion. The financial turmoil generated by the Thirty Years’ War and the growing economic pressures of the nobility had an impact on every class of the restructuring society; consequently, it comes as no surprise that a luthier such as Jakob Stainer also experienced his share of the tensions of his era. This was all the more true since the documents which have survived all depict him as a man who was unusually well educated for his social status and as an intelligent but difficult character. 
 Amongst the more minor conflicts in the &quot;Stainer files“ was a physical altercation with Absam peasants in 1659 which ended in mutual claims filed for damages. In 1661 Stainer was forced to appear in court for a dunning trial involving an invoice he had contested, and he was sentenced to pay 50 guilders. 
 The heresy trial again Jakob Stainer 
 In addition to these minor legal skirmishes, there were formal legal charges of heresy against Jakob Stainer and his friend Jacob Meringer, who had been Stainer’s employer for over two years from 1668 onward. The two ended up in prison, and the incident helped solidify the historic image of Stainer as a rebellious personality who was literal-minded to the point of obstinacy. The secular courts attempted to remain uninvolved in the dispute as much as possible, but the formal accusation was that Jacob Meringer owned banned books that that criticised the church. Meringer attempted to defend himself by saying that he had received the books from Stainer. The real issue was probably a denunciation, since Stainer’s relationships to those around him was not always unclouded, and the eloquence he exhibited in the course of the trial may well have further stirred up additional conflicts in the small community of Absam. The fact that this kind of conflict amongst neighbours must have been at the heart of the matter can be seen in Stainer’s and Meringer’s repeated requests that the authorities should simply name the people who had testified against them. The more this request was ignored, the more vehemently they boycotted the proceedings; Stainer repeatedly asserted that he was unable to appear in court due to his heavy workload and the prestigious commissions he had to fulfil. The escalation landed both of the accused parties in jail, where they were able to negotiate their sentences down to a moderate ritual of penance. This, however, did not stop them from immediately attempting to sue one another (albeit unsuccessfully) for loss of wages and expenses related to their legal fees. 
 It ranks amongst the paradoxes of this period that although Stainer was on trial for heresy and was even excommunicated for a time, his business was allowed to continue unimpeded. Even whilst under house arrest, he successfully received a major commission from the Bishop of Olmütz, and during the trial he delivered instruments to Vienna, complete with imperial customs privileges. The Archduke&#039;s letter of trade which had granted Stainer his position as a purveyor to the court expired in 1662, but it too was renewed in 1669 under imperial privilege – which casts a highly distinctive light on the relationship between secular and clerical power in the staunchly Catholic empire of the Habsburgs during the Counterreformation. 
 Economic turbulence 
 In this period of both turbulence and success, Jakob Stainer was forced to deal with more and more economic problems, some of which could be attributed to his own financial mismanagement and some of which were due to the unwillingness of his clients to pay, not to mention the manner in which financially pinched authorities dealt with their debts. The family was saved in 1667 by re-structuring its financial liability when Stainer was unable to repay the loan he had taken out 10 years earlier to buy his house. He had to write off the deceased Archduke’s old debt of 450 guilders in 1677 when the royal court refused to assume its obligations as the legal successor to the through when the Habsburg line died out with Ferdinand Karl. 
 Despite the fact that Stainer’s instruments were still in high demand, he often had to make painful concessions. One such example was the 1678 sale of a gamba to Ferdinand Stickler, the deacon of the Meran parish church. Stickler wanted to pay for the instrument in wine, but Stainer offered him a massive discount for paying in cash. He charged 16 thalers for the gamba although at other times in his life he could have sold it for twice that amount, and at no additional cost he volunteered to include a lion’s head instead of a scroll and to take the instrument back if Stickler was not satisfied. 
 Jakob Stainer&#039;s illness and death 
 It can neither be proven nor ruled out that these problems played a part in the ongoing decline of Jakob Stainer’s health, a development which began around 1675 and had an increasing impact on his business affairs from 1680 onward. The sources available to historians make it impossible to provide a medical diagnosis, yet Stainer’s business correspondence from this period creates the strong impression of some sort of a psychological disorder, if not even manic depression, even though – amazingly – his artisanal skills remained unaffected. It is in this very phase that his most beautiful instruments were crafted, and in 1679 he received a major commission from the court in Munich to produce several instruments; they paid him a deposit of 150 guilders. 
 These pleasant developments were not enough to reverse his situation, however, and in 1682, after he once again failed to make an interest payment, Stainer was placed under legal conservatorship. His son-in-law, Blasius Keil, had been married to Stainer’s daughter Maria, who died in 1678 or 1679, and Keil intervened and accepted the proposal of the official conservator that he purchase Stainer’s house while giving Jakob and Margareta the right to remain there until their deaths. Before this plan could be implemented, Jakob Stainer died in the fall of 1683; the exact date of his death is not known. His wife Margareta followed in 1689. 
 Epilogue 
 In 1694 Blasius Keil was summoned to court because he had failed to pay the primary interest for the home he had inherited. The debts which had become a life-long issue for Jakob Stainer haunted his legacy as well. 
 Notes on Jakob Stainer&#039;s oeuvre 
 Jakob Stainer’s last violin was created in 1682 shortly before his death, and the instrument can now be found in the  national museum Ferdinandeum  in Tyrol, Austria. Despite the fraught conditions under which he crafted his later pieces, his work reflected a markedly high standard until the very end. Given the major consistency of his widely-imitated personal style, it is difficult to differentiate between the various phases of Jakob Stainer&#039;s oeuvre, which is not the case with many other great luthiers. In addition to the characteristic shape of the sound holes, one defining feature of Stainer’s model is the high table (i.e. the high arch of the top). Without elaborating here upon the details of how he shaped his tops and backs, it can still be stated that the height of the table may have created a striking distinction in comparison to the Stradivari model which later became predominant; nevertheless, the truly inimitable characteristic of Stainer violins is its remarkable plateau-like design of the top, especially compared to other high-tabled violin models in German-speaking countries. To a lesser extent, the remarkable quality of Jakob Stainer&#039;s violins is also due to individual details of his model which, regarded individually, explain the mystery of the voce argentina (“silver voice”) that was so widely sought after well into the 18th century. Comparable to the oeuvre of Antonio Stradivari, the decisive factors were ultimately Stainer’s talent, significant experience and the uncompromising care with which he crafted his instruments – starting with the tone woods he chose which he personally selected during the course of days of hiking through the valleys of his home. He stated that he found the best trees by their scent, sound and colour. 
 Contrary to assumptions made by earlier scholars, Stainer did not pass his knowledge along to any students; instead, throughout his career he mostly worked alone and achieved his wide-ranging influence only through the quality of his instruments and the excellent reputation which spread internationally even during his own lifetime. For example, the English violin-making tradition as a whole followed exclusively in his footsteps for many years, and he served as a major role model even in “cradles” of violin making such as France and Italy – where countless masters and workshops produced legions of counterfeit Stainer labels for the higher- and lower-quality violins they produced, a legacy that still occupies scholars of instrument history to this day. 
 Originally published by Corilon violins. 
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                            <updated>2019-12-07T17:28:00+01:00</updated>
                    </entry>

    
    
        <entry>
            <title type="text">Matthias Klotz and pre-modern violin making in Mittenwald</title>
            <id>https://www.corilon.com/us/library/master-portraits/matthias-klotz-and-pre-modern-violin-making-in-mittenwald</id>
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                                            The Klotz violin and its forefathers: Matthias Klotz and a family tradition poised between mastery and brand recognition
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                 Matthias Klotz, the Klotz violin and its forefathers: a family tradition poised between mastery and brand recognition 
  Matthias Klotz  provides the finishing touch: with the experienced eye of a master, the Mittenwald violin maker picks up the blade to complete a new violin. His work is astoundingly delicate, given his large physique and powerful hands. The Matthias Klotz statue in  Mittenwald  has had him frozen in this position since the autumn of 1890, and the famed iron caster Ferdinand II Freiherr von Miller rendered him with almost startling accuracy in detail – and is said to have considered this piece his best work. “We don&#039;t want a symbol — we want to see the man himself,” as the members of the Mittenwald violin-making association told von Miller. The memorial they commissed is the perfect portrait of a craftsman, an artist of whom there are no photographs. The statue draws the observer into a dialogue with multiple parties: with the internationally active merchant Neuner and  Baader , who recognized the value of the “Klotz brand” for Mittenwald and arranged for this monument to be built; with the artisan craftsmen in a small Bavarian town where violin making became a gift from heaven and which is pleased it can mention its great son in the same breath with Amati, Stainer and Stradivari; and last but not least, with the countless apprentices and journeymen who since Matthias Klotz&#039; era have spent their in days in small workshops and large manufacturing halls, stooped over their benches and in constant motion, much as Matthias Klotz (Matthias Kloz) himself appears to be on the statue in front of the Mittenwald St. Peter and Paul church.    
 Matthias Klotz and the Klotz family: overview of contents 
 
  How did Matthias Klotz become a violin maker?  
  Establishing Matthias Klotz’ Mittenwald workshop and its first successes   
  Sebastian Klotz – the classic of Mittenwald violin making  
  The characteristics and historical value of the Klotz violin  
  Georg II and Aegidius Klotz  
  The Klotz violin in the context of German violin making traditions  
 
 How did Matthias Klotz become a violin maker? 
 A look at the early  history of violin making in Mittenwald  does indeed resolve many questions, but it leaves just as many unanswered. Its key figure was Matthias Klotz, since it was this tailor&#039;s son who raised the art of violin making in his hometown to the art which brought about its growth in the upper Isar valley. However, practically nothing is known about Matthias Klotz&#039;s background; there is no information about how he became a luthier or where he underwent his early training.  And an even greater enigma involves the instruments he produced in the first three decades of his working life, since his oldest surviving instruments date back to the year 1712 – when he was 59! This remarkably large gap in information has never been satisfactorily filled. One hypothesis states that Klotz built only a few violins, if any at all, in his earlier years. If this theory were true, however, there would be no explanation for the masterful quality of his later instruments. It is equally implausible that every single one of his earlier pieces disappeared or went unrecognized, given his relevance in the history of musical instruments. 
 It can be safely assumed that Matthias Klotz relates to the influential  school of lute makers from Füssen ; beyond that, we also know that he also pursued some of his training in Italy, as a  journeyman&#039;s certificate from Pietro Railich in Padua  confirms. Whilst it is often stated that he studied under Nicolo Amati and worked for Jacobus Stainer, these claims belong more to the undefined contours of his biography which blur into legend. It is all but impossible to make definitive statements about his work, given the limited information available, and in the meantime it is also clear that he is not seen as the first luthier in Mittenwald&#039;s history. Nevertheless, his major success and his significance in the annals of Mittenwald violin making cannot be disputed. The atelier he established in the 1680s seem to have brought him excellent business opportunities from the very outset. The timber of the Karwendel mountains ensured a rich supply of premium  tone woods , and Mittenwald&#039;s location along an important trans-Alpine trade route offered him advantages as a merchant. Furthermore, Klotz had almost no local competition. 
   Klotz violin makers family tree 
 Establishing Matthias Klotz’ Mittenwald workshop and its first successes 
 His flourishing atelier was able to employ numerous apprentices and journeymen who themselves went on to found important families of luthiers. Alongside the masters who emerged from the Klotz studio such as Andreas Jais and Martin Tiefenbrunner, the many members of the  Klotz dynasty  itself contributed to the history of their pater familias&#039; influence. As was the case in many comparable large families of craftsmen, the interplay of mutual influences and interdependence is as interesting a field of research as it is broad. In a long sequence of over 25 luthiers spanning eight generations, the Klotz family maintained a critical role in the violin making of their hometown until the late 18th century. And to the extent that the works of individual family members have survived, they confirm a tradition of talented and well-trained craftsmen who understood how to link individuality and creativity with their faithfulness towards family customs. Even unique models such as the outstanding ones by  Matthias „Dax“ Hornsteiner , who worked in the second half of the 18th century, do not in any way detract from the impact of the Klotz violin; instead, both the traditional and the innovative models appear concurrently as evidence of a regional form of craftsmanship which continued to evolve and become more nuanced. 
 Sebastian Klotz – the classic of Mittenwald violin making 
 In the first generation after Matthias Klotz, the most important proponent of his art was indubitably his son  Sebastian Klotz . If the surviving instruments are any indication, the son exceeded his father-cum-teacher&#039;s talent and creative abilities, and Sebastian too had a lasting influence on violin making in his home town. Sebastian Klotz&#039;s model is regarded as  “the” Klotz violin  in the stricter sense of the word, and Sebastian Klotz&#039; independent artistic contribution to violin-making history may in fact be greater than that of Matthias. Nevertheless, a memorial was never built to Sebastian Klotz, and whereas Matthias Klotz advanced to become an icon of Mittenwald violin making in the 19th century, the only thing speaking for his son is his instruments – along with the works that followed by his sons, students and numerous imitators. 
 The characteristics and historical value of the Klotz violin 
 In the history of instruments, the Klotz violin design blazes its own trail amidst the prevailing role models which shaped the art of the day: the Italian tradition of Nicolo Amati on one end of the spectrum, and Jakob Stainer&#039;s German style on the other. It should not go unmentioned, however, that Sebastian Klotz&#039;s oeuvre is marked by a wide range of variety. He seems to have given himself and his employees a great deal of artistic liberty, at least by the time he had achieved the zenith of his craftsman development and established himself successfully. This leeway was not only evident in purely aesthetic details, such as modifications to the varnish or the shape of the scroll. It can also be witnessed in key questions of the luthier&#039;s work, such as the length of the body, the belly stop and the height of the ribs. Despite these stylistic variations, it is still possible to pinpoint characteristic  features of the Klotz model : a moderately high table, typical lines in the fluting of the arches and edges, a curved peg box and a confidently-shaped scroll with a high throat radiating baroque lavishness. The trained eye will also see important and distinctive details on the interior of genuine Klotz violins, especially in how the corner blocks and lining were crafted. One-piece upper and lower ribs and a thin coat of intense brown varnish are further identifying characteristics of instruments from Sebastian Klotz&#039;s atelier. 
 Georg II and Aegidius Klotz 
 The most important common, if not defining, characteristic of the work produced by the  third generation of the Klotzes  and their apprentices also reflect elements of variation and the further evolution of the family heritage.  Georg Klotz , Sebastian Klotz&#039;s oldest son, initially based his work on his father&#039;s model but gradually found his way to a broad style of his own. This was apparent not only in the unusually large instruments he crafted which set him apart from many luthiers of his day; Georg Carl also pursued his own approach in designing the arch, the fluting and the sound holes. His brother  Aegidius Klotz  took even more independent steps; his shape has short upper bouts with an unmistakable, slightly compact character emphasised by the comparatively broad purfling. The variations in the belly stops are much greater in Aegidius Klotz&#039; instruments than in those of his father Sebastian and his atelier, where Aegidius Klotz was very probably trained. Aegidius Klotz also created his own distinctive design for the scroll which can be easily recognized by its very short throat. 
 The Klotz violin in the context of German violin making traditions 
 It is because of these individual accents that the  history of the Klotz violin  confirms many native traditions which defined the historic interval between Stradivari and the widespread embraceing of  classic Cremonese violin-making principles . Each of these traditions bore its own fruit and had different levels of normative power, but they also brought about viable new standards. In this sense, Sebastian Klotz can be compared to someone such as the  Klingenthal luthier Caspar Hopf , who was a talented craftsman of similarly innovative strength and lingering influence, at least on a regional level. Another regional tradition to receive renewed appreciation in recent days is that of the rustic-natured  baroque instruments  crafted by the Alemanni school in Switzerland and the southern Black Forest. This new interest is not only a topic favoured by museums and academia; instead, the artistic approach of the historic-music movement has been responsible for these instruments earning respect as “musical eyewitnesses” of their time, both in theory and in practice. 
 This relatively new and nuanced perspective of the history of stringed-instrument making loosens the scholarly corset strings, as it were, allowing the Klotz violin to breathe and gain some distance from its monumental historicization. It also shows once again that the gradual decline of the schools other than Stradivari was not due to concrete obstacles. Instead, the end of the Klotz era (and of similar eras in other places) had a great deal to do with the publishing business and the industrialisation of violin making, which in turn brought about greater conformity of craftsman standards and revolutionised the stringed-instrument market. These developments fundamentally changed the function of traditional craftsmanship and its distinguished masters. As a result, they did not disappear outright, but they began to play a new and less influential part. Or, as was the case with Matthias Klotz, they became mythical sources of inspiration to their followers, who had long since begun producing for a global market. 
 Dr. Annette Roeben, founder of Corilon violins, donated a rare violin by Matthias first son to the Mittenwald museum:  a violin by Georg I. Kloz, 1722  
 &amp;nbsp; 
  Related information:  
 The  Mittenwald violin making competition  and other international contests 
  Contemporary violin makers - the modern artisans  
 Markneukirchen: violin making in “German Cremona” 
  Hopf: a dynasty of Vogtland violin makers  
  W. E. Hill &amp;amp; Sons  – on the Mt. Parnassus of the art of violin making 
  On the history of industrial factories in Mirecourt  
  How to select a violin: provenance, value and violin appraisal  
 Originally published by Corilon violins. 
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            </content>

                            <updated>2019-12-06T16:26:00+01:00</updated>
                    </entry>

    
    
        <entry>
            <title type="text">Ludwig Bausch bow maker: the &quot;German Tourte&quot;</title>
            <id>https://www.corilon.com/us/library/master-portraits/ludwig-bausch-the-german-tourte</id>
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                                            Bow maker Ludwig Bausch - Ludwig Bausch and Son: Notes on life and work of the great German bowmaker and his sons
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                  Ludwig Bausch bow maker and Ludwig Bausch and Son: Notes on life and work of the great German bowmaker and his sons  
 German bow maker&amp;nbsp; Ludwig Bausch (1805-1871)&amp;nbsp; ranks among the great masters of European bow making, craftsmen who as a rule have not received the historical respect they deserve. This oversight is astounding in light of the relevance that bows have in playing and in the historical development of violins, violas and cellos; even the best bow makers are nowhere near as well known as violin makers such as  Antonio Stradivari , Pressenda and  J. B. Vuillaume . The cause of this disparity is probably related to the special expertise which is needed to ascertain the quality and provenance of a bow. The problem is compounded by the uncertainty arising from the many easily reproduced replicas which bear the marks of major bow makers. The &quot;Bausch&quot; mark is one of the names which can be found on a number of fakes of dubious quality. Genuine works from the Bausch atelier, however, still enjoy great regard to this day, albeit largely in the elite circles of aficionados and experts. To a broader audience, this esteemed name can be seen as an inside tip. 
 The works of Ludwig Bausch, who was born in 1805 in Naumburg, Saxony, can rightfully claim their place in the history of the craft; Bausch brought the bow as we know it today to Germany. It was patterned after the work of the French master  François Xavier Tourte  but nevertheless was his own and very distinctive model. This earned him the name  &quot;German Tourte,&quot;  a tribute which is certainly to be seen in the context of late 19th-century patriotism. At the same time, it is an entirely appropriate name, given the influence that Ludwig Bausch went on to have upon generations of German bow makers. 
 The route that led Ludwig Bausch to making bows is a question that history has left unresolved. After his apprenticeship as a violin and lute maker under Johann Benjamin Fritzsche, who was the official instrument maker for the Dresden court, Bausch settled in Dresden in 1825 but moved to Dessau in 1828. He must have taken key steps in developing his bow model at that time, probably while in contact with the great violinist, composer and teacher  Louis Spohr , one of the most influential musical personalities of the day. There is no way to prove that the two masters worked together, however. 
 By 1839 Ludwig Bausch had become the official instrument maker of the Dessau court and moved to  Leipzig , where he concentrated almost exclusively on bows. His position as the instrument maker at the court in Nassau which Bausch held in Wiesbaden from 1861-1863 was apparently not attractive enough and remained an intermezzo in his career. In 1840, after having won a silver medal at the Saxonian industrial exposition, the Bausch atelier continued along its successful path, due in part to Ludwig Bausch&#039;s sons. After Ludwig Bausch Jr. completed his apprenticeship in New York and Otto Bausch studied under Jean Vauchel, the two of them expanded the company as &quot; Ludwig Bausch &amp;amp; Sohn &quot; from 1860, and the studio quickly earned a good name for itself around the world. The promising  dynasty of Bausch bow makers  met a premature end when the brothers met untimely deaths — Ludwig Jr. passed away in 1871 a few weeks before his father, and Otto died in 1875. The company continued to benefit from the family&#039;s life work and was led by long-time Bausch employee Adolf Wilhelm Eduard Paulus and his son Adolf Paulus Jr. until it was closed in 1908. 
 &amp;nbsp; 
   Related articles:   
  The bow makers of Markneukirchen  
  H. R. Pfretzschner  – a biographical sketch 
  Markneukirchen: violin making in “German Cremona”  
  Ernst Heinrich Roth: a rediscovered master  
  Noteworthy families of Markneukirchen violin makers  
  Eugène Nicolas Sartory : the modern classic of bow making 
  James Tubbs : the classic name in English bow making 
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            </content>

                            <updated>2019-12-05T16:47:00+01:00</updated>
                    </entry>

    
    
        <entry>
            <title type="text">Eugène Nicolas Sartory: the modern classic of bow making</title>
            <id>https://www.corilon.com/us/library/master-portraits/eugene-nicolas-sartory-the-modern-classic-of-bow-making</id>
            <link href="https://www.corilon.com/us/library/master-portraits/eugene-nicolas-sartory-the-modern-classic-of-bow-making"/>
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                                            The life and work of Eugène Nicolas Sartory, the great Parisian bow maker and classical master of his art
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                  Eugène Nicolas Sartory. The life and work of the great Parisian bow maker and classical master of his art  
 Fine bows made by the French bow maker Eugène Nicolas Sartory (1871-1946) have ranked&amp;nbsp;among the most sought-after items in modern instrument building for over 100 years. Eugene Nicolas Sartory&#039;s aesthetically perfect and outstandingly balanced bows can be seen as refined interpretations of models by  François Nicolas Voirin  and  Joseph Alfred Lamy père . These bows have become classical standards for bows that follow the tradition of the great  François Xavier Tourte . 
 Eugene Nicolas Sartory Content overview: 
 
  Eugène Sartory – musical training and refining his skills  
  E. Sartory – a name that represents the utmost musical quality and an exclusive style  
  The standing and legacy of Eugène Sartory  
 
  Eugène Sartory – musical training and refining his skills  
  Eugène Nicolas Sartory  was born on 22 September 1871 in  Mirecourt  and learned his craft from his father. Before he was even twenty, E. Sartory began working for Charles Peccatte in Paris in 1890. Shortly afterward, Eugene Sartory studied under the legendary  Joseph Alfred Lamy Père  before opening his own studio on the Boulevard Nouvelle in 1893. In the twelve years that followed, Eugène Nicolas Sartory perfected his own model which he continued to produce at the same high and amazingly homogenous quality standards throughout his lifetime. This high benchmark is one of the most noteworthy characteristics of genuine E. Sartory bows, and it explains their famous attributes. 
     
  E. Sartory – a name that represents the utmost musical quality and an exclusive style  
 Eugene Sartory worked predominantly with dark pernambuco in his earlier period, whereas his later years were “blonder.” Throughout his career, however, he gave his bows luxurious details that featured ebony, exquisite silver and gold fittings, and tortoiseshell thumb leather of lizard skin. Compact and perfectly shaped heads rank among the more distinctive features of E. Sartory&#039;s “signature”. 
  The standing and legacy of Eugène Sartory  
 The enduring relevance that Eugene Sartory attained in the world of music from early on can be seen by the numerous copies and forgeries of his bows that started becoming widespread around 1920. Strangely enough, his importance is also reflected in the obituary that mistakenly appeared in “The Violinist” in 1914, incorrectly reporting that the master had fallen in WWI. Eugene Sartory&#039;s great name was also due in part to his students, upon whose work he had a major impact:  Louis Morizot  (1874-1957) in Paris and  Hermann Prell  (1875-1925) in  Markneukirchen  both went on to become internationally renowned bow makers themselves. Louis Gillet&amp;nbsp;(1891-1970), whom many soloists saw as a master whose craftsmanship equalled Sartory&#039;s, worked with Eugene Sartory from 1934 until his death on 5 March 1946. 
   Fine bows by Eugène Nicolas Sartory in Corilon violins&#039; online catalogue:   
  Fine violin bow by Eugène Nicolas Sartory violin bow, c.1925 (certificateJ.-F. Raffin)  
  Fine violin bow by Eugène Nicolas Sartory, includes certificate J.F. Raffin  
  Rare Eugene Sartory violin bow in original condition (certificate J. F. Raffin)  
 &amp;nbsp; 
   Related articles:   
  Charles Nicolas Bazin : the great name of Mirecourt bow making 
  Louis Bazin , Bazin&#039;s grandchildren: bow making in turbulent times 
  Jean-François Raffin : ten hours - and not a word 
  Contemporary violin makers  - the modern artisans 
  Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume  - notes to his life and work 
  Jérôme Thibouville-Lamy  - J.T.L. 
  The Ouchard dynasty  of bow makers 
 Originally published by Corilon violins. 
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                            <updated>2019-12-05T16:42:00+01:00</updated>
                    </entry>

    
    
        <entry>
            <title type="text">Joseph Alfred Lamy père bow maker: a key figure in modern bow making</title>
            <id>https://www.corilon.com/us/library/master-portraits/joseph-alfred-lamy-pere-a-key-figure-in-modern-bow-making</id>
            <link href="https://www.corilon.com/us/library/master-portraits/joseph-alfred-lamy-pere-a-key-figure-in-modern-bow-making"/>
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                                            French bow maker Joseph Alfred Lamy père (1850-1919): on the life and work of the great Parisian bow maker and student of Voirin
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                 Joseph Alfred Lamy père: on the life and work of the great Parisian bow maker and student of Voirin 
 French bow maker Joseph Alfred Lamy père (1850-1919)&amp;nbsp;is one of the most important masters of modern French bow makers; after  Jean Baptiste Vuillaume  (1798-1875), he was one of the main craftsmen to critically re-examine the epoch-defining work of  François Xavier Tourte  (1747/48-1835). Without wanting to detract from the accents that Joseph Alfred Lamy&#039;s bows created, Joseph Alfred Lamy is also very essential as the figure who built a bridge from Tourte to the twentieth century. Above and beyond their relevance in the history of instruments, Lamy père&#039;s creations fulfil the exacting standards of today&#039;s musicians. This makes pieces marked “A. Lamy à Paris” some of the most sought-after historical bows ever.&amp;nbsp; 
 Joseph Alfred Lamy père was born in 1850 in  Mirecourt ; he is referred to as Lamy  père  to distinguish himself from his son, Hippolyte-Camille Lamy  fils  (1875-1942). At the tender age of 12, he began his apprenticeship in the atelier of Charles Claude Nicolas Husson. From 1868 on, he worked for the esteemed instrument manufacturer Gautrot in Château Thierry, where he is thought to have met Joseph Voirin; this connection may have contributed to Lamy père starting work at the atelier of  François Nicolas Voirin  (1833-1885) in 1876. After Voirin&#039;s death in 1885, Joseph Alfred Lamy opened his own workshop in the Rue du Faubourg Poissonière, Paris; his son took over after Lamy Pere&#039;s demise in 1919. Lamy&#039;s bows were awarded silver and gold medals at exhibitions in Paris in 1889 and 1890. 
 Joseph Alfred Lamy père initially followed in the footsteps of Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume like Voirin, whom he described as his real teacher. J. B. Vuillaume in turn had analysed Tourte bows and incorporated his findings into the excellent pieces he produced. Due to Vuillaume&#039;s great success as a violin maker, however, Vuillaume soon stopped working on violin bows and delegated the task to employees such as Voirin. Yet unlike Voirin, who wanted to create as light and slender a bow as possible,  Joseph Alfred Lamy  focused his efforts on the stick and frog during his later years from 1889 onward. Lamy&#039;s bow model set standards in the general trend toward heavier bows, a characteristic which strongly influenced French bow making in the late 19th century. His most important student and colleague is  Eugène Sartory &amp;nbsp;(1871-1946), who is regarded as a classic in the field of 20th century bow making. 
 &amp;nbsp; 
  Related articles:  
  Eugène Nicolas Sartory : the modern classic of bow making 
  Morizot, père et frères : the short history of a great family of bow makers 
  The Ouchard  dynasty of bow makers 
  Charles Nicolas Bazin : the great name of Mirecourt bow making 
  Louis Bazin , Bazin&#039;s grandchildren: bow making in turbulent times 
  Jean-François Raffin : ten hours - and not a word 
 Jérôme Thibouville-Lamy -  JTL  
  Contemporary violin makers  - the modern artisans 
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            </content>

                            <updated>2019-12-05T16:35:00+01:00</updated>
                    </entry>

    
    
        <entry>
            <title type="text">John Dodd: a legend of oyster shells and silver spoons</title>
            <id>https://www.corilon.com/us/library/master-portraits/john-dodd-a-legend-of-oyster-shells-and-silver-spoons</id>
            <link href="https://www.corilon.com/us/library/master-portraits/john-dodd-a-legend-of-oyster-shells-and-silver-spoons"/>
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                                            John Dodd, the legendary father of English violin bow making, lived and worked in dire poverty. Notes on his life and art.
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                 John Dodd, the legendary father of English violin bow making, lived and worked in dire poverty. Notes on his life and art. 
  Envision a thickset figure with a slight waddle to his walk, meandering through the streets of London between cheap pubs and his shabby studio where the boards of old barrels lay stacked in heaps. Clad in a threadbare coat, the suspicious and quite eccentric craftsman carried oyster shells which could be heard clicking in his pockets; he was forced to beg for these shells so he could scrape out mother-of-pearl for his bows. The likes of such bows had never been seen before in England, and any profit made from selling them was already long since spent before the objects themselves could leave his atelier and venture forth and testify to their craftsman&#039;s greatness. This greatness was that of a small man, a man who could barely write much more than his own name; in his lifetime, he was not to find a proper livelihood.  
 John Dodd – Life and work: Overview 
 
  John Dodd – Biography  
  Bows by John Dodd  
  John Dodd: A life of poverty  
 
 &amp;nbsp; 
  John Dodd,  English&amp;nbsp;bow maker, is certainly one of the most moving figures amongst the early masters of modern bow making, many of whom also came from humble origins. Born in 1752 in Stirling, Scotland, John Dodd, the son of bow maker Edward Dodd (1705-1810) started out as a gunsmith and maker of money scales; these trades both required outstanding precision craftsmanship that would later become evident in his top-quality bow mountings. His professional path thus ran in a certain kind of curious parallel to his great French contemporary  François Xavier Tourte  (1747/48-1835), who is considered the inventor of the modern violin bow and originally trained as a watchmaker. 
   
 John Dodd and Francois Xavier Tourte 
 One of the remarkable twists of history is the fact that Tourte and Dodd both emerged as the greatest names in their fields at the same point in time: both produced comparably epoch-defining pieces, and yet they knew little about each other. With their complex geometry and masterful balance, John Dodd&#039;s violin bows are almost equal in excellence to those of Tourte. If they can be said to have any shortcoming at all, it would be the fact that some sticks are comparatively short, which can pose certain impediments to soloist performance. 
 John Dodd: bow making in challenging circumstances 
 In many cases, the fact that John Dodd used shorter sticks may be attributed to the challenging circumstances under which he had to procure his materials. Nail holes in the (top-quality) pernambuco of some bows reveal the fact that the wood was repurposed from the boards of old barrels. It must be said in general that John Dodd showed an amazing ability to improvise, allowing him to craft sophisticated violin bows despite the most modest of circumstances. On more than one occasion he was said to have acquired the silver for the mountings used in especially fine pieces by taking cutlery from a housekeeper. He worked with odd tools he produced himself so he could carve in the unconventional technique he developed, an approach which in turn was the basis for the great stability of his bow sticks. 
 John Dodd and the need 
 Given his daily encounters with need, John Dodd seems to have seen his skills and knowledge as the capital that could not be taken from him as long as he protected it vigilantly enough. Not even the sum of 1000 pounds sterling tempted him to disclose the secret of how he carved wood for a new stick, and no apprentice was ever initiated into the enigma of his art. On 4 October 1839 John Dodd died at an advanced age in the poorhouse of Richmond, utterly destitute and ill. His legacy is his masterful bows, which are true milestones in the history of instruments. He was one of the first to mark his work with a stamp, and “Dodd” and “J. Dodd” quickly became a sought-after brand which countless ateliers and companies were eager to claim as their own. They attempted to honour the first great master of English bow making, a man who never intended to establish a tradition. 
  Related articles:  
  James Tubbs: the classic name in English bow making  
  Eugène Sartory : the modern classic of bow making 
  W.E. Hill &amp;amp; Sons : on the Mt. Parnassus of the art of violin making 
  Beares,  J &amp;amp; A Beare and Beares: expertise in changing times 
  Overview: “The violin bow”  
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            </content>

                            <updated>2019-12-05T16:30:00+01:00</updated>
                    </entry>

    
    
        <entry>
            <title type="text">Couesnon: The third defining element in modern violin making in Mirecourt</title>
            <id>https://www.corilon.com/us/library/master-portraits/couesnon-the-third-defining-element-in-modern-violin-making-in-mirecourt</id>
            <link href="https://www.corilon.com/us/library/master-portraits/couesnon-the-third-defining-element-in-modern-violin-making-in-mirecourt"/>
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                                            On the history of the Couesnon company – Part 3 of our series on industrial production of stringed instruments in France 
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                  On the history of the Couesnon company – Part 3 of our series on industrial production of stringed instruments in France   
 The golden age of industrial musical instrument production in  Mirecourt , which started in the final quarter of the 19th century and lasted until the 1930s, created opportunities not only for  J.T.L.  and  Laberte-Magnié . It also gave rise to another (inter)national company which was significant both in terms of its numbers as well as the quality of its products. In 1885 the Paris-based company  Gautrot Ainé &amp;amp; Cie , which had forty years of experience in manufacturing woodwinds and brass instruments, began production of stringed instruments as well. It followed in Thibouville&#039;s footsteps, albeit at a much later date. 
 As had been the case at J.T.L., a former employee and student of  Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume  was involved in this business expansion.  Maurice Mermillot  was made the head of the factory for stringed instruments. The new company always maintained production sites in Paris and Mirecourt, and their manufacturing more or less ran along parallel lines to its major competitors — a constellation which led to many interesting shifts as employees transferred between factories. Some talented luthiers went from one rivalling company to another in a veritable game of musical chairs. Under  Amédée Couesnon , who led Gautrot starting in 1887 and eventually gave the company its new name, Georges Cherpitel was wooed away from Thibouville-Lamy in 1901. Like Laberte, Couesnon also saw the growing need for premium stringed instruments, and in 1913 he secured the necessary technical expertise by merging with the highly esteemed atelier of  Léon Bernardel . One can see how competitive the environment was by the fact that another top-ranking employee switched — Eugène Vincent Génod, who worked with Laberte for many years until he joined Couesnon in 1927. 
 &amp;nbsp; 
   Related articles:   
  On the history of industrial factories in Mirecourt  
  The end of the great instrument-making companies in Mirecourt   
  Jérôme Thibouville-Lamy - J.T.L.  
  The Laberte family companies  
  Bazin : the great name of Mirecourt bow making 
  Chanot: Savoir-faire  - The Chanot family of luthiers 
  Morizot, père et frère : the short history of a great family of bow makers 
 Mirecourt&#039;s new masters:  contemporary violin makers in Mirecourt  
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            </content>

                            <updated>2019-12-05T16:23:00+01:00</updated>
                    </entry>

    
    
        <entry>
            <title type="text">The fathers Bazin: the great name of Mirecourt bow making</title>
            <id>https://www.corilon.com/us/library/master-portraits/the-fathers-bazin-the-great-name-of-mirecourt-bow-making</id>
            <link href="https://www.corilon.com/us/library/master-portraits/the-fathers-bazin-the-great-name-of-mirecourt-bow-making"/>
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                                            First part of the turbulent history of a great bow maker dynasty: François Xavier Bazin and Charles Nicolas Bazin shape French bow making
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                 The turbulent history of a great bow maker dynasty: François Xavier Bazin and Charles Nicolas Bazin shape French bow making 
 The Fathers Bazin – Table of Contents: 
 
  François Xavier Bazin  
  Charles Nicolas Bazin  
 
 François Xavier Bazin 
 The 1840s marked the beginning of the history of the great  Bazin family of bow makers  in Mirecourt, artisans who were active for four generations and shaped French bow making for more than a century. True masters of their art, the turbulent history of their era left its mark on their lives. In contrast to many bow makers of his time,  François Xavier Bazin  began his career under rather auspicious circumstances. Born in  Mirecourt  on 10 May 1824, the founder of the Bazin bow-making dynasty learned his craft in Paris from Dominique Peccatte and  J. B. Vuillaume , who were among the most respected masters of the day. When Bazin returned to Mirecourt in 1845, married and opened his own atelier, these famous names must have opened many doors to him – if, indeed, they were not already open due to the good relationships that his father, dispatcher Joseph Eustache Bazin (1785-1863), maintained with the city’s instrument makers. 
    Bazin family tree 
 Charles Nicolas Bazin 
 François Bazin was a true student of his teachers, and his bows therefore remained typical examples of the Peccatte school until around 1860. It was not until his son  Charles Nicolas Bazin  joined his atelier did the work of father and son begin to grow closer to the  Voirin  model. However, before things could fully develop in this direction, François Bazin fell victim to a cholera epidemic in Mirecourt on 1 August 1865. Charles Nicolas Bazin, just 18 years old, was forced to take over his father’s atelier prematurely, in addition to putting food on the table of his own family; his first child was born in 1868. Under such circumstances, it was clear that he did not have room to further develop his own style. At first he continued to work according to his father’s old bow model and to use his stamp. However,  Charles Nicolas Bazin ultimately proved himself a worthy heir and by 1880 had established himself as a successful businessman and a respected citizen of the town. In the last two decades of the 19th century he began once again to pursue his own bow model, paying particular attention to refining the heads of the bows – which now were marked with a new stamp, C. BAZIN. After the turn of the century, his staff of up to 17 employees produced an estimated 2,000 bows or more per year, and he ran a very successful business selling materials and prefabricated parts for bow making. 
  Related articles:  
  Bazin&#039;s grandchildren: bow making in turbulent times  
  Morizot , père et frères: the short history of a great family of bow makers 
  Eugene Sartory : the modern classic of bow making 
  François Xavier Tourte , founding father of the modern violin bow 
  Joseph Alfred Lamy père : a key figure in modern bow making 
 The  Ouchard  dynasty of bow makers 
 Mirecourt&#039;s new masters:  contemporary violin makers in Mirecourt  
 Overview:  “The violin bow&quot;: a brief depiction of its history  
 Originally published by Corilon violins. 
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            </content>

                            <updated>2019-12-04T16:55:00+01:00</updated>
                    </entry>

    
    
        <entry>
            <title type="text">Contemporary violin makers </title>
            <id>https://www.corilon.com/us/library/master-portraits/contemporary-violin-makers</id>
            <link href="https://www.corilon.com/us/library/master-portraits/contemporary-violin-makers"/>
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                <![CDATA[
                
                                            Contemporary violins: Overview on contemporary violin makers, life and work of today&#039;s outstanding masters
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                 Contemporary violin makers: a flowering of the art 
 Many contemporary violin makers feel as if they are overshadowed by their famous predecessors, and as a matter of fact people’s fascination with historic masterpieces can make it difficult to appreciate the outstanding achievements of our times. But we do not need any blind tests which pair of historic  Italian violins  against contemporary violin makers&#039; instruments to understand that we live in a time of abundance. Our day and age may not be as strongly characterized by trail-blazing innovations, but there is still a high standard of artisanry amongst nowadays violin makers, and this standard can hold its own against that of the golden days. 
 Young contemporary violin makers and the new openness of the craft 
   
 Nowadays, younger generations of violin makers are much more unguarded and stay in open contact with their colleagues, and everyone benefits from the resulting exchange of ideas. In this overview of new artists in the field of violin making, we have listed contemporary violin makers who have come to our attention because of their solid approach, their distinctive profile and of course the excellent quality of their work. It goes without saying that this list of violin makers cannot be considered comprehensive. 
 The best contemporary violin makers: 
 
  Christoph Götting , master violin maker and viola maker, Wiesbaden, Germany [Portrait] 
  Daniele Scolari , maestro liutaio, violin maker, Cremona, Italy [Portrait] 
  Stephan von Baehr , violin maker, Paris, France [Portrait] 
  Jan B. Špidlen , violin maker, Prague, Czech Republic [Portrait] 
 Roberto Regazzi, liutaio, Bologna, Italy 
 Frank Ravatin, luthier, Vannes, France 
  Cristiano Ferrazzi , violin maker, Verona, Italy 
 Alessandro Ciciliati, liutaio, Italy&amp;nbsp; 
  Patrick Robin  luthier, violin maker, Angers, FR [Portrait] 
 Joseph Curtin, violin maker, Ann Arbor, USA&amp;nbsp; 
  Samuel Zygmuntowicz , violin maker, New York, USA [Portrait] 
 Jacques Francais, Jacques Francais Rare Violins Inc., violin maker &amp;amp; restorer, New York, USA 
 Hans Nebel, violin maker, restorer, New Jersey, USA 
 Andreas Hudelmayer, violin maker, fine new instruments, London, UK&amp;nbsp; 
 John Dilworth, Violin Viola &amp;amp; Cello Maker &amp;amp; Restorer, Oxford, UK&amp;nbsp; 
 Roger Hargrave, violin maker, London, UK&amp;nbsp; 
 Franco Simeoni, Liuitaio, Violin maker, Treviso, Italy&amp;nbsp; 
  Giorgio Grisales , violin maker, Cremona, Italy&amp;nbsp; 
 Christopher Rowe and Elspeth Rowe, violin and viola makers, Welwyn, Herts, UK&amp;nbsp; 
 David Munro, violin maker, Romsey, UK&amp;nbsp; 
 Tibor Szemmelveisz, violin maker &amp;amp; restorer, London, UK&amp;nbsp; 
 Christoph Germain, violin maker, Philadelphia, USA&amp;nbsp; 
 Christoph Landon, expert and violin maker, New York, USA&amp;nbsp; 
 Peter Paul Prier, violin maker, Prier &amp;amp; Sons, Salt Lake City, USA&amp;nbsp; 
 David Burgess, violin maker, Ann Arbor, USA&amp;nbsp; 
 Benoit Rolland, bow maker, Boston, USA&amp;nbsp; 
 Michael Darnton, violin maker, Chicago, USA&amp;nbsp; 
 Andrew Ryan, violin maker, Providence, Rhode Island, USA&amp;nbsp; 
 Joseph Curtin, violin maker, Ann Arbor, USA 
 
 Important violin makers in history 
 The following violin makers have shaped the history of their guild or are among its most interesting exponents in the present. An overview without claim to completeness - in chronological order 
 
  Giovanni Paolo Maggini  (1580-1632) 
  Nicolò Amati  (1596-1684) 
  Jacob Stainer  (1618-1683) 
  Antonio Stradivari  (1648-1737) 
  Caspar Hopf  (1650-1711) 
  Matthias Klotz  (1653-1743) 
 Carlo Giuseppe Testore (ca. 1660-1716) 
  Sebastian Klotz  (1696-1775) 
  Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesù  (1698-1744) 
  Nicolò Gagliano  (1710-1785) 
 Giovanni Battista Guadagnini (1711-1786) 
  David Christian Hopf senior  (1734-1803) 
 Giovanni Francesco Pressenda (1777-1854) 
  Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume  (1798-1875) 
  Joseph Hel  (1842-1902) 
 Leandro Bisiach (1864-1946) 
 Gaetano Sgarabotto (1878-1959) 
 
 &amp;nbsp; 
 The violin maker - a brief definition of the craft 
 The violin maker, also known as a  luthier , is a highly skilled craftsman who possesses the knowledge and skills to create high-quality stringed instruments. This includes the selection and treatment of wood, shaping the body, attaching the fingerboard, fitting the strings, adjusting the bridge and other crucial components, as well as fine-tuning the instrument to ensure excellent sound quality. A violin maker can also perform repairs and restorations on old or damaged stringed instruments. This may involve replacing or repairing damaged parts, re-fretting the fingerboard, repairing cracks, or refinishing the instrument. An experienced violin maker has a deep understanding of the acoustic properties of the instruments and can make fine adjustments to optimize their sound and playability. The work of a violin maker requires a great deal of patience, care, and craftsmanship. It is a traditional craft that is often passed down through generations. Violin makers are typically passionate about creating the best possible instruments to provide musicians with an exceptional sound experience. 
 Violin makers: the legacy 
 The violin makers, both past and present, play an indispensable role in shaping the world of classical music. From the iconic creations of Antonio Stradivari and Guarneri del Gesù to the modern innovators carrying on their legacy, each violin maker creates an individual piece with a unique sound. Through their passion, expertise, and unwavering commitment to their craft, these artisans continue to inspire generations of musicians and enchant audiences worldwide.&amp;nbsp; 
 Great violin makers and master violin makers have been brought forth by history of violin making, all of whom established traditions and set standards which are still valid in our time. Examining the legacy of these brilliant violin makers is rightfully a major aspect of what contemporary violin makers study, and nearly every violin maker working today would agree that the major fundamentals of the art were defined generations ago.    Behind every exceptional violin, there is an exceptional violin maker. Violin makers are talented artisans who meticulously craft each instrument with a perfect blend of craftsmanship, skill, and dedication. The field of violin making yet has secrets to discover which are explored by renowed violin makers who continue to shape the industry today. Here you can find an overview of the most important&amp;nbsp; Cremona&amp;nbsp;violin makers &amp;nbsp;active today. 
 &amp;nbsp; 
  Useful links:  
 Instruments by contemporary violin makers at  Corilon violins  
  International violin making competitions  -- an overview 
 Mirecourt&#039;s new masters: contemporary  violin makers in Mirecourt  
  Mittenwald violin makers  - contemporary masters keeping their tradition alive 
 In the shadow of the factories: Contemporary  violin makers from China and Taiwan  &amp;nbsp;  
 Originally published by Corilon violins. 
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            </content>

                            <updated>2019-11-01T23:30:00+01:00</updated>
                    </entry>

    
    
        <entry>
            <title type="text">Mittenwald: contemporary violin makers</title>
            <id>https://www.corilon.com/us/library/master-portraits/mittenwald-contemporary-violin-makers</id>
            <link href="https://www.corilon.com/us/library/master-portraits/mittenwald-contemporary-violin-makers"/>
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                                            Today&#039;s Mittenwald violin makers keep their tradition alive with their vibrant craftsmanship. Overview of Mittenwald violins and masters in the town with the rich tradition of violin making: a portrait and recommendation by Corilon violins.
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                 Mittenwald violin makers: an overview of today&#039;s masters in the town with the rich tradition of violin making 
 With its rich traditions, the violin-making town of Mittenwald is a place that is solidly anchored in European instrument history: the historical achievements of Matthias Klotz&amp;nbsp;and his son  Sebastian Klotz , the work of  Matthias „Dax“ Hornsteiner  and the internationally acclaimed ateliers run by the families Baader and Neuner have all earned it this acclaim. Mentioning these great Mittenwald names only hints at the town’s history, and anyone who visits the charming village in the upper Isar valley could easily believe that all of Mittenwald is nothing but a large violin-making museum.    
 But that could not be farther from the truth: even in the present day, Mittenwald has remained a dynamic site for the  contemporary craft of violin making . Its  State Vocational School for Instrument Making  is an international institution, and the numerous violin makers and master violin makers located in Mittenwald ensure that the tradition of its musical forefathers stays alive. For many years,  Corilon violins  has maintained special cordial relationships to Mittenwald, which is why we are also providing an overview of the outstanding ateliers in the town on this page. 
 List of Mittenwald violin makers producing Mittenwald violins 
 
 
  Anton Sprenger master violin maker : Im Gries 10, Mittenwald, Tel. 08823 4026 
 
 
  Joachim Roy master violin maker : Riedscharteweg 2, 82481 Mittenwald, Tel. 0882394011 
 
 
  Anton Maller master violin maker : Obermarkt 2, Mittenwald, Tel. 08823 5865 
 
 
  Rainer Leonhardt master violin maker : Mühlenweg 53, Mittenwald, Tel. 08823 8010 
 
 
  Thomas Wörnle master violin maker : Klammstraße 32, Mittenwald, Tel. 08823 4613 
 
 
  Josef Kantuscher, Geigenbaumeister : Burgbergstrasse 13, Mittenwald, Tel. 08823 8418 
 
 
  Florian und Maria Sandner, Geigenbaumeister : Obermarkt 29, Mittenwald, Tel. 08823 8129 
 
 
 &amp;nbsp; 
  Further reading:  
  Mittenwald: violin making “in the midst of the forest”  
 The  Mittenwald violin making competition  and other contests 
  Contemporary violin makers  - the modern artisans 
  Job offers for violin makers and master violin makers  
 Originally published by Corilon violins. 
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            </content>

                            <updated>2019-11-01T17:02:00+01:00</updated>
                    </entry>

    
    
        <entry>
            <title type="text">Chinese violins: Contemporary violin makers from China and Taiwan</title>
            <id>https://www.corilon.com/us/library/master-portraits/contemporary-violin-makers-from-china-and-taiwan</id>
            <link href="https://www.corilon.com/us/library/master-portraits/contemporary-violin-makers-from-china-and-taiwan"/>
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                                            The “other” Chinese violins: Distinguished Chinese violin makers working in the shadow of the factories. An overview of outstanding masters from China and Taiwan
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                <![CDATA[
                 The “other” Chinese violins: Distinguished Chinese violin makers working in the shadow of the factories. An overview of the best violin makers from China and Taiwan 
 Who are the best Chinese violin makers? China is most commonly known for producing affordable instruments for beginners, and as a matter of fact, industrial violin making is one of the fields in which the Chinese economy has enjoyed remarkable international successes. Certain parallels to other periods such as  Saxonian violin making in the 19th and early 20th century  are unmistakable, even though history never repeats itself. Today’s Chinese violin-manufacturing sites are at the peak of their global influence, much like the factories nearly a hundred years ago in the “music corner” around Schönbach and  Markneukirchen . We should not lose sight, however, of the excellent Chinese violin makers and master violin makers amidst the vast majority of simple Chinese violins; many of these luthiers practice traditional craftsmanship at outstanding levels, and they are often successful entrepreneurs and teachers as well. It is to be expected that the elite of Taiwanese and Chinese violin makers -- and bow makers -- will enhance the image of their art in the years ahead, much as luminaries like  Ernst Heinrich Roth  and  Hermann Richard Pfretzschner  did in their day. In this overview, we are pleased to present the names, life and work of the best Chinese violin makers and exceptional masters from the new world of Asian violin making.&amp;nbsp; 
 &amp;nbsp; 
     
 Portraits of Chinese violin makers: 
 
  Zheng Quan  
  Ming-Jiang Zhu  
  Gao Tong Tong  
  Lin Dian-Wei  
  David Lien  
  Chiao Chung-Hsing  
  Shu Sheng Kot  
  Feng Jiang  
 
 Zheng Quan 
 Despite his limited knowledge of basic Italian,  Zheng Quan  came to the violin making school of Cremona in 1983, the first Chinese student ever. Zheng Quan brought other things with him, however: craftsman knowledge, the art of which he had acquired at the music research institute in Beijing under Dai Hongxiang. Zheng Quan was born in Shanghai in 1950 and began playing the violin at the age of five. As intellectuals, his parents were victims of the systematic expropriation of the upper class during the Cultural Revolution, and consequently young Zheng Quan’s violin was taken away. He was later forced to work as a farmer in a village in Anhui province as part of the state-mandated re-education programme. Towards the end of the Revolution, Zheng Quan joined a small music and dance ensemble as a violinist, and he gained attention there because of his ability to repair instruments. This eventually led him down the path to Dai Hongxiang and ultimately to northern Italy, where he remained until 1988 so he could perfect his skills in making and restoring stringed instruments. Motivated by the desire to train a new generation of excellent Chinese violin makers, Zheng Quan soon became the head of the institute of violin making and luthier research at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing. He is the winner of over 20 awards in international competitions – including a first place for sound at the  Ente Triennale in Cremona &amp;nbsp;1991 – and the president of Chinese violin making association; furthermore, Zheng Quan has served as the initiator and organiser of the two international  Chinese violin making competitions held in Beijing  to date. 
 Ming-Jiang Zhu 
 As the son of two bookkeepers in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou,  Ming-Jiang Zhu  was born in 1956 and grew up without ever having seen a violin. Ming-Jiang Zhu, too was heavily affected by the state re-education programmes and had to do gruelling physical labour in the sugar-cane fields of the Panyu province as a youth. When the Guangzhou violin making school was opened in 1976, Ming-Jiang Zhu applied for a spot, primarily to get away from farm work. He was selected as one of only 25 students due to his talents in wood-carving. Under the tutelage of master luthiers Xu Fu and Liang Gouhui at the Chinese violin making school, Ming-Jiang Zhu who had originally hoped to become a painter or pursue one of his father’s interests by becoming a carpenter discovered his enthusiasm for crafting violins, and once again he demonstrated that he was extremely talented. After  Ming-Jiang Zhus &amp;nbsp;training as a violin maker was finished, he proceeded to the research institute for musical instruments in Guangzhou, where he continued his theoretical and practical studies of violin making. In 1991, Ming-Jiang Zhu opened his own “workshop” on a side street in Guangzhou, although it was hardly more than a corner of his home of 20 square meters. Ming-Jiang Zhu took part in the  VSA international violin making competition  for the first time in 1986, and his submission won a certificate of merit for workmanship. In the meantime he has brought home 19 awards from VSA competitions, including two gold and two silver medals. At the first international Chinese violin making competition in 2010, Ming-Jiang Zhu served as a juror for craftsmanship. Chinese violin maker Ming-Jiang Zhu is the vice president of the violin making association in his home, and since 2008 he has been a member of the Entente Internationale des Maîtres-luthiers et Archetiers d’art. 
 Gao Tong Tong 
  Gao Tong Tong  is the first Chinese violin maker to win a prize at the renowned  Henryk Wieniawski violin making competition in Poznan . Having played violin since he was a child, Gao Tong Tong learned how to make stringed instruments as a young adult. After completing his studies at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, Gao Tong Tong went to the violin making school in Cremona to further refine his knowledge.   At the same time Gao Tong Tong began an apprenticeship under  GioBatta Morassi .&amp;nbsp;The Cremonese master equipped him with the skills he needed to perform very well at the Triennale and succeed in Posen, where Gao Tong Tong won fourth place in 1996. That was the year he also returned to China, where Gao Tong Tong established as a Chinese violin maker his own atelier in Beijing in 1998. To this day conscientiously follows the principles of historic Italian masters’ approach to violin making and crafts premium instruments himself. 
 Taiwanese violin maker Lin Dian-Wei 
  Lin Dian-wei’ s first violin was one he made at a simple card table in a small garage as he followed the instructions in a book about making violins. Today the Taiwanese violin maker has his own atelier in the city of Taichung and holds violin making workshops to promote the craft in his native land. A biochemist by training, Lin Dian-wei had always loved the sound and silhouette of the violin, and upon taking over his father’s wood processing company in 2002, Lin Dian-wei began studying violin making in earnest during his spare time. He referred to the craft as the “apex of wood crafting.” Due to his background, Lin Dian-wei has extensive knowledge about different kinds of wood and their properties, and he is also well-informed about the fields of mechanics, physics and chemistry – all of which make positive contributions to his self-taught work as a violin maker. Taiwanese violin maker Lin Dian-wei became famous through his blog, where he writes about his experience as a “hobby luthier,” and shortly after he launched it, he was able to expand his atelier and share his skills with his first two students. His indefatigable quest for perfection has earned him many honours; the greatest to date was a nomination at the Ente Triennale, the&amp;nbsp; violin making competition in Cremona . 
 David Lien 
 It was his dissatisfaction with the instruments available to him that inspired Taiwanese violinist  David Lien  to become a luthier himself. Born in 1961 in Keelung, a harbour city near Taipeh, David Lien studied music in his native country before continuing his studies at the Franz Schubert Conservatory in Vienna as of 1988. As a member of the Taipei Symphony Orchestra and an instructor at different music schools, he spent years looking for what he considered to be the perfect instrument, but to no avail. Consequently, violin maker David Lien spent his free time becoming acquainted with the traditions and techniques of crafting instruments at a Viennese violin making workshop. After further studies and intense experimentation, David Lien ultimately achieved an admirable level of mastery; this allowed him to found the Galaxias company in 1997, which has operated under the name “ Lien Violins Instruments Ltd. ” since 2000. At his atelier in Taipeh, David Lien makes top-quality artistic violins. David Lien strictly upholds the classic principles of Cremonese violin making, and his violins have achieved noteworthy successes at different instrument exhibitions such as the Mondomusica in Cremona, the Musikmesse in Frankfurt and Music China in Shanghai. 
 Chiao Chung-Hsing 
 Even as a high-school student, Chinese violin maker&amp;nbsp; Chiao Chung-hsing  knew that he would pursue a career as a singer. Born in 1959 in Keelung, Chiao Chung-hsing studied at the College of Arts in Taipeh in 1986 and then went to Italy. It was there that his fate took an unanticipated turn: he suffered a serious injury that made it impossible for him to keep singing. Chiao Chung-hsing did, however, come into contact with a mentor who successfully helped him make his way into the art of violin making:  Francesco Bissolotti .&amp;nbsp;The Cremonese master took Chiao Chung-hsing under his wing, taught him at his atelier and even bankrolled his studies at the local violin making school from 1988 to 1992. The fact that Francesco Bissolotti correctly assessed Chiao Chung-hsing&#039;s potential became clear no later than when he won 16th place at a violin making competition in Cremona in 1991, followed by a silver medal for sound in 1992 at a VSA competition in Pennsylvania. At the age of 33, Chiao Chung-hsing returned to his home country, determined to share the wealth of his experience with his Taiwanese colleagues. In the meantime Chiao Chung-hsing teaches at the National Taiwan University of Arts in the Banqiao District of the city of New Taipeh, and his atelier is host to violin making courses that are open to the public. 
 Shu Sheng Kot 
 The material Chinese violin maker&amp;nbsp; Shu Sheng Kot  used for his first homemade violin came from an armchair and a coffee table he took apart. As a young man growing up in Shanghai, Shu Sheng Kot heard the recording of a violin concerto and fell so hopelessly in love with classical music that he taught himself to play the violin on a 14-dollar factory instrument. Soon, however, he grew frustrated with the limited tonal options this instrument offered, and the violin he made for himself out of furniture parts turned into the point of departure for a noteworthy career. Like several of his Chinese colleagues of the same generation, Shu Sheng Kot had to spend several years doing farm work after completing high school. During the period he spent fulfilling his duties in the rice fields of Yunnan province, however, he continued to make violins and bows by following instructions in books, and he successfully sold his instruments in China. Eventually Shu Sheng Kot was given the opportunity to move to Sydney, where amongst other things he worked as a restorer for the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. From there Shu Sheng Kot made his way to Cremona and ended up under the tutelage of Pierangelo Balzarini and  Alessandro Voltini , despite the fact that he spoke not one word of Italian. They continued to train him until 1991, when he opened his first atelier in Philadelphia. Today he run Kot’s Violins in Bryn Mawr, and members of the Philadelphia Orchestra rank among those who purchase Shu Sheng Kot&#039;s instruments and bows. Shu Sheng Kot&#039;s numerous awards include a certificate of craftsmanship for a violin as well as multiple gold medals for bows at VSA competitions; the Walter Stauffer gold medal for special acoustic qualities of a violin at the Cremonese Triennale in 1991; and a gold medal for a violin bow at the  Mittenwald international violin making competition  in 2010. 
 Feng Jiang 
  Feng Jiang  learned the art of crafting Chinese violins from his father in Beijing; he produced his first instrument in 1989 whilst still a teenager. In the late 1990s Feng Jiang made his way to William Harris Lee in Chicago and from there to Alf Studios in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where he now lives and works. Feng Jiang&#039;s pieces can be admired at international exhibitions, including Klanggestalten in Berlin. Feng Jiang is a member of the Violin Society of America and the American Federation of Violin and Bow Makers. The violins and violas he submitted at several VSA competitions have earned him several gold and silver medals. Chinese violins by Feng Jiang also were a great success at the British Violin Making Association in 2004.&amp;nbsp; 
 &amp;nbsp; 
  Related articles:  
  Contemporary violin makers  - the modern artisan elite 
 Mirecourt&#039;s new masters:  contemporary violin makers in Mirecourt  
 Stradivari&#039;s heirs:  contemporary violin makers in Cremona  
  Mittenwald violin makers  - contemporary masters 
  International violin making competitions  
 Originally published by Corilon violins. 
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                            <updated>2019-11-01T00:30:00+01:00</updated>
                    </entry>

    
    
        <entry>
            <title type="text">Daniele Scolari and the second generation of the new art of violin-making in ...</title>
            <id>https://www.corilon.com/us/library/master-portraits/daniele-scolari-and-the-second-generation-of-the-new-art-of-violin-making-in-cremona</id>
            <link href="https://www.corilon.com/us/library/master-portraits/daniele-scolari-and-the-second-generation-of-the-new-art-of-violin-making-in-cremona"/>
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                                            Daniele Scolari is a luthier whose journey began in the new Cremonese school. A portrait of a man who represents the “second generation”
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                  Daniele Scolari is a luthier whose journey began in the new Cremonese school. A portrait of a man who represents the “second generation”  
 The revival of violin making in  Cremona  in the 1950s and 60s brought about a renaissance of Stradivari’s art in his northern Italian home. The fact that this development evolved into more than merely a footnote in cultural history is not due solely to the efforts of masters such as Pietro Sgarabotto,  Gio Batta Morassi  and  Francesco Bissolotti , who all shaped the new “scuola di liuteria.” The resurgence also took place because of the talented second- and third-generation violin makers who came after them. This chapter in violin making history would have taken a different turn were it not for their commitment to the re-discovered traditions of the old masters and their willingness to share their expertise through teaching and professional collaboration. 
 The most relevant protagonists in this story include  Daniele Scolari , who was born in 1961 and successfully completed his training under Gio Batta Morassi in 1979. In this regard he followed in the footsteps of his brother, Giorgio Scolari, who was nearly a decade his senior and spent six years working for Morassi. Beginning in 1980, Giorgio started sharing his profound knowledge of the new Cremonese school with Daniele Scolari, who perfected and refined his personal style at their jointly operated workshop. To this day, the two Scolari brothers still operate their family business on Via Virgilio – one of the top names in this city full of traditions for those in search of premium stringed instruments. The address also reflects the multi-facetted links across the generations. 
 In designing his violins, violas and cellos, Daniele Scolari derives most of his inspiration from the models of the great classics Stradivari and Guarneri. ( Violin by Daniele Scolari, Cremona ). With their multi-facetted tonal properties and their typical brownish-orange varnish, Scolari’s instruments have brought him a good name throughout Italy and beyond, and he has an outstanding reputation for his repair and restoration work. The excellent standards of his work are clearly evident in a series of important awards and honours: in 1984, early in his career, he won a gold medal for the best varnish at the violin making competition in Bagnacavallo; there he also brought home a silver medal for a violin in 1986 and two bronzes in 1988 for a violin and a viola. His constant presence at international exhibitions such as “Mondomusica” and his role as a juror at national violin making competitions in Pisogne and Mozzate all confirm the role Daniele Scolari has earned for himself in contemporary Italian violin making. 
 Since 1996, Daniele Scolari has been working at his alma mater, teaching construction principles and varnish. This allows him not only to make productive use of the knowledge and skills he has acquired, but to continue to share it with the next generation in his guild and to continue anchoring Cremona’s role in the future. Here too, he followed in his brother’s footsteps: Giorgio Scolari has been on staff at the Cremonese violin making school since 1973, and like his brother who studied piano and organ, Daniele Scolari pursues a demanding musical profile outside of the workshop. As a church organist and head of a vocal and instrumental ensemble, Daniele can focus on his much-beloved compositions of the late Renaissance and Baroque periods – musical epochs which serve as an important muse, both in his music and in his instruments. 
    
   Related articles:   
  International violin making competitions  -- an overview 
  Eric Blot , expert of Cremona and Italian violin making 
 Stradivari&#039;s heirs:  contemporary violin makers in Cremona  
 Mirecourt&#039;s new masters:  contemporary violin makers in Mirecourt  
  Mittenwald violin makers  - contemporary masters keeping their tradition alive 
  Contemporary violin makers from China and Taiwan  
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            </content>

                            <updated>2019-08-09T17:24:00+02:00</updated>
                    </entry>

    
    
        <entry>
            <title type="text">Nicolas Lupot - The second great name in French violin making</title>
            <id>https://www.corilon.com/us/library/master-portraits/nicolas-lupot-the-second-great-name-in-french-violin-making</id>
            <link href="https://www.corilon.com/us/library/master-portraits/nicolas-lupot-the-second-great-name-in-french-violin-making"/>
            <summary type="html">
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                                            Nicolas Lupot shaped 19th century French violin making alongside J. B. Vuillaume. A Nicolas Lupot portrait of the “other master” by Corilon violins
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                  Nicolas Lupot shaped 19th century French violin making alongside J. B. Vuillaume. A portrait of the “other master” by Corilon violins  
 &quot;Astonished&quot; was what violinist, composer and conductor Ludwig Spohr said when he first he heard the “full and powerful sound” of a Nicolas Lupot violin; as he wrote in his 1860 autobiography, he immediately exchanged his historic German instrument for the Lupot and then played it &quot;from that moment on during all of my travels.&quot; Spohr&#039;s astonishment can be regarded as a late discovery, given that Nicolas Lupot&#039;s work had long since enjoyed great acclaim in his home country and already reached the full extent of its influence on French violin marking. As the “ French Stradivarius ” and a highly sought after teacher,  Nicolas Lupot  contributed to the training of a great number of outstanding luthiers in the course of his career, including Charles- François Gand and  Auguste Sébastien Philippe Bernardel , who later joined forces and established the esteemed &quot;Gand &amp;amp; Bernardel&quot; workshop. In terms of his impact on modern French violin making, to this day Nicolas Lupot is often mentioned in the same breath as his famous colleague  Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume ; he too made history by inspiring a school that is named after him. 
 Nicolas Lupot was born on 4 December 1758 to the Lupot family of influential Mirecourt violin makers, but Nicolas Lupot spent his childhood years in Stuttgart, where his father, François Lupot, served as the royal &quot;court lute and violin maker.&quot; It was François Lupot who introduced Nicolas to the art of violin making: he taught his son the approach which was commonplace in France at the time, in which the ideals of later Italian masters were the template to be followed. Orléans, the city where the family moved when Nicolas was twelve, was home to his first creative phase. Around 1794, Nicolas Lupot made his way to Paris, where he eventually began working under François Pique, whose technique had its roots in very similar aesthetic perspectives thanks to Pique&#039;s training in  Mirecourt . This business relationship lead not only to many years of mutually beneficial cooperative endeavours but a deep friendship as well. 
 After four years, Nicolas Lupot struck out on his own and opened a workshop on the Seine: initially he worked on Rue de Grammont, and in 1806 he moved his workshop to Rue Croix-des-Petits-Champs. That year he issued the publication &quot;La Chélonomie ou le parfait luthier,&quot; an essay on violin making by Abbé Sibire and a work to which Nicolas Lupot had contributed the main content. Despite his strong orientation towards his great role model, Stradivari, Nicolas Lupot&#039;s work shows an undeniable artistic independence which is manifest not only in details such as the shape of the sound holes and the fishbone purfling he used. Nicolas Lupot&#039;s instruments also have an inimitable character with regard to their sound, which made such a lasting impression on Spohr and others. 
 Political developments in France after the Congress of Vienna led to Nicolas Lupot being granted an exceptional commission. When the monarchy was restored, Louis XVIII ascended the throne in 1814 and appointed the highly esteemed master Nicolas Lupot as the luthier for the royal chapel and supplier to the royal music school. This honour was one Lupot emphasised with justified pride from 1815/16 onward on his instrument labels:  &quot;N. Lupot Luthier de la Musique du Roi et de l´École Royale de Musique.&quot; . Nicolas Lupot died in Paris on 14 August 1824. 
   Related articles:   
  Jean.Baptiste Vuillaume : notes on his life and work 
  Joseph Hel : a master in the Vuillaume tradition 
  H. R. Pfretzschner  
  François Xavier Tourte , founding father of the modern violin bow 
 The  Chanot violin makers  
  John &amp;amp; Arthur Beare : expertise in changing times 
  W. E. Hill &amp;amp; Sons  – on the Mt. Parnassus of the art of violin making 
  Jean-François Raffin : ten hours - and not a word 
  Eugene Sartory : the modern classic of bow making 
  François Nicolas Voirin  and the new French violin bow 
  Mirecourt: the spacious home of French violin making  
 How to select a  violin, value and violin appraisal  
  Contemporary violin makers  - the modern artisans 
 Originally published by Corilon violins. 
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            </content>

                            <updated>2019-08-09T17:23:00+02:00</updated>
                    </entry>

    
    
        <entry>
            <title type="text">Jan Špidlen: Art, innovation – and sport</title>
            <id>https://www.corilon.com/us/library/master-portraits/jan-spidlen-art-innovation-and-sport</id>
            <link href="https://www.corilon.com/us/library/master-portraits/jan-spidlen-art-innovation-and-sport"/>
            <summary type="html">
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                                            Violin maker Jan Baptista Špidlen is one of the busiest and most successful violin makers. The story of a Prague family of violin makers that balances art and sport
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                 Jan Baptista Špidlen is one of the busiest and most successful violin makers.  The story of the Spidlen violin and a Prague family of violin makers that balances art and sport 
 Innovation and the avant garde are a standard which are taken for granted in many spheres of both the art world and in craftsmanship. In the field of violin making, however, they tend to play more of a subordinate role. Even at the Prague atelier of the world-famous violin maker  Jan Špidlen , unusual commissions are more the exception than the rule. As  Jan Baptista Špidlen  himself states, he has more than enough daring new ideas, but the number of orders he receives for premium-quality traditionally crafted instruments is usually so large that little time remains for more artistically progressive projects. 
 &amp;nbsp; 
 Jan Baptista Špidlen – Life and work: 
 
  František Špidlen – Otakar Špidlen  
  Premysl Špidlen  
  Jan Spidlen  
 
 &amp;nbsp; 
 Consequently, one particular original violin has earned a very prominent position in his oeuvre. Jan Špidlen’s “Blue Violin,” which was made for the Czech virtuoso Pavel Šporcl, has an extravagant varnish which in and of itself stirred up quite a bit of attention. In creating this instrument, however, Jan Špidlen not only chose exceptional colouring, he also gave it special technical features to optimise the sound and stabilise the violin, such as a titanium screw in the neck and a carbon-fibre reinforced bass bar. Experts including the panel at the VSA Innovation Exposition in 2006 gave Špidlen high praise for these achievements.&amp;nbsp; 
 Violin maker František Špidlen – Otakar Špidlen 
 Jan Špidlen represents the fourth generation to run the family business. His great-grandfather  František Špidlen  made violins, first in Kiev and then Prague in from 1910 on. Frantisek Spidlen was followed by his son  Otakar Špidlen , who quickly established a great reputation for himself as a talented luthier and sought-after merchant and expert. Unfortunately, however, the political changes which affected the country after WWII posed a serious threat to Otakar Spidlens ability to work for himself: the Communist regime which rose to power in 1948 made it illegal to own a private businesses. Otakar Spidlen’s home and workshop, which were located on Jungmannova ulice, were confiscated. In response Spidlen attempted to join forces with other kindred spirits to create a group of artistically inclined luthiers, since artists were still allowed to pursue their work independently. Retreating to the safety of their ateliers so as to practice their craft in relative peace gave the Špidlens an opportunity that was not available to many: not 200 kilometres away, the Bohemian-Saxonian  violin making centre of Schönbach/Markneukirchen  had also once enjoyed economic power but had been torn apart by the war, and the socialist terror of industrialization and collectivisation had had a widespread impact. 
 Premysl Špidlen violin maker 
 Ultimately it was Otokar Spidlen’s son  Premsyl Špidlen  who helped found the society of artistic luthiers after his father’s death in 1958. Premsyl Spidlen also made history as an outstanding violin maker, starting out as a student of the violin at the Prague Conservatory and then took an interesting turn: Premsyl Spidlen was on the Czech national ski team from 1946 to 1948. Both of these art forms were passions he passed along to Jan Špidlen in addition to his skill as a luthier. From 1983 to 1984, the latter was a member of the national windsurfing team. During the 90s, Jan Spidlen was also one of the Czech Republic’s top snowboarding talents. 
 Jan Spidlen violin maker 
 Jan Spidlen crafted his first violin while still in middle school, and later it was played by no less a luminary than the world-famous violinist Josef Suk. After completing his training at the violin making school in  Mittenwald , Jan Spidlen worked as a restorer at the highly esteemed  London workshop J. &amp;amp; A. Beare . 
 In addition to his numerous other successes at competitions, in 2003 Jan Spidlen entered two violins at the  Cremonese Triennale  and won first and second prize with them as well as three additional awards for remarkable sound and aesthetic features. This was the first time any luthier won so many prizes at once in Cremona. This massive triumph is also what opened the veritable floodgates of commissions, and demand for Jan Špidlen’s work has continued unabated – even though, as mentioned above, it also leaves him tragically little time to experiment. 
  Related articles:  
  Contemporary violin makers - the modern artisans  
  Samuel Zygmuntowicz: understanding Stradivarius  
  Mirecourt&#039;s new masters: contemporary violin makers in Mirecourt  
  Stradivari&#039;s heirs: contemporary violin makers in Cremona  
  Contemporary violin makers from China and Taiwan  
  Marcus Klimke: a highly decorated luthier  
  Daniele Scolari and the second generation of the new art of violin-making in Cremona  
  Christoph Götting: excellence by tradition  
  Patrick Robin - a master of teaching an the craft  
  Stephan von Baehr and the architecture of the violin  
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            </content>

                            <updated>2019-08-09T17:11:00+02:00</updated>
                    </entry>

    
    
        <entry>
            <title type="text">Patrick Robin – a master of teaching and the craft</title>
            <id>https://www.corilon.com/us/library/master-portraits/patrick-robin-a-master-of-teaching-and-the-craft</id>
            <link href="https://www.corilon.com/us/library/master-portraits/patrick-robin-a-master-of-teaching-and-the-craft"/>
            <summary type="html">
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                                            Patrick Robin’s violin making blends the fruits of excellent training and abundant experience with perennial openness. A portrait by Corilon violins
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                  Patrick Robin’s violin making blends the fruits of excellent training and abundant experience with perennial openness. A portrait by Corilon violins  
 The seeds of great art flourish in the relationship between teachers and students, and like most sophisticated forms of craftsmanship, the art of violin making has survived because practical knowledge has been passed down in good faith from master to journeyman since the Renaissance. Master luthier  Patrick Robin  is also profoundly convinced of this principle, not least because he himself has enjoyed the privilege of receiving magnificent training. As the esteemed award-winning maker of premium stringed instruments, he traditionally shares his expert knowledge within the quiet rooms of his atelier, although he also teaches at workshops and conferences held at highly respected teaching institutes such as Oberlin College or the violin-making school in Santiago de Querétaro, Mexico. 
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 In 2000, the French ministry of culture bestowed the honour of a “maître d’art” upon Patrick Robin for the perfection of his work and for his expertise as an instructor. The fact that Robin has fully earned this title can be seen in the fruits of his students’ labour, such as Antoine Cauche, who himself is now a sought-after and distinguished luthier. Cauche describes his former master as an exceedingly patient teacher who provided thorough instruction yet allowed his students a certain degree of artistic liberty — a man who motivated students and cared about having a trusting working relationship with them. At the same time, Patrick Robin has emphatically stated that he in turn also benefits from working with his assistants. Having confidence the growing skills of his students and gradually giving them more and more responsibilities in the course of their education is something he regards as positive, and so is having to find answers to their demanding questions. 
 &amp;nbsp; 
 Patrick Robin’s own path began at the violin-making school in Newark, New Jersey, where he completed his training with honours in 1984.  Roger Hargrave , once an instructor in Newark and a violin-making expert of worldwide acclaim, then invited him to join an international team of restorers which specialized in valuable stringed instruments from the historic Italian schools. Patrick Robin’s intense focus on these pieces helped him learn to create excellent replicas. To this day he crafts his own richly expressive instruments in the spirit of their historic predecessors, even though they still retain their own stylistic distinction. 
 &amp;nbsp; 
 In a series of influential violin-making competitions – in  Concours Vatelot, Paris ,  Mittenwald violin making competition , Manchester, and other contests to name a few – he earned gold medals for his violins, violas and celli, and he himself was also asked to serve as a juror at multiple international competitions. In 1988 Patrick Robin settled in Les Ponts-de-Cé, France, south of Angers, where he initially shared an atelier with Andrea Frandsen. In 2006 he established his current atelier in a villa on the banks of the Loire. There he receives an international clientele which includes members of widely esteemed European orchestras and chamber ensembles, such as the Aron Quartet from Vienna or the Zehetmair Quartet. This very fruitful exchange of ideas with top-ranking musicians is what allows Patrick Robin to keep expanding his knowledge – the solid cornerstone of tomorrow’s highly esteemed works of art. 
    
   Related articles:   
 The  contemporary violin maker   - the modern artisan  
  Marcus Klimke : a highly decorated contemporary luthier 
  Jan Špidlen  - Art, innovation – and sport 
  Christoph Götting: excellence by tradition  
  Stephan von Baehr and the architecture of the violin  
  Samuel Zygmuntowicz, New York: understanding Stradivarius  
  Daniele Scolari  and the second generation of the new art of violin-making in Cremona 
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            </content>

                            <updated>2019-08-09T17:09:00+02:00</updated>
                    </entry>

    
    
        <entry>
            <title type="text">Stephan von Baehr and the architecture of the violin</title>
            <id>https://www.corilon.com/us/library/master-portraits/stephan-von-baehr-and-the-architecture-of-the-violin</id>
            <link href="https://www.corilon.com/us/library/master-portraits/stephan-von-baehr-and-the-architecture-of-the-violin"/>
            <summary type="html">
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                                            Violin maker Stephan von Baehr is an exceptional presence amongst the luthiers of his generation. A portrait of the &quot;architect of violins.&quot;
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                  Violin maker Stephan von Baehr is an exceptional presence amongst the luthiers of his generation.    
 Stephan von Baehr is a master of exquisite details, and he sees his art as a quest for ideal architecture. His concept is based on the idea that there are no unimportant issues when it comes to the way stringed instruments resonate and vibrate: he believes that miniscule changes taken as a whole can yield the greatest difference. From early on, this exacting approach helped Stephan von Baehr establish an excellent reputation among professional musicians and win awards which are far from common for a luthier of his generation. 
 Stephan von Baehr – Life and work: Overview 
 
  Stephan von Baehr&#039;s education  
  Recognition of violkin maker Stephan von Baehr  
  Inspiration of Stephan von Baehr  
 
 Violin maker Stephan von Baehr&#039;s education 
  Stephan von Baehr  was born in Schwerin, East Germany in 1972. Von Baehr completed his training in the studio of Reinhard Bönsch in Markneukirchen and learned the art of wood carving from Jochen Heinzmann. The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 opened up unforeseeable new opportunities to the young journeyman who had just completed his training, since he was now free to perfect his skills in outstanding ateliers throughout Europe. These were to include Andreas Kägi&#039;s atelier in Berlin, where Stephan von Baehr had the chance to study several Stradivari instruments in detail as he restored them. In 1993 he was offered a position as a restorer of historic instruments under  Bernard Sabatier  in Paris, and a year later he passed the German master exam with top marks. 
 Recognition of luthier Stephan von Baehr 
 One milestone in Stephan von Baehr&#039;s career was the RNCM International Cello Festival in 1998, where one of his instruments received the highest recognition from the jury of renowned experts led by  Charles Beare . Encouraged by this praise from such a qualified source, Stephan von Baehr then chose to focus all of his attention on crafting new instruments. With the support of his former master Sabatier, he opened his own workshop on Rue de Rome, the street in Paris where many famous luthiers have their ateliers. In addition to his success in Manchester, Stephan von Baehr went on to earn gold and silver medals at numerous international violin-making competitions, such as Salt Lake City, Portland and Cleveland; at the 2001 competition in Mittenwald, he was awarded a special prize for the best and most distinctive work – an honour he is particularly proud of. He has already received multiple commissions from German and French foundations such as Natexis and the  Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben  to create instruments for rising talents. 
 Inspiration for Stephan von Baehr, violin maker 
 Stephan von Baehr, as the son of two professional violinists, has understood the demands and needs of professional musicians since his childhood. The artists who play his instruments include soloists such as Isabelle Faust and Lise Berthaud as well as leading orchestra members such as Berlin Philharmonic&#039;s solo cellist Olaf Maninger. At some Vienna Philharmonic concerts, Stephan von Baehr reports, there are six of his violas on the stage. Many members of such great orchestras use concert trips to Paris as an occasion to visit his atelier, where they can further refine the sound of their instruments with the help of its creator. 
 When asked about the sources of his inspiration, Stephan von Baehr speaks of the epoch when  Stradivari  and Guarneri were active, a time when the principles of an ideal violin architecture were developed. Their role models are something he always bears in mind, and he does so by keeping significant pieces from the golden age of Cremonese violin making at his atelier on a regular basis not as objects for sale or restoration, but simply as a template as he works on new instruments. Others are present as realistic detailed silicon casts, directly at his workbench, representing historic Italian craftsmanship which can rightfully claim to be unique. This awareness of the tried-and-true informs many aspects of his work, including the strong ties he maintains with those who play his instruments – a mutually fruitful constellation, and one from which many great things can be expected in the future. 
 &amp;nbsp; 
   Related articles:   
  Nicolas Lupot  - the &quot;French Stradivarius&quot; 
 Mirecourt&#039;s new masters: contemporary  violin makers in Mirecourt  
 Stradivari&#039;s heirs:  contemporary violin makers in Cremona  
  Daniele Scolari  and the second generation of the new art of violin-making in Cremona 
 Working in the shadow of the factories:  violin makers from China and Taiwan  
  Samuel Zygmuntowicz : understanding Stradivarius 
  Jan Špidlen  - Art, innovation – and sport 
  Christoph Götting : excellence by tradition 
  Patrick Robin  - a master of teaching an the craft 
  Marcus Klimke : a highly decorated luthier 
  International violin making competitions  -- an overview 
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                            <updated>2019-08-09T17:08:00+02:00</updated>
                    </entry>

    
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