The masterpieces of the Cremonese stringed

The historical city of Cremona
hides a secular know-how, the
stringed-instrument
manufacture. The today's violin
makers are the rigorous heirs of
the talented Andrea Amati,
inventor of the violin, or of the
famous Antonio Stradivari, the
artists who made prestigious
violins. Their prices reach
astronomical sums. April 22,
2005
in
New
York,
a
Stradivarius of 1699 was sold
for I,6 million Euros. One year
later, an other one was sold for
2,7 million Euros. Thanks to
science, the acoustics experts
can measure the frequency of
the strings vibrations, the
resonance so as the power
intensity. Are they higher than
all those since manufactured?
The masterpieces of the Cremonese stringed-instrument facing
science.
Photos and text ©Patrick Landmann/Lightmediation
Contact- Thierry Tinacci Lightmediation Agency +33 (0)6 61 80 57 21 thierry@lightmediation.com
526-01: The workshop of the violin maker Konia. Most picturesque of Cremona which has practically not changed since 400 years.
526-01: The workshop of the violin maker Konia. Most picturesque of Cremona which has practically not
changed since 400 years.
526-02: Konia, one of the Cremonese master, roughs down the back with the help of a scraper.
526-03: The Japanese trainee of Konia. More and more from abroad come to be formed by the Masters of
Cremona. In parallel they follow a 3 years course in the Violin Making International School of Cremona.
526-04: Close up on the work with the gouge which makes it possible to cut down to size of the back. The
back is made with maple in one or two parts.
526-04: Close up on the work with the gouge which makes it possible to cut down to size of the back. The back is made with maple in one or two parts.
526-05: Close up of a magnificent plate of wavy maple. This wood is used for the back, the ribs and the
scroll.
526-06: The back is glued on the ribs and maintained the time of drying.
526-07: A Japanese trainee applies several varnish layers to obtain the desired hue.
Front of Konia's workshop.
526-09: one of the two sons of the violin maker Francesco Bissolotti work on ribs.
526-09: one of the two sons of the violin maker Francesco Bissolotti work on ribs.
526-10: one of the two sons of the violin maker Francesco Bissolotti work on ribs.
526-11: The sons of the violin maker Francesco Bissolotti work on ribs.
526-12: The violin workshop of Francesco Bissolotti is adapted to the requirements of a manufacture of
quality. He disputes the rank of leader of the Cremonese violin maker to another famous Master Giobatta
Morassi.
526-22: Tests of vibrations and sonority are carried out in the anechoic room at the Violin Making International School of Cremona.
526-13: A Chinese trainee at Bissolotti works on a scroll of a violoncello.
526-14: Giovanni Battista Morassi, the Master of the violin makers of Cremona.
526-15: By tapping wood with its finger Giovanni Morassi knows if the violin will have a good sonority.
526-16: Giovanni Battista Morassi walk across Piazza del Comune. In the background the Cremonese
cathedral of Romanesque and Lombardic architecture.
526-23: Stuart Wyatt, an English soloist tests an electric violin in an auditorium of the IRCAM (Institute of Search and Coordination of Acoustic and Music), Paris.
526-17: Giovanni Battista Morassi walk across Piazza del Comune. In the background the Cremonese
cathedral of Romanesque and Lombardic architecture.
526-18: A tourist requests an autograph from Giovanni Battista Morassi.
526-19: The "Cremonese", a famous violin to date back to 1715, which is the period known as "golden age"
(1700 to 1720) of Antonio Stradivari. It is visible in the Room of the Violins of the Town hall of Cremona
which lends it to be played by famous soloists.
526-20: A workshop of restoration of Cremone
526-15: By tapping wood with its finger Giovanni Morassi knows if the violin will have a good sonority.
526-21: The violins "in white" without varnish of the student from the Violin Making International School of
Cremona.
526-22: Tests of vibrations and sonority are carried out in the anechoic room at the Violin Making
International School of Cremona.
526-23: Stuart Wyatt, an English soloist tests an electric violin in an auditorium of the IRCAM (Institute of
Search and Coordination of Acoustic and Music), Paris.
526-24: Mr Rene Caussé, person in charge for the Instrumental Acoustic department at the IRCAM
(Institute of Search and Coordination of Acoustic and Music), measures ranges of vibrations of violin's back.
526-26: Very early of the researchers tried to penetrate the mystery of the sonority of the violins. Here a strange construction dating from the years 1960.
526-25: Illustration showing the zones of strong and weak vibrations of a violin's belly.
526-27: In the Room of the Violins of the Town hall of Cremona, a painting from 19th century of Antonio
Stradivari in his workshop.
526-26: Very early of the researchers tried to penetrate the mystery of the sonority of the violins. Here a
strange construction dating from the years 1960.
526-27: In the Room of the Violins of the Town hall of Cremona, a painting from 19th century of Antonio Stradivari in his workshop.
The masterpieces of
the Cremonese
stringed-instrument
facing science.
The historical city of Cremona hides a
secular know-how, the stringed-instrument
manufacture. The today's violin makers
are the rigorous heirs of the talented
Andrea Amati, inventor of the violin, his
son Nicolo who was the most notorious
member of the family, of Andrea Guarneri,
father of the eponymous dynasty but also
of the famous Antonio Stradivari, student
of Nicolo Amati. They were the creators,
the artists who made prestigious violins,
violoncellos and violas which a great
number arrived to us. Their prices reach
astronomical sums. April 22, 2005 in New
York, a Stradivarius of 1699 was sold for
I,6 million Euros. One year later, an other
one was sold for 2,7 million Euros.
Thanks to science, the acoustics experts
can measure the frequency of the strings
vibrations, the resonance so as the power
intensity. Are they higher than all those
since manufactured? Is the price
difference of the yesteryear instruments in
comparison of the contemporaries ones
justified?
Small jealously kept secrets
The chaotic history of Cremona left in
legacy a historical center with rich and
varied buildings and as much sacred than
civil. Splendid arcades of Palazzo
Comunale (13th century) which face the
cathedral of Romanesque and Lombardic
architecture partly encircle the Piazza del
Comune, the artistic heart of the city. From
there, runs a maze of lanes where the few
120 workshops of stringed-instrument
makers are hidden. While strolling in these
small alleys where hangs a perpetual haze
of varnish, rosewood, maple and spruce,
one lets catch by his imagination for better
visualize the violin manufacture such as it
was in the past. A delightful charm
overcomes us when one penetrates in the
backyard, where the violin maker Konia
has his shop, the most picturesque of
Cremona. At first, it should be discovered
from a small distance during a few
minutes, then to let attract oneself since it
remains unchanged for centuries. A magic
occurs when the last lights of the day
yields the place to the twilight. The warm
glow streaming out of two large windows,
surmounted each one of a Roman arch,
skims the paving stones of the court and
contrasts with the blue of the moon rise.
Inside, the walls are covered with tools,
gouges, scrapers, molds and models
similar to those once. With a slow and
precise move, many times repeated,
inherited from his peers, Konia roughs
down the back with the means of a
scraper in order to perfect the back of the
violin constantly evolving. On the bench,
in front of the picture windows, rest
anyhow pieces of raw wood, violin bellies
and scrolls, besides ribs and backs waiting
for gluing. The atmosphere of wood and
warm hue is enjoyable. Konia is a silent
person, sparing of words, but generous.
From time to time, it leans its imposing
silhouette over the Japanese trainee who
carries out a first violin under the
benevolent shade of his Master.
Many tourists who space up and down
Cremona during every season approach
the fronts stealthily in the hope practically
always fulfilled to see the worthy heirs of
the Masters of yesteryear. It is the case of
the famous Giovanni Battista Morassi's
workshop. Behind his store, suspended
like motionless puppets, many violins "in
white" (unvarnished) are exposed to soft
daylight to eliminate a maximum of
humidity remaining in the wood. Like the
tools, the techniques of manufacture of
the violin case did not change since the
Masters of 16th century. Morassi wants to
be the guarantor of the know-how
transmitted by the Ancient. Morassi is a
keen defender of the manufacture
traditions, however that doesn't mean that
he's just the simple copyist of the
instruments of the time. In spite of a
half-century spent to work wood, to
produce instruments of very great making,
this man with a perpetual smile and blue
sparkling eyes so as gray and thick hair,
remains passionate. Eminent expert of the
wood he keeps jealously secret his
sources of supplying, he has an ear to
listen to their sonority by tapping with his
finger the belly or the back before their
assembly. By doing this he can anticipate
if the future violin will give voice under the
attacks of the bow.
The construction of a violin answers
extremely rigorous requirements: the
choice of wood, the precision of
manufacture, the thickness of the belly
and the back. If dimensions of the body,
the neck and the fingerboard often
changed, since the end of 18th century a
certain standardization took place. But an
element, the varnish, would seem to be
essential. In addition to its protective and
aesthetic role, for some specialists, it
would be him which would make it
possible a violin to become a famous
instrument whereas for others it has only
very little influence on sonority. At
Francesco Bissolotti, who with Giobatta
Morassi disputes the rank of first "luthier"
of Cremona, the room where varnish is
applied is furnished with tens of bottles
and flasks filled of resins, gums, oils,
pigments and solvents. For him, the
varnish has an acoustic function; it rounds
up the sounds and each violin maker has
his small formula jealously kept within his
family.
More questions than answers
It was so with Antonio Stradivari.
Those things known and put down in
writing about his mysterious varnish that
would be the cause of the sonority ever
equalized of his violins. A varnish which
one does not know the exact composition
or the order in which the various
components go into and which wouldn't
any more be manufactured in the same
way. If it's right of saying that his
instruments have perfect acoustics, how
did he make to manufacture them? What
is the reason of such a pure sound?
In practice, it is very difficult to specify the
sound quality of a period authentic
instrument compared to a modern one.
Acousticians can measure the exact size
of the body, the belly, the back or the
frequency of the strings vibrations, the
resonance so as the power intensity to try
to understand the parameters which
determine the quality of the sound of
those violins. But the ear and the brain are
organs much more sophisticated than are
the equipments of the acoustic experts.
Moreover, it remains a necessarily
subjective factor. The place that a listener
occupies in a room is dominating. The
sound reverberation is not necessarily the
same according to whether one seats in
front, at the back or on the sides. The
tension in the strings is adjust at the
frequencies of 200 (G), 300 (D), 440 (A)
and 660 (E) Hertz which correspond to the
zone of maximum sensitivity of the human
ear. But the organ of hearing which allows
the transmission and the perception of the
sounds brings into play highly complex
devices at the neurophysiological level,
which are not equal to all human beings.
Only rare experts or the sharp ears of
some soloists can make the difference
between such or such instrument, it is not
the case of general public for whom the
music was finally created.
Then, why the Stradivarius did become at
such a point mythical, just like Guarneri or
the violins of their contemporaries? Many
assumptions were build up and more or
manufactured his best violins. The wood that he used those years, in
fact exceptional spruce, necessarily grew during the Minimum of
Maunder.
less serious studies carried out. Joseph Nagyvary, an American native
of Hungary, Professor in biochemistry and biophysics at the University
of Texas, itself violin maker at his lost hours, he has no doubt; it's
thanks to the varnish that the Stradivarius are unequalled. After
decades of search and as many affronts and offences undergone by his
detractors, he worked out a theory which is far out of the ordinary. The
use of rock salt, a common practice in the past, made wood harder and
stiffer to protect it from the wood-boring insects. In the same way, the
early Cremonese violin makers used it to preserve their stock of wood
at a time when its trade and its supplying were severely controlled by
the authorities. The rock salt and the borax were also mixed into the
composition of varnish to arrive at the desired brightness. According to
Nagyvary, the use of salt associated with varnish fossilized wood at a
such point that would make it possible the violin to vibrate at
frequencies never reached since. That's the mystery of the Stradivarius
sound. Although Stradivari was an exceptional violin maker, it would be
a chemical reaction which he couldn't know at his time that made a
legend of him. But this theory doesn't stand up anymore. Ultraviolet
photographs revealed that most of those Cremonese instruments had
already lost their original varnish and were recoated with new layers
where salt was not used.
A recent study of 2 researchers also of the University of Texas in close
collaboration with a climatologist of the University of Columbia tends to
show that the astonishing sonority of the Stradivarius would come
exclusively from wood. According to this triumvirate it would be the
climate which would have made it possible wood to develop such
acoustic properties. Indeed, a Little Ice Age occurred since the 16th
century (for some people earlier) with longer and much colder winters
and fresher summers. A known negative peak called the "Minimum of
Maunder" happened between 1645 and 1715.
Explanation: the cold slows down the growing of the trees which rings
narrowed and became closer the ones to the others; wood is thus
denser and harder creating superior tonal qualities. As we know, the 20
years, from 1700 to 1720, correspond to the third period of Stradivari,
that known as "the golden age". He has reached his full maturity and
Heavy prices
These parameters, an exceptional violin maker, a remarkable wood and
a treatment with rock salt and borax would be the reason of such a
success? Yet science did not succeed in putting a term at the
controversy. The arguments brought are not convincing. Then,
objective or subjective perception: blind tests organized in front of an
informed audience did not make it possible in a convincing way to
decide between the soloists playing with good manufactured nowadays
violins and those built by the great Masters of 17th and 18th century.
The legend of these instruments would it silently be maintained by the
auction houses and a few auctioneers who yield appreciable profits.
One would be tempted to believe it. The assumption is not persuasive
in spite of the fact that the value of those Italian instruments soars
incessantly. Among the Stradivarius which came until to us, the sale in
1998, of the "Kreutzer" at Christies in London reached 1,5 million euros,
then that of the " Lady Tennant " in April 2005 for close 1,6 million
euros and finally the sale of the "Hammer" in May 2006 which realized
the world record at Christies in New York for 2,7 million euros.
Giulio Caccini, well known singer and instrumentalist of the court of
Medicis said that the human voice can't suffer from any mediocrity. It is
the same for the violins. As for Claudio Monteverdi, composer singer
and violonist born in Cremona, he specified, "Al servitio de la bona
arte", to the service of the great art. Though it is, let us leave the
discord and the controversy to those who want and delight us by the
magnificence of the oeuvres by listening the instruments that express
their sounds for our greatest pleasure.