Guarneri

The Guarneri (often referred to in the Latinized form Guarnerius) is the family name of a group of distinguished luthiers from Cremona in Italy in the 17th and 18th centuries, whose standing is considered comparable to those of the Amati and Stradivari families. A branch of the family, the Garnaouis, lives today in the city of Sousse in Tunisia. Some of the world's most famous violinists, such as Niccolò Paganini, Jascha Heifetz, Yehudi Menuhin have preferred Guarneris to Stradivaris. The average Stradivari is stronger in the 200 Hz and 250 Hz bands and above 1.6 kHz. Del Gesùs are on average stronger from 315 Hz up to 1.25 kHz. These differences are perceived as a more brilliant sound and stronger fundamentals of the lowest notes of the Stradivari, versus a darker sound in the del Gesùs.[1]

Two of Andrea's sons continued the father's traditions:

Giuseppe Giovanni Battista was father to two further instrument makers:

The Guarneri family's history is partially uncertain. Anthony J. Guarnieri writes, "Giuseppe del Gesù and Peter of Venice may have been cousins rather than brothers, and Peter of Venice may have been the son of Peter of Mantua."

"Signor Giovanni de Piccolellis, in 1885, searched the archives at the church, San Donato, in Cremona for information on the Guarneri family. His findings, published 1886, in the manuscript entitled "LIUTAI ANTICHI e MODERNI", and now available online in PDF format at www.google.com clearly shows that Joseph Guarneri 'del Gesu' was the son of Gian Battista Guarneri: who was in fact the younger brother of Andrea Guarneri."[2]

Facts

A Guarneri violin is a center object in one of Andrea Camilleri's main Montalbano novels "La Voce del violino" (The voice of the violin).

In the summer of 2010, the ex-Vieuxtemps Guarneri del Gesù, a violin built in 1741 by Bartolomeo Guisseppe Guarneri was offered for sale at auction with a starting bid of $18 million, the highest price ever sought for a musical instrument. The violin was later sold for an undisclosed sum and Anne Akiko Meyers was given lifetime use.[3][4]

References

  1. http://books.google.com/books/reader?id=UjMuAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&output=reader&source=gbs_atb_hover
  2. "$18 Million Violin Looking For A Home". National Public Radio. 2010-07-16. Retrieved 2010-07-18.
  3. Vivian Goodman (2010-12-06). "Played By Violinists, Bought By Billionaires". All Things Considered (National Public Radio). Retrieved 2013-02-02.

Bibliography

Fiction

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Friday, April 08, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.