Stradivari
Published on 11. February 2010
Book
Hardback
366 pages
978-0-521-87304-8 (ISBN)
Description
For over 200 years, Antonio Stradivari has been universally regarded as the greatest violin maker who ever lived, yet it is not widely known that he made virtually every kind of bowed- and plucked-string instrument popular in the Baroque period, including lutes, viols, mandolins, guitars, and harps. Stradivari provides a fascinating biography of this legendary maker, based on newly discovered material in church and civic archives, alongside technical descriptions and analyses of many of the maker's workshop materials preserved in the Museo Stradivariano in Cremona, particularly as they relate to extant and lost instruments, baroque stringing and instrument adjustment, and early performance practice. There are separate chapters for each type of instrument, allowing the reader to easily locate information. The book contains tables of measurements of Stradivari's forms and patterns, over 100 black and white photographs and drawings, and colour photographs of 16 of Stradivari's most important violins, violas, and cellos.
Reviews / Votes
'... this is a masterly study by an acknowledged expert ...' The Tablet ' ... for practitioners and teachers of any of the instruments investigated - the book is an extremely important tool in understanding the history and development of those instruments. It contains a great deal of useful resources: three appendices, extensive routes on primary and secondary sources, and a splendid bibliography. it is very much a book to be dipped into time and time again. Music TeacherMore details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Cambridge
United Kingdom
Target group
College/higher education
Illustrations
32 Tables, unspecified; 16 Plates, color; 135 Halftones, unspecified
Dimensions
Height: 286 mm
Width: 221 mm
Thickness: 28 mm
Weight
1623 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-521-87304-8 (9780521873048)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Stewart Pollens served as the conservator of musical instruments at the Metropolitan Museum of Art from 1976 to 2006, where his duties included the restoration and maintenance of the museum's encyclopedic collection of over 5000 instruments.
Content
Preface; 1. Historical background; 2. Stradivari's workshop materials; 3. The violin forms and patterns; 4. Violin fittings and setup; 5. The dance master's kit; 6. The viola da gamba and viola d' amore; 7. The lute; 8. The mandola and mandolino; 9. The guitar; 10. The harp; 11. The workshop; Appendices: 1. The Hill Bass-Bar collection; 2. Thomas Salmon's 'The Theory of Musick Reduced to Arithmetical and Geometric Proportions' from Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, 1705; 3. A case study: The 'Messiah'; Color plates.