Italian Cello Making, Origins to 1750: Cremona & Brescia, by Jason Price

Dirck Hals, 1623, Hermitage Museum

Introduction

The violin has had the good fortune of being born perfectly formed, with model and dimensions that have remained more or less untouched for nearly 500 years. The viola and cello on the other hand weren’t so lucky. Their dimensions, tuning, and intended role in the ensemble remained unsettled and subject to myriad modifications and adaptations for another few hundred years. In the case of the cello, even its name was up for grabs: in Italy alone in the 17th century, printed music and archival sources call instruments of the bass register by a multitude of names: bassetto, bassetto di viola, basso da brazzo, basso di viola, basso viola da brazzo, violone, violonzono, violoncino, viola granda, violonzino, violonzello, violone piccolo, violone basso, violone grande, violone doppio, violone grosso, violone grande and contrabasso. ^[1] Such varied terminology suggests both a great variety of existing instruments and extensive ongoing experimentation. It was only in around 1665 that the first music was written to use the specific term ‘violoncello’. ^[2] For the sake of convenience we will refer to all instruments in this survey as cellos, although it is unlikely that either the makers of the earliest of these instruments or the first musicians to play them would have called them by that name.

The earliest surviving identifiable cello, the 'King' Andrea Amati cello from c. 1550-1570. (Outline recreated see note 3).
The few surviving Maggini cellos are the earliest known instruments of a 75.5 cm size.
Cellos by the Brothers Amati have almost all been reduced in size. This 70.7 cm five-string cello was likely originally intended as a violoncello piccolo.
One of the best preserved Stradivari cellos, the uncut 1690 'Medici' has a back length of 79.3 cm.
In or just before 1707 Stradivari hit upon his greatest cello innovation, the 75.5 cm long ‘forma B’.
The later Stradivari cellos, like the 1730 'Pawle', have a narrow waist, a shorter body length and show the assistance of Francesco Stradivari and Carlo Bergonzi.
Smaller-pattern cellos like this 1706 Rogeri offered musicians a more manageable instrument for virtuoso playing.
Giovanni Tononi made cellos of a long body length based roughly on an Amati pattern.
Matteo Goffriller made cellos on both a larger and a smaller pattern such as this c. 1730 example.
The great cello maker Domenico Montagnana made cellos on a wide model with a reduced body length of around 74.0 cm
The Cremonese and Venetian violin making traditions have their first intersection with Pietro Guarneri.
The shallow C-bouts and short, pert corners create an effect of compact refinement and graceful elegance in the cellos of Santo Serafin.

Cremona

The earliest surviving identifiable cello was made by Andrea Amati (c. 1505–1577) in Cremona around 1550–70 and it formed part of the collection of decorated instruments made for King Charles IX of France. Its precise original dimensions are unknown although we can extrapolate that it was somewhat longer than 78 cm with widths of around 39 cm and 49 cm. ^[3] There is some discussion as to the instrument’s original number of strings but the size of the pegbox, spacing of the pegs and the substantial width between the sound holes seem to point towards a five-string instrument that was later modified. ^[4] Given that there are only two other Andrea Amati cellos, which have survived in varying states of alteration and condition, there is much that is unknown about the function and format of Andrea’s cellos although we can accept that for Andrea Amati in the mid-16th century the cello was already an essential member of the violin consort.

Praetorius Syntagma Musicum, 5-string basetto

‘Syntagma Musicum’, Praetorius, showing a five string bassetto

The sons of Andrea, Girolamo and Antonio (1561–1631, c. 1540–1607), took over their father’s workshop in the late 1570s. Again the exact original dimensions of their cellos are unknown beyond the fact that most of them were big, very big, to the point that already in the early 19th century they were deemed unwieldy and many were reduced to more moderate dimensions. There are fewer than 20 surviving cellos by the Brothers together with remnants of several bass viols and at least one smaller-sized five-string cello. ^[5]

The later cellos of the Brothers Amati workshop show the collaboration of Girolamo’s son Nicolò (1596–1684), who took over the Amati workshop in around 1630. Under Nicolò the workshop hired many assistants and produced hundreds of violins, but interestingly only a few dozen known Nicolò Amati cellos survive. For whatever reason the main supply of cellos in mid-to-late 17th-century Cremona appears to have come from two other workshops in Cremona: the Guarneri and the Rugeri.

After leaving the employ of the Amati workshop, Andrea Guarneri (1623–1698) established the first important non-Amati workshop in Cremona. Early cellos by Andrea are of the same grand dimensions as those of Nicolò Amati but in workmanship they are significantly more rustic and less refined. Often made with willow, poplar or beech and rarely with traditionally figured maples, the cellos of Andrea Guarneri have a masculine and almost sculptural beauty that is far from the meticulous elegance of the Amatis but beguiling in its own way. Andrea’s son Giuseppe ‘filius’ (1666–1740) also made exceptional cellos. His early examples follow the general parameters of his father but after around 1700 he made several excellent cellos of a slightly smaller model with narrow f-holes, lower arching and an intense red-brown varnish. ^[6]

The most prolific cello-making dynasty of 17th-century Cremona, however, was that of the Rugeris. Traditionally presumed to have been a pupil of Nicolò Amati but more likely only tangentially influenced, Francesco Rugeri (c.1628–1698) was extraordinarily productive in the making of cellos. Often featuring plainer and less costly materials such as willow and poplar, Rugeri’s cellos were also the first Cremonese cellos to be routinely built on a smaller pattern. As early as the 1670s we see cellos that were built on a smaller form with a back length of 75–76 cm. This is significant in that with the exception of Maggini it appears that Rugeri and his sons were the first to adopt the smaller form cello that would soon become dominant in most of Italy. Recognizable by their narrow, upright soundholes, rich dark-brown varnish, fine edges and characteristic scrolls, the smaller patterned cellos of Francesco Rugeri are often seen as the antecedent to the great ‘forma B’ cellos that Antonio Stradivari introduced around 1707.

The earliest surviving identifiable cello, the 'King' Andrea Amati cello from c. 1550-1570
'Amaryllis Fleming' Brothers Amati of c.1600
'Amaryllis Fleming' Brothers Amati of c.1600
Brothers Amati of c.1625
Brothers Amati of c.1625
Francesco Rugeri of 1685
Francesco Rugeri of 1685
Francesco Rugeri of 1685
'Soyer' Andrea Guarneri of 1669
'Soyer' Andrea Guarneri of 1669
'Soyer' Andrea Guarneri of 1669

Stradivari

The earliest cellos by Antonio Stradivari (c.1644–1737) are bassettos, their long body and stop lengths following the standards set by the Amati workshop. Most of Stradivari’s pre-1700 cellos have since been reduced in size but three stunning examples survive with their dimensions unaltered: the 1690 ‘Medici’, the 1697 ‘Castelbarco’ and the 1701 ‘Servais’. There were at least two cellos made by Stradivari with an arched top and a flat back. [7] These may have been created as a specific commission or perhaps this was an abandoned innovation, a hybrid between a viol and violone.

The reasons why the cello was so large in the 17th century and why a shorter pattern become dominant in the 18th century are complex but can be summarized by two simultaneous developments. First, the advent of wire-wound strings allowed instrument makers to build cellos with a shorter string-length. Secondly, music being written for bass instruments began to demand a more manageable and maneuverable instrument. In the late 17th century the function of the cello and its role in the ensemble were changing rapidly. No longer just the bass voice in a processional or the continuo in a consort, the cello began to come into its own as a solo instrument in the late 17th century. Composers such as Domenico Gabrielli and G. B. degli Antonii began to write virtuoso parts for the cello, leading cellists to seek instruments that they could play with greater agility and with a quicker response.

Outlines of the ‘Medici’, ‘Duport’ and ‘Pawle’ Stradivari

In or just before 1707 Stradivari hit upon his greatest cello innovation, the 75.5 cm long ‘forma B’. His wasn’t the first small-model cello but it was effectively the model which was most fit for purpose and consequently became the most highly revered and most widely copied over the subsequent three centuries. There are approximately 20 surviving cellos of the forma B pattern and they include some of the most famous cellos in history: among them the 1711 ‘Duport’ (Rostropovich), the 1712 ‘Davidov’ (Ma, du Pré), 1714 ‘Batta’ (Piatigorsky) and the 1720 ‘Piatti’ (Piatti, Prieto).

The cellos made by Stradivari and his workshop from the mid-1720s onwards become even more compact in form with a shorter body length, narrower widths and shallower ribs. These cellos are thought to be predominantly the work of Francesco Stradivari and the young Carlo Bergonzi. It is unknown why Bergonzi didn’t continue making of cellos on his own after the Stradivari workshop fizzled out after the death of Antonio in 1737 but for whatever reason both he and the other last classical Cremonese master, Giuseppe Guarneri ‘del Gesù’, steered clear of making cellos almost completely.

'Harrell, Du Pre, Guttmann' Stradivari of 1673
'Harrell, Du Pre, Guttmann' Stradivari of 1673
'Medici, Tuscan' Stradivari of 1690
'Davidoff' Stradivari of 1712
'Davidoff' Stradivari of 1712
'Davidoff' Stradivari of 1712
'Pleeth' Stradivari of 1732
'Pleeth' Stradivari of 1732
'Pleeth' Stradivari of 1732

Brescia

Before 1630 Brescia developed alongside Cremona as the other major city of instrument making in Italy but the types of instruments being made in Brescia were of greater variety. The first notable Brescian maker of violin family instruments was Gasparo Bertolotti ‘da Salo’ (1540–1609), who made viols, citterns, liras da braccio and other transitional instruments in addition to a number of excellent tenor violas and a handful of violins. Excepting one uncut instrument with a back length of 72 cm, most Gaspar instruments that are currently set up as cellos were probably originally conceived as viols or violones and later converted. Only one of the existing cello-sized instruments by Gaspar is known to retain its original scroll, which probably means these instruments were originally configured for a different number of strings and the heads were discarded upon later modification. The one presumed original Gaspar cello pegbox shows evidence of five peg holes. ^[8] Gaspar himself was recorded as a player of the violone, ^[9] and bass instruments seem to have occupied a substantial portion of his output at least in comparison to the ratios of instrument types produced by the first two generations of the Amati family. ^[10]

The surviving Gaspar instruments currently configured as cellos are rather rustic compared with the refined and carefully composed Cremonese cellos from this period. The arching is full and rises directly from the edges and the outline is broad but highly variable from one instrument to another. The corners are short and the sound-holes are long and variable and undercut into the plane of the table.

Gaspar was assisted by his son Francesco and by Giovanni Paolo Maggini (1580–1632). Cellos by Maggini are extremely rare, with only a small handful of authentic examples surviving. In 1892 the Hills knew of only two Maggini cellos yet they praised these instruments lavishly, referring to Maggini as ‘the father of the modern cello’ and asserting that ‘Stradivari learned from Maggini in the matter of violoncellos.’ ^[11]

Giovanni Battista Rogeri: this was the direction of the cello at the end of the 17th century – a smaller body with shorter string and stop lengths, all leading towards a more manageable instrument for virtuoso playing

With their long sloping sound-holes and bulbous upper and lower bouts, a direct similarity may be elusive to modern eyes but it is nonetheless true that the surviving Maggini cellos are the earliest known instruments of a 75.5 cm size. The fact that so few cellos have survived from such a relatively prolific maker is odd and warrants further analysis. Sadly Maggini died in 1632, leaving no known followers or assistants.

The death of Maggini meant an irreparable break in the tradition of Brescian instrument making. It wasn’t resumed until 30 years later in 1662, when Giovanni Battista Rogeri (c.1642–c.1705) arrived in Brescia fresh from his training in the shop of Nicolò Amati. While the violins of Rogeri are close cousins of Nicolò Amati, the model he used for their cellos is markedly different. With a back length of roughly 71 cm, sloping shoulders, closed C-bouts, hooked corners and narrowly set sound-holes, Rogeri’s cellos presented a progressive and forward-thinking divergence from the Amati tradition. Without a doubt this was the direction of the cello at the end of the 17th century: a smaller body with shorter string and stop lengths, all leading towards a more manageable instrument for virtuoso playing.

In part 2, Jason Price surveys the development of the cello in Venice, Bologna and Rome.

Gasparo Bertolloti 'da Salo'
'Chimay, Sandeman' Giovanni Paolo Maggini of c.1610
'Chimay, Sandeman' Giovanni Paolo Maggini of c.1610
Giovanni Battista Rogeri of 1706
Giovanni Battista Rogeri of 1706

Notes

1. Bonta, Stephen, Terminology for the Bass Violin in Seventeenth-Century Italy, Journal of the American Instrument Society 4, 1978.

2. Bonta, Stephen, From Violone to Violoncello: A Question of Strings?, Journal of the American Instrument Society 3, 1977.

3. Houël, Roland, Reconstitution d’un Violoncelle d’Andrea Amati, p. 76.

4. Iconography of the period from Italian, German and Dutch sources also commonly shows instruments of similar model and dimensions with five strings.

5. Most likely intended as a violoncello piccolo with a back length of 70.7 cm

6. With a back length of approximately 74–75 cm.

7. See the ‘Flat back, Betts, Iswaki’ cello of c. 1670, which originally had a flat back

8. Blot, Eric, Liutai in Brescia (1520–1724), Eric Blot Edizioni, p. 112

9. Padoan, Maurizio, La Musica in S. Maria Maggiore a Bergamo nel periodo di Giovanni Cavaccio (1598–1626), Como, A.M.I.S., 1983.

10. There are roughly equal numbers of ‘cellos’ attributable to Gaspar as there are cellos by Antonio and the Brothers Amati up to 1610. For violins the ratio is closer to 1:5.

11. Huggins, Margaret L., Gio Paolo Maggini, His Life and Work, W.E. Hill & Sons, London, 1892.

Introduction

Cremona

Stradivari

Brescia

Notes

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