Ep 2. Gasparo Da Salo Violin maker and Luthier part 2 This guy is going places.

Join me as I delve into the world of Gasparo Da Salo once again and discover what  guns, Monetverdi and a war in France have to do with his business.

I speak to Violin maker and expert John Dilworth, fashion historian Emily Brayshaw about the influence clothes and style on players of Violins, Violas and cellos and finally Fillipo Fasser a contemporary violin maker in Brescia, explains the importance of the master Luthiers of his city.

Music you have heard in this episode is by

Bach Violin partita No 2, Telemann Sonata in D maj for viola da gamba – Daniel Yeadon, Unfamiliar faces – All good folks, Budapest – Christian Larssen, Bloom by Roo Walker, Brandenburg Concerto No 4 – Kevin Macleod, Frost waltz- Kevin Macleod, Getting to the bottom of it – Fernweh Goldfish

Transcript

Hello and welcome to the Violin Chronicles, a podcast in which I will attempt to bring to life the stories surrounding the famous, infamous, or just not very well known, but interesting, violin makers of history. My name is Linda Lespets. I am a violin maker and restorer. I graduated from the French Violin Making School some years ago now.

Welcome back for part two of the life and times of Gasparo de Salo, instrument maker, musician, and man on his way up.  In episode one, we looked at what it would have been like to live in Renaissance Brescia in the 1500s.  The destruction and subsequent rebuilding of the city after its sacking in 1512.

This led to a flurry of activity amongst artisans and artists. And the role that this played in the rebirthing of the city of Brescia.  In this episode, we will look more in depth at instrument making in the city, and how Gasparo Da Salo started to make a name for himself.

The 1560s heralded in the golden age of piracy in the Caribbean. But closer to home, and an event that is more important to the history of the violin, but that I will only come to in a future episode, the then 10-year-old Charles IX of France becomes king after his brother Francis dies of an ear infection!

Not to worry. Catherine de Medici, Charles's mother, is more than happy to act as regent for her son.  But what is important to note here is that an Italian born queen, with her love of the arts and music, is wielding her power in the trend setting capital of Paris.  But back in Italy, as Gasparro Da Salo grew up, he became an organ builder's apprentice. And then, in his early twenties, disaster struck the family. When his father Francesco died, the decision was made, they would move to Brescia.  If Gasparo Da Salo was to become successful in both his musical career and instrument making, Violin making and lutherie, Brescia was the place to be.  But how important was Brescia in the role of instrument production at this time?

John Gagne.  I'm John Gagne, I'm a senior lecturer in history at the University of Sydney and I work mostly on European history from the 13th to the 18th centuries.

 There's a guy named Ugo Ravasio, who wrote a lot of books about Brescian violin making in the 1990s. And he claims in one of his like seminal articles that the word violino first appears in Brescian documents on the 17th of April, 1530.

There are other words before then for sort of other instruments like viola da braccio or lira da braccio, but the actual word like violino is apparently a 1530, you know, invention and he also tells us that the first document to record a maker of violini is the 11th of December, 1558.

That's very precise.

Yeah, exactly. It's kind of interesting. And this is the beauty of experts. I mean, this shows us that there's like, I mean, that's, it's more about language, I suppose, because as I, just said, like  in the 15th century, there are people in Brescia making instruments of all kinds, but the word violino and the actual identity of the maker of violini seems to be like 1530s to 1560, basically is when they're like, agglomerating as a self-named kind of group of people.

That's what Ugo Ravasio claims, that basically the word violino, yeah, is, is actually  Brescian, of Brescian origin.

The period in which Gasparo Da Salo moved from Salo to Brescia to set up his workshop coincided with the end of the Italian wars.  These were the series of conflicts we spoke about in the first episode where the city of Brescia was violently sacked by the French army. But now in this time of peace, trade was able to flourish.

The feelings the Brescians had towards the French a few years earlier were quite strong. One inhabitant of the city described the French as “The enemies of God and of humanity. Bloodsuckers and people without laws. Of faith not worthy to be called Christian”.  But now these bloodsucking heathens were paying a good price for instruments coming from Italy.

It was a rare moment of relative peace in this part of the world. So commerce prevailed.

Actually, there's a good story that you pro