Scan 55
The violin & its story : or the history & construction of the violin, 1905
6 lines. Read by computer on 29 September 2026. Printed page 39. See the scan on archive.org.
1collection of Count Cozio de Salabue, of Milan; while the second is a Viola Bastarda, in the possession of the already mentioned Baron Bagge. If we fix the birth of Andreas Amati at some time during the first twenty years of the sixteenth century, we shall probably not be far wrong. A third instrument of this maker will come under our notice a little farther on.
3Who was the master of Andreas, or where his teacher worked, is, like the date of his birth, also unknown. A work entitled "Luthomonographie," the statements in which must be accepted with all reserve, says that the "Teacher of all the Amati" was one Giov. Marc. del Bussetto (1540-1580) at Cremona, who, though probably trained in the Brescian School, built his instruments on quite different principles. Some maintain that Bussetto was only a contemporary of Andreas Amati; while others assert that before Andreas set up his workshop in Cremona, he had worked as a pupil in Brescia.
5The instruments of this master have a form all their own, which is at striking variance with those of the old school of Brescia. They are of small or medium-sized pattern, with strong and well-marked arching in the middle; very durable, clear brown varnish; and they have fine belly-wood. We look in vain, in the fiddles of Andreas Amati, for that power and intensity of tone which so astonishes us in the works of the later masters. This must not be regarded as in any sense a reproach to his art, and it is impossible to overlook the fact that he must have devoted much serious study to the task of determining the proportions of his instruments and the relations of the various parts to each other, so as to regulate the quantity of tone in accordance with the requirements and demands of his era. In Andreas Amati's day, that power and fulness of tone which we now look for was not required; on the contrary, an instrument capable of producing the tone to which we are accustomed would have shocked an ear accustomed to the soft and gentle music of that epoch. All that was required from an instrument maker was that he should
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