So what is the secret of the ingenious Stradivari violins? Violin makers: Antonio Stradivari, Nicolò Amati, Giuseppe Guarneri and others.

Italian violin makers created such wonderful musical instruments that they are still considered the best, despite the fact that many new technologies for their manufacture have appeared in our century. Many of them are still in excellent condition, and today they are played by the most famous and best performers in the world.

A. Stradivarius

The most famous and master of affairs is Antonio Stradivari, who was born and lived all his life in Cremona. To date, approximately seven hundred instruments made by him have been preserved in the world. Antonio's teacher was the equally famous master Nicolo Amati.

The exact date of birth of A. Stradivari is unknown. After learning from N. Amati, he opened his workshop and surpassed his teacher. Antonio improved the violins created by Nicolò. He achieved a more melodious and flexible voice of the instruments, made a more curved shape, decorated them. A. Stradivari, in addition to violins, created violas, guitars, cellos and harps (at least one). The great master's students were his sons, but they failed to repeat the success of their father. It is believed that he did not pass on the secret of the magnificent sound of his violins even to his sons, so it has not been unraveled until now.

Amati family

The Amati family are violin makers from an ancient Italian family. They lived in the ancient city of Cremona. Founded the Andrea dynasty. He was the first violin maker in the family. The exact date of his birth is unknown. In 1530, he and his brother Antonio opened a workshop for making violins, violas and cellos. They developed their own technologies and created modern type instruments. Andrea made sure that his instruments sounded silvery, gentle, clear and clean. At the age of 26, A. Amati became famous. The master taught his work to his sons.

The most famous string maker in the family was Andrea Amati's grandson Nicolo. He perfected the sound and shape of the instruments his grandfather made. Nicolo increased the size, reduced the bulges on the decks, made the sides larger and the waist thinner. He also changed the composition of the lacquer, which made it transparent and gave it shades of bronze and gold.

Nicolò Amati was the founder of a school for violin makers. Many famous manufacturers were his students.

The Guarneri family

Violin makers from this dynasty also resided in Cremona. Andrea Guarneri was the first violin maker in the family. Like A. Stradivari, he was a student. Since 1641, Andrea lived in his house, worked as an apprentice and for this he received the necessary knowledge for free. He left the house of Nikolo in 1654, after he got married. Soon A. Guarneri opened his workshop. The master had four children - a daughter and three sons - Pietro, Giuseppe and Eusebio Amati. The first two followed in the footsteps of their father. Eusebio Amati was named after his father's great teacher and was his godson. But, despite such a name, he was the only one of the children of A. Guarneri who did not become a violin maker. The most famous in the family is Giuseppe. He surpassed his father. The violins of the Guarneri dynasty were not as popular as the instruments of A. Stradivari and the Amati family. The demand for them was due to not very expensive cost and Cremonese origin - which was prestigious.

Now there are approximately 250 instruments made in the workshop of Guarneri in the world.

Lesser-Known Italian Violinmakers

There were also other violin makers in Italy. But they are less known. And their tools are valued less than those created by the great masters.

Gasparo da Salo (Bertolotti) is the main rival of Andrea Amati, who challenged the right of the founder of the famous dynasty to be considered the inventor of modern violins. He also created double basses, violas, cellos and so on. Very few of the instruments he created have survived to this day, no more than a dozen.

Giovanni Magini is a student of G. da Salo. First, he copied the tools of the mentor, then improved his work, relying on the achievements of the Cremonese masters. His violins have a very soft sound.

Francesco Ruggieri is a student of N. Amati. His violins are valued no less than the instruments of his mentor. Francesco invented small violins.

J. Steiner

An outstanding German violin maker - Jakob Steiner. He was ahead of his time. During his lifetime, he was considered the best. The violins he created were of greater value than those made by A. Stradivari. Jacob's teacher, presumably, was the Italian violin maker A. Amati, since his works trace the style in which the representatives of this great dynasty worked. The identity of J. Steiner remains mysterious to this day. There are many secrets in his biography. Nothing is known about when and where he was born, who his mother and father were, what family he came from. But his education was excellent, he spoke several languages ​​- Latin and Italian.

It is assumed that Jacob studied with N. Amati for seven years. After that, he returned to his homeland and opened his workshop. Soon the Archduke appointed him court master and gave him a good salary.

Jakob Steiner's violins were different from others. Her deck arch was steeper, which made it possible to increase the volume inside the instrument. The neck, instead of the usual curls, was crowned with lion heads. The sound of his products was different from the Italian samples, it was unique, clearer and higher. The resonator hole had the shape of a star. Varnish and primer he used Italian.

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Antonio Stradivari
Antonio Stradivari
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[[Lua error in Module:Wikidata/Interproject on line 17: attempt to index field "wikibase" (a nil value). |Artworks]] in Wikisource

Antonio the Great Stradivarius(ital. Antonio Stradivari, or Stradivarius lat. Antonius Stradivarius; (1644 ) , Cremona - December 18, Cremona) - the famous master of string instruments, a student of Nicolo Amati. About 720 instruments of his work have been preserved.

Biography

It is believed that Antonio Stradivari was born in 1644, although the exact date of his birth is not recorded. He was born in Cremona. His parents were Alessandro Stradivari (Italian Alessandro Stradivari) and Anna Moroni (Italian Anna Moroni). It is believed that from 1679 to 1679 he served as an unpaid student with Nicolò Amati, that is, he did rough work.

In addition to violins, Stradivari also made guitars, violas, cellos, and at least one harp—more than 1,100 instruments are currently estimated.

Music

• 2015 - "Stradivari Violin", Basta.

Cinema

• - "Night visit", the first film adaptation of the novel by the Weiner brothers "Visit to the Minotaur" about the theft of a Stradivarius violin
• - "Visit to the Minotaur", Antonio Stradivari- Sergey Shakurov
• - The 15th film about the adventures of the British agent James Bond - "Sparks from the Eyes", the plot mentions the Stradivarius cello many times, "Lady Rose", she also saves Bond from a bullet.
• - biographical film "Stradivari", Antonio Stradivari— Anthony Quinn, young Antonio— Lorenzo Quinn.
• - "Red Violin".
• In the 36th episode of Detective School Q, the characters of the film unravel the mystery of the Stradivarius violin.
• In episode 44 of the television series White Collar, the heroes are looking for the stolen violin by Antonio Stradivari.
• In episode 2 of season 1 of National Security Agent, the heroes are also looking for the stolen violin by Antonio Stradivari.
• - In the first film, episodes 1-3 of the series "Investigator Tikhonov", based on the novel by the Weiner brothers "Visit to the Minotaur", the characters are looking for the stolen violin by Antonio Stradivari.

see also

Famous string instrument makers

• Nicolo Amati (1596-1684) - Italy
• Andrea Guarneri (1626-1698) - Italy
• Nicola Lupo (1758-1824) - France

Famous Instruments

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An excerpt characterizing Stradivari, Antonio

People fled in horror, not understanding the road, not understanding where their naughty legs were taking them. As if blind, they stumbled into each other, shying in different directions, and again stumbled and fell, not paying attention to their surroundings ... Screams rang everywhere. Crying and confusion seized Bald Mountain and the people watching the execution there, as if only now they were allowing them to see clearly - to truly see what they had done ...
Magdalene got up. And again a wild, inhuman cry pierced the weary Earth. Having drowned in the roar of thunder, the cry snaked around with evil lightning, frightening the cold souls with itself... Having freed the Ancient Magic, Magdalena called on the help of the old Gods... Called on the Great Ancestors.
The wind ruffled her marvelous golden hair in the darkness, surrounding her fragile body with an halo of Light. Terrible bloody tears, still alley on her pale cheeks, made her completely unrecognizable... Something like a formidable Priestess...
Magdalene called... Wrapping her hands behind her head, she called her Gods again and again. She called the Fathers who had just lost their wonderful Son... She could not give up so easily... She wanted to return Radomir at any cost. Even if it is not destined to communicate with him. She wanted him to live... no matter what.

But then the night passed, and nothing changed. His essence spoke to her, but she stood dead, not hearing anything, only endlessly calling on the Fathers... She still did not give up.
Finally, when it was getting light outside, a bright golden glow suddenly appeared in the room - as if a thousand suns shone in it at the same time! And in this glow at the very entrance, a tall, taller than usual, human figure appeared... Magdalena immediately understood that it was the one whom she had called so fiercely and stubbornly all night...
“Get up, Joyful one!” the visitor said in a deep voice. This is no longer your world. You lived your life in it. I will show you your new way. Get up, Radomir!..
“Thank you, Father…” Magdalene, standing next to him, whispered softly. Thanks for listening to me!
The elder gazed long and attentively at the fragile woman standing in front of him. Then he suddenly smiled brightly and said very affectionately:
- It's hard for you, sad! .. It's scary ... Forgive me, daughter, I'll take your Radomir. It's not his destiny to be here anymore. His fate will be different now. You wished for it...
Magdalene only nodded to him, showing that she understood. She could not speak, her strength almost left her. It was necessary to somehow endure these last, most difficult moments for her ... And then she will still have enough time to grieve for what she has lost. The main thing was that HE lived. And everything else was not so important.
A surprised exclamation was heard - Radomir stood looking around, not understanding what was happening. He did not yet know that he already had a different fate, NOT EARTHLY ... And he did not understand why he was still living, although he remembered for sure that the executioners did their job superbly ...

“Farewell, my Joy…” whispered Magdalena softly. - Farewell, my dear. I will do your will. You just live... And I will always be with you.
The golden light flared brightly again, but now for some reason it was already outside. Following him, Radomir slowly went out the door...
Everything around was so familiar!.. But even feeling completely alive again, Radomir for some reason knew that this was no longer his world... And only one thing in this old world still remained real for him - it was his wife. .. His beloved Magdalene....
- I will return to you... I will definitely return to you... - Radomir whispered very quietly to himself. Above his head, a huge "umbrella" hung wightman...
Bathed in the rays of golden radiance, Radomir slowly but surely moved after the sparkling Elder. Just before leaving, he suddenly turned around to see her for the last time... To take her amazing image with him. Magdalene felt a dizzying warmth. It seemed that in this last look Radomir sent her all the love accumulated over their long years! .. He sent her so that she would also remember him.
She closed her eyes, wanting to endure... Wanting to appear calm to him. And when I opened it, it was all over...
Radomir is gone...
The earth lost him, being unworthy of him.
He stepped into his new, still unfamiliar life, leaving Maria Duty and children ... Leaving her soul wounded and lonely, but still the same loving and the same stamina.
Sighing convulsively, Magdalene stood up. She didn't have time to grieve just yet. She knew that the Knights of the Temple would soon come for Radomir to betray his dead body to the Holy Fire, thus seeing off his pure Soul to Eternity.

The first, of course, was John, as always... His face was calm and joyful. But Magdalena read sincere concern in her deep gray eyes.
– Great gratitude to you, Maria... I know how hard it was for you to let him go. Forgive us all, dear...
“No… you don’t know, Father… And no one knows that…” Magdalena whispered softly, choking on her tears. – But thank you for your participation... Please, tell Mother Mary that HE is gone... That he is alive... I will come to her as soon as the pain subsides a little. Tell everyone that HE LIVES...
Magdalena couldn't take it anymore. She had no more human strength. Collapsing right to the ground, she burst into loud, childish sobs ...

Father Alessandro Stradivari Mother Anna Moroni Children Francesco Stradivari
Omobono Stradivarius Antonio Stradivari at Wikimedia Commons

Biography

Antonio Stradivari is believed to have been born in 1644, although the exact date of his birth is not recorded. He was born in Cremona. His parents were Alessandro Stradivari (Italian Alessandro Stradivari) and Anna Moroni (Italian Anna Moroni). It is believed that from 1657 to 1667 he served as an unpaid student with Nicolo Amati, that is, he did rough work. Stradivari married on July 1, 1667 and settled in a fisherman's house (Casa del pescatore), where he opened his own workshop. Since that time, namely since 1667, Antonio on the labels does not call himself a student of Amati.

In 1681, Stradivari bought a house located next to the Dominican monastery in Cremona. The house had three floors, each of them had three windows overlooking the square, and there was also a basement and mezzanines, in addition, on the roof there was a square extension characteristic of Cremona, open on both sides - from the south and west and called the Cremonese "seccador ” (drying room), it was there that the master dried the violins after painting and often worked there in good weather. In this house, Stradivarius spent the rest of his life.

This house remained intact until 1880, but then it was bought by the owner of a neighboring restaurant and connected to the restaurant, and in the workshop of Stradivari, the owner of the restaurant, placed a billiard room.

From the memoirs of his contemporaries, the master was tall, thin, he constantly wore a white cap on his head; wool in winter and paper in summer, and a white leather apron when he worked. Thanks to work and frugality, the master made such a decent fortune that a saying appeared in Cremona: "Rich as Stradivarius."

On May 20, 1698, Stradivari's wife died, the funeral was magnificent, the master spent a large sum of 182 lire for that time. The following year, 1699, on August 24, Stradivari married a second time. From the first and second marriages, the master had 11 children, and only two, Francesco and Omobono, were engaged in the art of their father, but were able to slightly approach the level of their father's skill.

Stradivari had only three students, these were his two sons - Francesco and Omobono - and Carlo Bergonzi.

Antonio Stradivari died at the age of 93 and was buried on December 10, 1737, in the cemetery of the Dominican monastery (the date of death on December 10, 1737 is indicated on p. B. Dobrokhotova, 1952).

In 1869, the Dominican monastery on the territory where Stradivari was buried was abolished, the remains of all the dead were dug out and buried in one common grave, outside the city. Thus, the ashes of the great master disappeared without a trace.

Stradivari made the first violin released under his own name in 1666 and until 1683 he strictly adhered to the Amati style, but from 1688 the master begins to experiment and the closer to 1690 his instruments become larger. The violins of this period received the code name "amatize". A sharp departure from the Amati school is revealed only in 1691. and their own type of violin is born. These are the so-called elongated violins (allonge) in which the maple is already exclusively radial cut and the timbre of sound from the soprano changes to mezzo-soprano, but in 1698 he again returned for a short time to the Amati model and only around 1704 at the age of 60 Stradivari finally designed his model of the violin, which no one has yet been able to surpass in perfection. This period lasted from 1704 to 1725, about 21 years. In this interval, two periods are distinguished .... from 1704 to 1717. when spruce is on instruments with a silky sheen, correct in layering and dense, and lower soundboards are most often from one piece. Beginning in 1717, the master began to use the Haselfichte spruce variety for his decks.

In addition to violins, Stradivari also made guitars, violas, cellos and even made one harp - according to various catalogs, the number of his works reaches 1150 units, but given that a significant number of his instruments disappeared under the influence of various disasters, the number of his instruments could reach 500 units .

Stradivari instruments

• List of instruments created by Antonio Stradivari

The most outstanding instruments were made between 1704 and 1725. The Stradivarius violins of this period are highly valued.

To date, about 650 Stradivari instruments have survived, including about 450 violins.

His instruments are distinguished by a characteristic inscription in Latin: Antonius Stradivarius Cremonenfis Faciebat Anno 1732, the same inscription is on the label of the violin in 1697.

On the labels of 1736, the master marked "d ’ anni 92" on the labels of 1737 marked "d ’ anni 93" i.e. your age.

5. The museum also has a violin from 1708. There is no label on it, but a label is pasted " Brought from Rome by Koretsky from me since 1796, Prince Shakhovskoy". It was sold to Tretyakov, who bequeathed it to the Rumyantsev Museum, from there it moved to the Moscow Conservatory and in 1921 was transferred to the State Collection.

6. There is also a violin of 1711 in the collection, which is the best preserved.

7. There is also a medium sized violin with a fake top. The violin was bought by Tretyakov abroad and after his death passed to the Moscow Conservatory, and then in 1921 to the State Collection.

8. The State Collection also has a viola with a label from 1715 by Stradivari. It belonged to Count Matvey Yurievich of Venlgorsky and was played for some time by the Belgian violinist (violist?) Henri Vietain (1820-1881).

9. Next in the collection is a 1725 cello. The cello was bought in Paris from Rambaud, by the St. Petersburg artist Vorobyov, and brought to Russia around 1845.

10. and 11. The State Collection also has two Stradivarius violins, presumably from the period after 1725. The labels have been cleaned and the dates have been changed.

One of these violins was restored in 1806 by the St. Petersburg craftsmen brothers Franz and Moritz Steininger. It belonged to Prince Trubetskoy, which then came to K. Tretyakov and from him to the Conservatory and then in 1921 to the State Collection.

12. There is also a violin in the State Collection in 1736, made by the master a year before his death, at the age of 92. In that year, Stradivari made only 4 violins. Prince Yusupov bought this violin in Italy and kept it in his family until 1918. The last offspring of the Sumarokov-Elston family fled to Paris, but walled up the violin in one of the cellars of his palace on the Moika, where it was found and transferred to the State Collection. (the list is presented by E. Vitachek in the book "Essays on the history of the manufacture of bowed instruments" in 1952, edited by B. Dobrokhotov, pp. 213-222).

Also known is the collection of Stradivari instruments belonging to the King of Spain. Exhibited at the Museum of Musical Instruments of the Royal Palace of Madrid:

• Violin ("Boissier" (1713), which belonged to Boissier, Swiss violinist at the court of the Spanish King Charles III, later Pablo Sarasate. Since 1908, kept in the Real Conservatorio Superior de Música de Madrid.)
• Also belongs to the Spanish crown - the Spanish Quartet (Cuarteto Palatino). It originally existed as a quintet, but the tenor was subsequently lost during the years of the French Revolution. It was intended as a gift to the Spanish king Philip V, who was in Cremona in 1702, but the instruments did not leave the workshop during the life of Antonio Stradivari. The quartet consists of inlaid instruments Spanish I (1709), Spanish II (1709), Spanish Court contralto (1696) and Spanish Court cello (1694) and are now kept in the Royal Palace of Madrid.

The Museum of Musical Instruments of the National Academy of Santa Cecilia has the so-called Tuscan violin, also part of the Medici quintet.

Violins and cellos by name with a short history:

• "Delfino" (1714) - "Dolphin". Belonged to Jasha Heifetz. Owned by the Nippon Music Foundation since 2000.
• Stradivari inlaid violin "Le Lever du Soleil" ("Sunrise") (1677) - "Sunrise", since 2004 is in the Museum of Historical Rarities Vienna.
• "Marquis de Corberon, Loeb" (1726). Belonged to the French ambassador at the court of Catherine II, Marquis de Corberon. Currently owned by the Royal Academy of Music in London (Royal Academy of Music).
• "Viotti" (1709). Belonged to the Italian violinist Giovanni Battista Viotti (1755-1824). Since 2005 he has been at the Royal Academy of Music in London.
• "Provigny" (1716). Located in the Museum of Music of Paris (Cité de la Musique, Musée de la Musique).
• "Davidoff" (1708). Belonged to the Russian cellist Karl Davydov (1838-1889). Located in the Museum of Music of Paris (Cité de la Musique, Musée de la Musique).
• "Messiah" (1716) - "Messiah". Since 1939, it has been kept in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (the Ashmolean Museum).
• "Mendelssohn" (1709). Stolen from Deutsche Bank during the occupation of Berlin.
• "Sleeping Beauty" (1704) - "Sleeping Beauty". It has been owned by the Landeskreditbank Baden Württemburg since 1995 and is owned by the violinist Isabelle Faust.
• "Betts" (1704). In the years 1830-1852 belonged to Arthur Betts. Since 1936 it has been kept in the US Library of Congress.
• "Earl of Plymouth, Kreisler" (1711). Belonged to Earl of Plymouth, Austrian violinist Fritz Kreisler (1875-1962). It has been owned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic since 1965.
• "Le Brun" (1712). Belonged to Nicolo Paganini, Charles Le Brun (Paris). Sold at auction in 2008.
• "Eldina Bligh" (1712). Until 1912 belonged to Eldina Bly. Owned by Virgil C. Brink since 1945.
• "Pingrille" (1713). Since 1979, it has been owned by violinist Gabriel Banat, concertmaster of the New York Philharmonic.
• "Lipinski" (1715). Belonged to Giuseppe Tartini, Polish violinist Karol Josef Lipinski (1790-1861). Sold in 2007.
• "David Hochstein, Nowell, Joachim" (1715). Belonged to the Hungarian violinist Josef Joachim (1831-1907). Owned by William Palmer since 1997.
• "Emperor" (1715) - "Emperor". Belonged to the Hungarian violinist Jan Kubelik (1880-1940).
• "Titian" (1715) - "Titian". It got its name because of the transparent red-orange varnish, reminiscent of the paints of Titian Vecellio. In the possession of Irwin Miller.
• "Baron Knoop" (1715). Belonged to Baron Johann Knoop (1846-1918). Owned by David L. Fulton since 1992.
• "Milstein" (1716). It belonged to the American violinist of Ukrainian origin Nathan Milstein (1903-1992). Owned by Jerry Cole since 2006.
• "Cessole" (1716). Belonged to a close friend of Nicolo Paganini, Count Chessola from Florence.
• "Marquis de Riviere" (1718). In the 19th century it belonged to the Marquis de Riviere. Sold in 1993.
• "Lady Blunt" "Lady Blunt" (1721). Belonged to the granddaughter of the poet Lord Byron, Lady Anne Blunt from 1864 to 1895, (aged 31). This violin was also owned by the famous Parisian master Jean Baptist Vuillaume, collectors - Richard Bennet, Baron Knoop, Sam Bloomfield, as well as the Nippon Music Foundation. Sold in June 2012 at the Tarisio auction house for a price of $15,890,000.
• "King Maximilian, Unico" (1709). Belonged to the Bavarian king Maximilian Joseph in 1806-1826. Has been in the Axel Springer Foundation since 1966, stolen.
• "Leonora Jackson" (1714). In the years 1904-1919 belonged to the violinist Leonora Jackson McKim. Since 1984, owned by Dr. William & Professor Judy Sloan.
• "Cremonese" (1715) - "Cremonese". Since 1961 belongs to the city of Cremona.
• "Colossus" (1716) - "Colossus". Belonged to Viotti, violinist Luigi Alberto Bianchi, stolen in 1998.
• "Nachez" (1716). Belonged to the violinist Tivador Nashez. Sold in 2003.
• "Eck" (1717). Belonged to the German violinist Franz Eck (1774-1804). Sold in 1992.
• "Hausmann" (1724). Belonged to cellist Georg Hausmann (1814-1861). Sold at auction for $4,500,000.

Reference: These four Stradivarius instruments were purchased by Mrs. Huguette Clark (daughter of Montana copper tycoon, senator, banker William A. Clark. She died in 2011 in New York at the age of 104). The first violin "Comte Cozio di Salabue" was made by Stradivari in 1727 and was played by Paganini after he purchased it from Count Cozio de Salabue in 1817. The second violin "Desaint" was made by Stradivari in 1680 in the "amatisé" style.

Viola, "Mendelssohn", was made in 1731, Stradivarius at 86 years old. It is one of the few surviving Strad violas (another shorter name for Stradivari instruments). Cello - "Ladenburg" 1736. It belonged to the Mendelssohn family before becoming the property of Paganini. These instruments are currently owned by the Nippon Music Foundation.

Other Stradivarius are also used by contemporary musicians. Cello "Davidoff" (1708), currently played by Yo-Yo Ma. Cello "Duport" (1711) belonged to the French cellist Jean Pierre Duport (1741-1818), but from 1974-2007 was in the possession of Mstislav Rostropovich. Violin "Comtesse de Polignac" "Comtesse de Polignac" (1699), used by Gil Shaham. Violin "Sinsheimer, Perlman" (1714). belonged to violinists Bernard Sinsheimer, Itzhak Perlman, Uto Ugi. Sold at auction in 2005. Violin "Soil" (1714). Belonged to Amedey Soil - the Belgian consul in Moscow in the period 1874-1911. Since 1986, in the possession of violinist Itzhak Perlman.

see also

Links

• 148 instruments of Antonio Stradivari are collected in 4 volume album

Paolo, Giuseppe, Omobono, Francesco.

Allesandro Stradivari

Anna Moroni

An unsurpassed Italian master of bowed instruments, a student of the famous Niccolo Amati.

The whole life of Antonio Stradivari was devoted to the improvement of the creation of bowed instruments, which glorified his name throughout the world. The famous violin maker created violins of a new type, distinguished by their powerful sound and richness of timbre.

Until 1684, Stradivari preferred small violins, and then moved on to the manufacture of larger instruments. His elongated violin has a length of 360 mm, which is 9.5 mm longer than the violin of the teacher - Niccolo Amati. In search of the ideal shape, the talented craftsman reduced the length of the instrument to 355.5 mm, at the same time making it a little wider and with more arched vaults. This is how the violin was created, which is still considered a classic.

None of the violin makers in the entire history of the creation of bowed instruments could achieve such perfection of form and beauty of sound as Antonio Stradivari. Each violin he created had its own name and its own unique voice. Unfortunately, only 600 genuine instruments have survived to our time, while there are hundreds of thousands of fake ones.

Antonio Stradivari was born in 1644 in the north of Italy in the city of Cremona, located on the banks of the Po River, but after the plague began in Italy, the city gradually became empty, the inhabitants began to leave their homes, fleeing from a deadly disease. Among the refugees were the father and mother of little Antonio. They took refuge on the outskirts of Cremona and stayed there forever. The boy's childhood passed in this town. His father came from an impoverished aristocratic family. The main features of his character were immense pride and inhumanity, which scared away the locals. The elder Stradivari tormented his son with stories about the history of his family and excessive stinginess. It is not surprising that as soon as Antonio matured, he decided to leave home.

Young Stradivari changed many professions. At first, he dreamed of becoming a sculptor. His statues were graceful, but their faces were expressionless. Having abandoned this re-craft, the young man earned his living by carving wood. He learned to make beautiful wooden decorations for furniture, but he suddenly left this occupation too, carried away by drawing. Antonio very diligently studied wall paintings in temples and paintings by great artists. Then he was attracted by music, and the young man decided to become a violinist: now he was learning to play the violin, but his fingers lacked lightness and fluency, and his sound turned out to be muffled and sharp. They said about Stradivari: "the ear of a musician, the hand of a carver." The young man also left this craft, although he could not completely forget it. Stradivari spent hours studying his violin, admiring its shape and sound.

Antonio was always trying to find something to his liking, which would combine the work of the artist, the skill of a woodcarver and music. He understood that he could not become a master in any of the acquired professions.

The search for his place in life led the young man to the workshop of Niccolò Amati. Now it is difficult to say whether this choice was accidental or whether Antonio deliberately chose the craft of a violin maker, but he found something to his liking. From the age of 18, Stradivari was a student of this famous violin maker. The years spent in his workshop not only helped the young man master the basics of craftsmanship, but also determined his future fate.

The first year Antonio was an unpaid student: he performed only the most unskilled work, minor repairs, cleaned the workshop and delivered orders. He would have continued to work like this, if not for the case. Once Niccolò Amati saw Antonio carving effs from a defective piece of wood. After this incident, the old master changed his attitude towards the student: from that time on, Antonio studied the work of the great Amati for days on end. In his workshop, he learned how to choose the right wood for violins and cellos, learned some secrets of processing workpieces and understood the law of the correspondence of individual parts of the instrument to each other. This rule became the main one in his work. And most importantly, he realized how important the lacquer with which the instrument was covered was.

Having created his first violin, Stradivari excitedly showed it to his teacher. Amati treated the result of his student's work condescendingly, and this gave the young master strength and inspiration in his work. With extraordinary perseverance, he tried to ensure that his violin sounded no worse than Amati's instruments. But, having achieved the desired, Antonio decided that his violins should sound differently. To achieve this goal, he had to spend years. “Stradivarius under Amati,” they said about the novice master. And Antonio dreamed that his violins sounded like women's and children's voices.

In 1680, Stradivari left Amati's workshop and began to work independently. The teacher gave him a small amount of money, which was enough to buy a house and materials for making violins and cellos. In the same year, Antonio married Francesca Feraboshi. The Casa del Pescatore was very small and cheap. Under the workshop, the novice master took almost the entire room, leaving a small room in the attic for housing.

Antonio spent whole days working in his workshop. Each new tool that came out of his hands was better than the previous ones. The voices of the Stradivarius violins could already be distinguished among thousands of others. Their free, melodious, enchanting sound was like the voice of a beautiful girl. And Antonio's childhood love for colors, graceful lines was forever embodied in his violins and cellos. The master liked to decorate his instruments, painting barrels, neck or corners with small cupids with ripe fruits, lily flowers. Sometimes he inserted pieces of mother-of-pearl, ebony or ivory.

Unfortunately, all his labors were in vain - no one bought Stradivari instruments, except perhaps rare visiting musicians. Reputable customers preferred Amati violins, willingly laying out 100 pistoles for the name of the master alone. And for the poor, the creations of Stradivari were too expensive.

A year later, Antonio's first child, Paolo, was born, and a year later, their second son, Giuseppe. Despite all his efforts, the family vegetated in poverty. Only a few years later, luck suddenly came to him.

Unlike other masters, Stradivari attached great importance to the external design of his instruments, turning them into works of art. In 1700 he made one of his most magnificent violins. Chetera was made with great love, Antonio put all his skill into it. The curl that completed the instrument depicted the head of Diana, entwined with heavy braids, a necklace was worn around her neck. A little lower, he carved two small figures - Satyr and Nymph. The satyr hung his goat legs with a hook, which served to carry the instrument. Both figures were executed with rare grace. No less subtly was the narrow pocket violin, the sordino, made to order. The scroll, carved from ebony, was shaped like a negro's head.

For twenty-five years - from 1700 to 1725 - the master became as famous as his teacher once was. Recognition was not an accident. Behind this were years of hard and painstaking work from early morning until late evening. During the day, Stradivari stood at the workbench, and in the evening, in his workshop, hidden from prying eyes, he worked on varnishes and made calculations for future tools. By right, these years can be called the golden period of the master.

At this time, he was able to create his best violins: in 1704 - Bette, in 1709 - Viotti, in 1715 - Apard, and a year later - the Mission. Each of them proudly bore the mark of Antonio Stradivari: a Maltese cross and the initials A.S. in a double circle. The famous master marked his violins, putting down on each year the instrument was created. His wooden seal consisted of three movable numbers - 166. For many years, Stradivarius added digit by digit to this number, erasing the second six and adding the next two digits by hand. With the advent of the XVIII century. the aged master left only one.

By the age of forty, Antonio Stradivari had achieved everything he dreamed of. He was fabulously rich. In Cremona, there was even a saying: "Rich as Stradivarius." But the life of the famous violin maker was not happy. His wife Francesca has died. He actually lost two adult sons: Paolo went into business and, in search of good luck, went on a long journey to America. Giuseppe - the most talented of the sons - became a monk after he was miraculously cured of cholera. On December 31, 1694, at the age of 50, Antonio Stradivari married a second time - to 17-year-old Maria Zambeli, who also bore him two sons.

The older Stradivari became, the more he was tormented by the thought that he had no one to pass on his knowledge and experience to. Although he had apprentices, and the younger sons Omobono and Francesco worked with him, Antonio knew that they would never reach his mastery. He still had his favorite students: Carlo Bergonzi and Lorenzo Guadanini. But to pass on his knowledge to his students was like stealing from his children.

And another thought haunted him. The famous master had a rival - Giuseppe Guarneri, nicknamed Del Gesu.

Undoubtedly, Stradivari was the first master in his field. And his rival Guarneri was able to surpass him only in the strength of the sound of the instrument. Antonio came to the conclusion that, despite his vast life experience, his skill never reached perfection - the melodious, gentle tone of his violins can be enriched with new colors.

kami, more powerful sound. Stradivari was reassured by the fact that eminent customers would not buy Guarneri violins, because they did not need instruments made by a drunkard and a brawler.

In the last months before his death, Antonio Stradivari made the most important decision of his life - he decided not to reveal the secrets of his skill to anyone.

The famous violin maker died on December 18, 1737. His funeral was very magnificent. The funeral procession filled the entire street. He was buried in the church of a Dominican friar. An inscription was made on his grave: "The noble Antonius Stradivarius died in the 94th year of a glorious and pious life."

After the death of his father, his sons tried to uncover the secrets of lacquer and the formula for making violins and cellos, but they never succeeded. Just before his death, Stradivari burned all the most important papers.

Many generations of scientists are trying to unravel the secret of the amazing sound of Stradivari violins. Some of them managed to lift the veil of secrecy. Scientists at Columbia University in the USA came to the conclusion that the unique sound of his violins is associated with reduced solar activity in the 18th century. This resulted in a slowdown in the growth of trees, as a result of which their wood became denser and had amazing acoustic properties. The period of reduced solar activity, called the Maunder minimum, lasted from 1645 to 1717 and coincided with the so-called Little Ice Age, when the average annual temperature in Europe decreased by 1-2 ° C.

Other researchers associate the extraordinary sound of Stradivari instruments with a secret recipe for processing wood from the alpine forests of Italy. Claudio Pall, a music master from Transylvania, became interested in this hypothesis. For 50 years he has struggled with the mystery of this unique sound. While experimenting with ruffed woods, he came across the notes of one of the scientists who studied the wood used by Antonio Stradivari. Among the data of chemical analysis, he found the presence of a rare species of tree fungus that develops in mountain rivers with a special composition of water.

Claudio Pall knew that Stradivari worked only with wood, which was fused from the Tyrolean Alps. The researcher came to the conclusion that the chemical composition of river water is of paramount importance for the formation of a special fungal culture. He believed that the sound closest to the Stradivari effect was obtained from an instrument whose material was soaked in the Bystrica River, located near the Tyrolean Alps. In another way, it was also called the Golden Bystritsa: in those years, gold was mined in it.

Chemists came to the aid of the researchers of the violin secrets of Stradivari. Joseph Nagyvary, a professor of biochemistry and biophysics at Texas A&M University and an accomplished violinist, spent 25 years of his life studying the composition of the lacquer that covers violins and the wood from which they were made. The American scientist suggested that the wood was previously soaked in sea water or some kind of brine. Sea water contributed to the fact that the material for the violin was impregnated with salts of calcium, magnesium and other metals, which improve the acoustic properties of the soundboard. Nagyvari hypothesized that Stradivari used myrrh to fill the pores of pine and maple blanks. Its composition is now almost impossible to restore, since it was constantly changing. No wonder the legend ascribes to Stradivari the words that his main secret must be sought in the Bible.

In order to find out what substances were used in the Middle Ages to preserve wood, Nagyvari managed to open some pages of the history of chemistry. Medieval alchemists already knew how to carry out the operation of isolating the finest fractions, which in modern chemistry is called classification, that is, they selected the top drain containing the finest particles dissolved in water.

In one of the medieval documents, Nagyvari found an entry: “The lacquer was made by the pharmacist for anyone who wanted it, and Grand Antonio Stradivari went to him himself to fill the empty bottle so that his friend would not pour it into the bottle from the bottom of the pot.”

For 20 years, Nagyvari has been looking for an opportunity to make a spectroscopic analysis of the varnish covering the best Stradivari violins. He purchased the desired sample and performed a thorough analysis. As it turned out, the varnish contained at least 20 different minerals, the main ones being calcite, quartz, feldspar, and gypsum. Smaller amounts contained corundum, garnet, rutile, and argentide. Some scientists disagreed with his opinion, explaining that the varnish cannot contain any fillers. And the presence of impurities was explained by ordinary room dust, which inevitably fell on the varnish. Although it is difficult to imagine a workshop, on the floor of which semi-precious stones, crushed into powder, are scattered. The persistent scientist made several violins according to the "Stradivari method". An experienced craftsman, invited to work, withstood wooden blanks in sea water and grape juice.

Nagyvari presented his violins at a conference of the American Chemical Society in March 1998. The young violinist alternately played the new instrument and the violin by the Italian master Stradivari. After the concert, she noticed that the new violin sounded almost the same as the old one, but it was harder to play...

The riddle of Antonio Stradivari's violins is still unsolved. But this does not prevent true music lovers from enjoying their magical sound.

Antonio Stradivarius Stradivarius Career: Musician
Birth: Italy
Having gone through many professions, he experienced failure everywhere. He wanted to become a sculptor, like Michelangelo, the lines of his statues were graceful, but his faces were not expressive. He abandoned this craft, earned his bread by carving wood, making wooden ornaments for rich furniture, and became addicted to drawing; with the greatest suffering he studied the ornamentation of doors and wall paintings of cathedrals and the drawings of the great masters. Then he was attracted to music, and he decided to become a musician. Stubbornly studied violin playing; but the fingers lacked fluency and lightness, and the sound of the violin was muffled and harsh. They said about him: "The ear of a musician, the hands of a carver." And he gave up the profession of a musician. But, having abandoned it, I did not forget it.

Master Antonio Stradivari was born in 1644! The story will take you back more than 300 years and more than two thousand kilometers to the west, to the Italian city of Cremona. And you will meet a wonderful person who turned the craft of a master making musical instruments into a genuine, high art.

Time - 1720. Location - Northern Italy. City - Cremona. Square of St. Dominica. Early start of the day. The streets are still deserted and the window shutters are closed. Merchants open the doors of their shops filled with various goods: lace, multi-colored glass, mosaics. There are few passers-by - women in colorful shawls with large baskets in their hands, singing carelessly, water-carriers with copper buckets, apprentices hurriedly going to work. On the roof of a long, narrow three-story house, on an open flat terrace, dazzlingly lit by the sun, a tall, thin grandfather in a white leather apron and a master's white cap had already appeared. And early passers-by bow to him and greet him loudly: - Buon giorno, signore Antonio! He has served them as a clock, accurate and not lagging behind for fifty years. If at six o'clock Master Antonio had not appeared on the terrace of this house together with the sun, this would have meant: either time had changed in Cremona, or Master Antonio Stradivari was ill. And he nods back at them; his bow is important and condescending, because he is rich and old. This small terrace on the roof of the house, called in Cremona seccadour, is the favorite location of his work. Here he finishes, varnishes and dries his instruments. In the corner there is a sliding ladder to descend into an opening arranged in the floor, where the selected, tried and tested wood is stored. Narrow, long strips of parchment are stretched along the log wall of the terrace. Glittering lacquered violins hang here. Their sides are basking in the sun. In neighboring houses, on the same well-aimed terraces, linen and fruits are dried - golden oranges, oranges, lemons, and on this terrace, instead of fruits, violins are dried on the luminary. The master believes in the luminary. When the sun pours over the shiny dark wood of his violins, it seems to him that his violins are ripening. He works intently for an hour or two, then descends to the first floor; there is his workshop and laboratory. They knock. In the doorway stands a fat man in a respectful pose. Seeing him, the master, like a devil from a snuffbox, takes off from his place, grabs a wooden block lying on the workbench along the way, and with unexpected ease and speed jumps up to the guest.

What did you send me?!

The fat man backs off.

The master is angry, and his importance is gone.

He brings a bar to the very nose of the fat man.

Feel, - he says, - yes, yes, signor, feel, - he repeats, because the fat man evades. And with long thin fingers he grabs the fat man's hand and points at the tree. And he looks triumphantly: - After all, it is hard as iron, it can only creak, you will briskly send me a tree with spots and knots.

The fat man is silent and waiting.

You probably got the wrong address, - the elderly man grumbles, subsiding, - you wanted to send this tree to the undertaker, due to the fact that this tree is truly for the coffin, this spruce grew in a swamp, and later you, presumably, roasted it on fire like toasting chestnuts.

And he calms down like snow on his head.

Where are the other samples?

The fat supplier is not very embarrassed, he has been supplying wood to the master for many years and knows his temper. He shows new samples.

This is a rare tree. It's from Turkey.

How did you get it?

Here the fat man makes a significant expression and winks at the master. His face at that very time was perfectly picaresque.

A shipwreck ... - he whispers - and as soon as I saw this tree, I bought it without bargaining, because I know, signor Antonio, what kind of tree you need.

Do you still catch this fish? - the master asks, as if contemptuously, but at the same time with curiosity.

The fat man smiles shyly and rolls his eyes.

Oh, sir, if you would like to see what pearls the sea gave up on that very occasion!

I don't need pearls, - says Stradivari meekly.

There are stories about his wealth in Cremona, and he is stingy, suspicious and does not like to be considered rich.

Stradivari sits down at a table and begins to carefully examine the tree.

He measures, feels to the touch the space and the convexity of annual stratifications, follows the eye along the thin lines of wood, takes a magnifying glass and examines a small tree pattern. Then he cracks the wood with a fingernail, as hard as a spatula, the fingernail of a craftsman, and without delay quickly brings it to his ear, whittles it and brings it to his ear again, carefully tapping on the edges. Precisely trying to get the tree to speak.

Then he goes to the next room.

A heavy, felted gate. The only high window is hung with a dark cloth. There are bottles on the tables and shelves, transparent amber, yellow, red... There is a thick and pungent smell of mastic, sandarak and turpentine. Small bulbs are burning, retorts and flasks are heating up. Separately on the table are scales of various sizes, from medium to small, there are compasses, knives, saws, saws, ranging from coarse to small needle-shaped ones.

Tables of calculations and measurements hang on the walls. Not a single picture, although the master loves painting. The paintings hang in the living rooms of the master. There after that work, his eyes will take a breath on the clear, calm lines and soft colors. And here is the working hour. He is even more strict with himself, In front of him on the table are some hasty marks, words, crooked lines. Access to this room is closed to everyone. No one is allowed here, moreover, students.

In this room, the master keeps and hides his secrets from curious pupils - the secrets of the varnish with which he covers the violins.

He spends whole nights sitting in the midst of pungent smells, looking at the meager light of light bulbs, gold and dark orange liquid in test tubes and flasks, testing its elasticity, transparency and haze.

Yes, all night long.

Then he lifts the curtain a little in the high window. Light breaks into the room.

Ah, says the master, it's already the beginning of the day.

He stops work, puts out the light, goes out, locking the gate with heavy bolts, listens suspiciously. The master works on the compositions of varnishes all his life: with one composition he impregnates the tree - and this improves the sound; another he imposes a second layer - and the instrument acquires gloss and beauty. His violins are sometimes golden, sometimes light brown, and now, towards the end of his life, they are dark red.

Nobody knows his secrets. He rarely comes here during the day.

That's why the overweight gentleman who brought the tree peers greedily when the gate to this master's lair opens for a moment.

But no, the room is dark - the curtain is lowered. Stradivari lowers the tree into a vat of great-smelling liquid, waits; taking it out, it looks long and sympathetically at the thinnest sinuous veins that were invisible at one time and have become noticeable.

His face begins to clear, he lovingly strokes the damp wood with his hand and returns to the workshop.

The students have already arrived. Among them are the sons of the master, his assistants. Omobono and Francesco, with gloomy, still sleepy faces. They speak in a low voice.

Hearing the quick and wide steps of the father, anyone goes to his workbench and bends over it with excessive sensitivity and haste.

Stradivari enters animated.

Here is what I need. This tree will sing. You hear - it sings. Francesco, - he called his eldest son, - apparently here, son, listen.

Francesco approached his father with the timid air of a student. The old man put the bar to his shoulder, as if it were a violin, and carefully tapped the end of the bow, listening sympathetically to the sound and watching his son's face.

The students looked on with admiration and servility.

Yes, such a master should act. This lean grumpy old man knows what he's doing, the tree in his hands seems to come to life by itself.

But how difficult is existence in the studio of Antonio Stradivari!

Blessings to the student who is late at least for one minute, at least at one fine time who forgot the order of the master.

He is rude, strict and picky. He makes him start over again the work already completed, if some little trifle is not to his liking.

But they are no longer tempted by the easy being in other workshops. They understand how much they can learn here. Only the master's heirs, his assistants Omobono and Francesco's eyes run, either from a start, or from bewilderment.

Why is it that he can choose the only one out of hundreds of bars? Why do his violins sing like that? Why are they both no longer working on the first violin, and the types of wood are the same as that of the father, the shape and size are the same, and it’s as if you can’t tell which one was made by them and which one by the father, but it’s enough to touch the bow, and from the first sound, everything becomes clear: the violins made by them sound muffled, more wooden.

Why doesn't dad tell them his secrets, why doesn't he let them go to his laboratory where he spends his nights?

After all, he is not young, he will not take with him to the grave the secrets of varnish, and the capricious figures of his measurements! And anger is reflected in their eyes, making it difficult to concentrate and act.

You can step, - Stradivari turns to the supplier, - prepare more maple for the lower decks.

And suddenly adds, when the fat man is already on the threshold:

Bring pearls. I'll see. If it's cheap, maybe I'll buy it.

Stradivari goes to his workbench. Everyone is accepted for interrupted work.

Wire is stretched in long rows across the entire room of the workshop. Violins and violas are suspended from it, turned either with their backs or barrels. The cello stands out for its wide soundboards.

Omobono and Francesco work at a nearby workbench. A little further away - the favorite students of the master Carlo Bergonzi and Lorenzo Guadanini. They are entrusted by the master with responsible work on the soundboards: the distribution of thicknesses, the cutting of the ffs. The rest are busy preparing wood for the shells, cutting out a plate attached to one side of the workbench, or bending the shells: they heat an iron tool in a huge stove and begin to bend the plate with it, immersing it a few times in water. Others plan a spring or a darling with a jointer, learn to paint the outlines of violins, make necks, cut out coasters. Some are busy fixing old tools. Stradivari works silently, watching his students from under his brows; at times his eyes rest with sadness on the gloomy and gloomy faces of his sons.

Thin hammers ring, light files squeal, interspersed with the sounds of a violin.

Barefoot boys crowd around the window. They are attracted by the sounds coming from the workshop, sometimes shrill and rudely rattling, sometimes unexpectedly quiet and melodic. They stand for some time, their mouths open, greedily looking into the window opening. The measured stroke of the files and the thin hammer, which beats evenly, fascinate them.

Then they feel sad at once and, noisily, jumping and somersaulting, they disperse and sing the song of all the lazzaroni - the street boys of Cremona.

The old master is sitting at the big window. He raises his head, listens. The boys scattered. Only the only one sings.

This is the kind of purity and transparency we must achieve,” he says, addressing his students.

Beginning and ending

Antonio Stradivari was born in 1644 in a small town near Cremona. His parents used to live in Cremona. The terrible plague, which began in southern Italy, moved from location to location, captured more and more new areas and reached Cremona. The city was deserted, the streets were deserted, the inhabitants fled aimlessly. Among them were Stradivari - father and mother Antonio. They fled from Cremona to a small town nearby, or rather a village, and never returned to Cremona.

There, in a village near Cremona, Antonio's childishness passed. His father was an impoverished aristocrat. He was an arrogant uncle, stingy, unsociable, he liked to recall the history of his family. The father's monastery and the small town bored young Antonio with one spirit, and he decided to leave home.

Having gone through a lot of professions, he experienced failure everywhere. He wanted to become a sculptor, like Michelangelo, the lines of his statues were graceful, but his faces were not expressive. He abandoned this craft, earned his bread by carving wood, making wooden ornaments for rich furniture, and became addicted to drawing; with the greatest suffering he studied the ornamentation of doors and wall paintings of cathedrals and the drawings of the great masters. Then he was attracted by music, and he planned to become a musician. Stubbornly studied violin playing; but the fingers lacked fluency and lightness, and the sound of the violin was muffled and harsh. They said about him: "The ear of a musician, the hands of a carver." And he threw the craft of a musician. But, having abandoned it, I did not forget it. He was stubborn. I spent hours looking at my violin. The violin was a nasty work. He took it apart, examined it, and threw it away. And he did not have enough money to buy a good one. At the same time, being an 18-year-old youth, he entered the famous violin maker Nicolo Amati as an apprentice. The years spent in the workshop of Amati, he remembered for the rest of his existence.

He was an unpaid apprentice, doing only rough work and repairs, and running around on various errands for the master. This would have continued for a long time, if not for the episode. Master Nicolò went into the workshop outside of school hours on the day of Antonio's duty and found him at work: Antonio carved effs on an abandoned, unnecessary pruning of wood.

The master did not say anything, but since then Antonio no longer had to deliver finished violins to customers. He was currently spending the entire day studying Amati's work.

Here Antonio learned to know how important the selection of a tree is, how to make it sound and sing. He saw the significance of a hundredth part in the distribution of soundboard thicknesses, he understood the direction of the spring inside the violin. Now it was revealed to him how necessary the correspondence of the individual parts to each other. He followed this rule for the rest of his life. And, in the end, he appreciated the importance of what some craftsmen-masters considered only an ornament - the importance of the varnish with which the instrument is covered.

Amati treated his first violin condescendingly. This gave him strength.

With extraordinary stubbornness he achieved melodiousness. And when he achieved that his violin sounded like that of the master Nikolo, he wanted it to sound differently. He was haunted by the sounds of women's and children's voices: such melodious, flexible voices should be heard from his violins. He did not succeed for a long time.

"Stradivarius under Amati" - they said about him. In 1680 he left the Amati workshop and began to work independently.

He gave the violins different shapes, making them longer and narrower, then wider and shorter, then increased, then decreased the bulge of the decks, his violins were already allowed to be distinguished among thousands of others. And their sound was free and melodious, like the sound of a girl in the morning on Cremona Square. He aspired to be an artist in his youth, he loved line, drawing and paint, and this remained forever in his blood. In addition to sound, he appreciated in the instrument its slender shape and strict lines, he liked to decorate his instruments by inserting pieces of mother-of-pearl, ebony and ivory, he painted small cupids, lily flowers, fruits on the neck, barrels or corners.

Even in his youth, he made a guitar, into the lower wall of which he inserted stripes of ivory, and she seemed to be dressed up in striped silk; he decorated the sound hole with tangles of leaves and flowers carved into wood.

In 1700, four were ordered to him. he worked on it lovingly for a long time. The curl that completed the instrument depicted the head of Diana, entwined with heavy braids; a necklace was worn around the neck. Below, he carved two small figures - a satyr and a nymph. The satyr hung his goat legs on a hook, the same hook served to carry the instrument. Everything was carved with rare perfection.

At other times he made a narrow pocket violin - "sordino" - and gave a curl of ebony the shape of a negro's head.

By the age of forty, he was rich and well known. There were sayings about his wealth; in the city they said: "Rich as a Stradivarius."

But his existence was not happy. His wife died; he lost two adult sons, and he wanted to make them the support of his old age, to pass on to them the secret of his craft and everything that he had achieved in his entire existence.

The surviving sons Francesco and Omobono, although they worked together with him, did not understand his art, they only diligently imitated him. The third heir, Paolo, from his second marriage, and in no way despised his craft, preferring to engage in commerce and trade; it was both easier and simpler. Another single offspring, Giuseppe, became a monk.

Now the master was in his 77th year. He achieved a deep old age, great honor, wealth.

His life was coming to an end. Looking back, he saw his family and the growing family of his violins. The children had their names, the violins had theirs.

His life ended peacefully. For greater peace of mind, so that everything would be decorous, as from wealthy and respectable people, he bought a crypt in the church of St. Dominica himself determined the location for his burial. And everywhere, in time, his relatives will fall: a friend of life, sons.

But when the master thought about his sons, he became clouded. It was all business.

He left them their native prosperity, they will build or, rather, buy good houses for themselves. And the prosperity of the family will grow. But did he really work in vain, did he achieve, in the end, the fame and knowledge of the master? And now there is no one to leave the skill, only the master can inherit the skill. The old man knew how greedily his sons seek their father's secrets. More than once he found Francesco in the studio outside school hours, found a notebook he had dropped. What was Francesco looking for? Why was he rummaging through his father's notes? He will not find the records he needs in the same way. They are tightly locked with a key. Sometimes, thinking about this, the master himself ceased to understand himself. After all, in three years, five years, his sons, heirs, all the same will open all the locks, read all his records. Shouldn't they return in advance those "secrets" that everyone is talking about? But I didn't want to return to these short blunt fingers such subtle ways of composing varnishes, recording the irregularities of sound boards - all my skill.

After all, all these secrets cannot teach anyone, they can help. Shouldn't they be returned to the hands of the cheerful Bergonzi, the one that is quick-witted and dexterous? But will Bergonzi be able to apply all the spacious skill of his teacher? He is a cello master and loves that very instrument most of all, and to him, the old master, despite the fact that he put innumerable time and labor into creating a perfect cello, I would like to transfer all his accumulated skill, all his knowledge. And besides that, it would mean stealing from your sons. After all, as an honest master, he accumulated all the knowledge for his kind. And now leave everything to a stranger? And grandfather hesitated, not making a decision - let the records lie under lock and key until the time.

And at the present moment something else began to darken his days. he is accustomed to being first in his skill. Nicolò Amati had been lying in the cemetery for a long time, Amati's workshop fell apart during his lifetime, and he, Stradivarius, is the successor and continuer of Amati's art. Until that time, there was no equal in violin skill not only in Cremona, but throughout Italy, not only in Italy, but throughout the world - to him, Antonio Stradivari.

But until then...

For a long time already there were rumors, at first dubious and timid, and then quite clear, about another master from a family of good and capable, but a little rude craftsmen.

The master of this Stradivari knew well. And at the beginning he was completely calm for himself, due to the fact that an uncle, one who can achieve something in the violin business, in the past of everything, should be a man of a calm, sober and moderate life, and Giuseppe Guarneri was a drunkard and a rowdy . Such a person's fingers tremble and his hearing is always hazy. And with all the same...

And then one time...

And then one day, before the deadline in the morning, when life in his workshop had not yet begun, and he, as usual, had already visited the secadora, and went downstairs to examine the varnishes, there was a knock at the gate. They brought in a violin for repair. Throughout his life, Stradivari, working on new violins, did not forget the noble mastery of repair. He loved it when broken, old violins made by good, average and completely unknown masters turned out to be violins with features of his craftsmanship; from a correctly set spring or because he covered the violin with his own varnish, someone else's violin began to sound more noble than before, before the breakdown - well-being and youth returned to the instrument. And when the customer, who gave the instrument for repair, was amazed at the change, the master felt pride, like an esculapius curing a child, when his parents thank him.

The man who brought the fiddle was not a Cremonese; he explained that its owner had bought this violin here two years ago, and now it was broken and needed to be repaired. He lost the master's address on the road, but of course he got to the right place: everyone here points to the famous master Antonio Stradivari.

Show me your violin, said Stradivari.

The man carefully took out the violin from the case, without ceasing to chatter:

My owner is a great connoisseur, he highly appreciates this violin, she sings in such a strong, thick voice, which I have never felt a single violin hitherto.

The violin is in the hands of a Stradivarius. She is a large format; clear varnish. And he immediately realized whose work it was.

Leave her where she is,” he said dryly.

When the talker, bowing and greeting the master, left, Stradivari took the bow in his hands and began to check the sound. The violin really sounded powerful; the sound was great, perfect. The damage was minor, and it did not greatly affect the sound. He began to examine her. The violin is excellently made, although it has an unnecessarily large format, thick edges and long, laugh-mouth-like ffs. The other hand is a different work technology. Only now did he look into the opening of the fef, checking himself.

Yes, only one man can work like that.

Inside, on the label, in black even type was marked: "Joseph Guarnerius".

It was the label of the master Giuseppe Guarneri, nicknamed Del Gesu. He remembered that recently from the terrace he had seen Del Gesa coming home at dawn; he staggered, talked to himself, waved his arms.

But how can such a gentleman work? How can anything come out of his unfaithful hands? And yet ... He took Guarneri's violin again and began to play.

What a big, deep sound! And what's more, if you climb out under the open skies to Cremona's square and play in front of a healthy crowd, - and then you will be heard in the distance around you.

Since the death of Nicolo Amati, his teacher, not a single violin, not a single master can compare in softness and brilliance of sound with his Stradivari violins! But power! In the power of sound, he, the aristocratic master Antonio Stradivari, must yield to this drunkard. This means that his skill was not perfect, which means that something else is needed that he does not know, but that dissolute man knows, whose hands made this violin. This means that not everything has yet been done by him and his experiments on the acoustics of wood, his experiments on the composition of varnishes, are not complete. The free melodious tone of his violins can still be enriched with new colors, healthy power.

He pulled himself together. In old age, there is no need to worry too much. And he reassured himself that the sound of the Guarneri violins was sharper, that his customers, noble gentlemen, would not order violins from Guarneri. And now he has received an order for a quintet: two violins, two violas and a cello - from the Spanish court. The order pleased him, he had been thinking about it for a whole week, making sketches, drawings, choosing a tree, and decided to taste the freshly baked method of attaching a spring. He sketched a system of drawings for inlays, drew the coat of arms of a high customer. Such customers will not go to Guarneri, they do not need his violins, because they do not need the depth of sound. In addition, Guarneri is a drunkard and a brawler. He cannot be a dangerous opponent to him. Nevertheless, Giuseppe Guarneri Del Gesu overshadowed the last years of Antonio Stradivari.

As he was still descending the stairs, he heard loud voices coming from the workshop.

As a rule, when students come, they immediately go to their workbenches and set to work. This has been done for a long time. Now they were talking loudly. Something apparently happened.

Tonight, at three o'clock...

I didn’t see it myself, the hostess told me, they led him along our street ...

What will happen to his students now?

Don't know. The workshop is closed, there is a lock on the doors...

What a master, - says Omobono, - in his time everything is a drunkard, and this should have been expected for a long time.

Stradivari entered the workshop.

What's happened?

Giuseppe Guarneri has been arrested these days and taken to prison,” Bergonzi said sadly.

Stradivari stood rooted to the spot in the middle of the workshop.

Vtovarishch his knees trembled.

So this is how Del Gesa ends! However, this was really to be expected. Let him now play his violins and delight the ears of the jailers. The room, truth, is not enough for his powerful violins, and the listeners, perhaps, will close their ears ...

So everything has its turn. How fiercely all the Guarneris struggled against failure! When Del Gesu's uncle, Pietro, died, his widow Catarina took over the workshop. But the workshop was to close soon. This is not a women's occupation, not needlework. Then they began to say: here Giuseppe will show. The Guarneri haven't died yet! And look how he beats the oldest Antonio! And now it's his turn.

Stradivari did not like this man, not only because he was afraid of rivalry and thought that Guarneri surpassed him in skill. But, together with Guarneri Del Gesu, the spirit of restlessness and violence entered the Cremonese masters. His workshop was often closed, the students disbanded and carried along their comrades who worked for other masters. Stradivari himself went through the entire art of craftsmanship - from apprentice to master - he loved order and rank in everything. And Del Gesu's existence, vague and unstable, was in his eyes a life unworthy of a master. Now it's final. There is no return from prison to the chair of the master. Now he, Stradivari, is the only one left. He looked hard at his students.

Let's not lose time, - he said.

Green mountainous area a few miles from Cremona. And like a gray, dirty speck - a gloomy low building with bars on the windows, surrounded by a battlement wall. High heavy gates close the entrance to the courtyard. This is a prison where people languish behind thick walls and iron doors.

During the day, the prisoners sit in solitary cells, at night they are transferred to a large semi-basement cell for sleeping.

A man with a tousled beard sits barely audibly in one of the solitary cells. He's only been here for a few days. So far, he has not been unhappy. He looked through the window at the greenery, the earth, the sky, the birds that friskyly flew past the window; for hours, barely audible, whistling some monotonous melody. He was busy with his own thoughts. Now he was bored with idleness, and he languished.

How long will you have to stay here?

No one really knows for what offense he is serving retribution. When he is transferred in the evening to spend the night in a common cell, everyone bombards him with questions. He gladly answers, but none of his answers clearly understand what the occupation is.

They know that his craft is to work violins.

The little girl, the jailer's daughter, who runs and plays near the prison, knows about it.

Father said one evening:

This uncle makes, they say, such violins that cost a lot of money.

Once a wandering musician wandered into their yard, he was sort of hilarious, and on his head he had a big black hat. And he began to play.

They are near because no one comes up, people do not like to rush here, and the guard drives away everyone who comes a little closer to their gates. And the same musician began to play, and she begged her father to let him finish playing. When the guards nevertheless drove him away, she ran after him, in the distance, and when there was no one near, he, like a devil from a snuffbox, called her and asked affectionately:

Do you like how I play?

She said:

Like.

Can you sing? Sing me a song, he asked.

She sang her favorite song to him. Then the gentleman in the hat, moreover, without having finished listening to her, put the violin on his shoulder and played what she sang today.

She opened her eyes wide with joy. It was nice for her to hear her song being played on the violin. Then the musician said to her:

I'll come here and play you any day whatever you want, but do me a favor in return. Here you will give this little note to the prisoner, the one who is sitting in that cell, - he pointed to one of the windows, - it is he who can play the violin so well, and I played on his violin. He's a good uncle, don't be afraid of him. Don't tell your father. And if you don't hand over the note, I won't play with you anymore.

The girl ran around the prison yard, sang at the gates, all those serving their sentences and the guards knew her, they paid as little attention to her as they did to cats that climbed the roofs and birds that sat on the windows.

It happened that she darted after her father into the low prison corridor. While dad opened the cells, she looked at the prisoners with all her eyes. We are used to it.

So she managed to pass the note. When the jailer opened the gates of the cell during the evening tour and, shouting: “Get ready for the dark time of the day!”, He went further to the next doors, the girl darted inside the cell and hurriedly said:

A man in a no small black hat promised to play often, any day, and for this he asked me to give you a note.

She looked at him and moved closer.

And he also said that the violin on which he played was made by you, signor prisoner. It is truth?

She looked up at him with stunned eyes.

Then he stroked her head.

You need to go girl. It's not good to be caught in this place.

Then he added:

Get me a stick and a knife. Do you want me to make a pipe for you, and you can play it?

The prisoner hid the note. He managed to read it only the next morning. The note was written: "To the noble Giuseppe Guarneri Del Ges. - The love of the students is always with you." He held the note firmly in his hand and smiled.

The girl became friends with Guarneri. At first she came secretly, and dad did not notice this, but when the girl came home and brought a ringing wooden pipe, he forced her to confess everything. And, strangely enough, the jailer did not get angry. He turned the smooth pipe in his fingers and thought.

The next day, he went outside of school hours to Del Gesù's cell.

If you need a tree, - he said curtly, - you are allowed to get it.

I need my tools, - said the inmate.

Tools are not allowed, - said the jailer and left.

A day later he went back to the cell.

What tools? he asked. “A planer is not forbidden, but a file is forbidden.” If a carpenter's saw, then it is not forbidden.

So in the cell of Del Gesu was a stump of a spruce log, a carpenter's saw and glue. Then the jailer got varnish from the painter who painted the prison chapel.

And he was touched by his own generosity. The late friend of his life said all the way that he was a worthy and not bad man. He will make life easier for this unfortunate man, he will sell his violins and grab a high price for them, and he will buy smoke and wine for the prisoner.

"Why does a prisoner need money?"

That's just how to sell violins so that no one knows about it?

He considered.

"Regina," he thought of his daughter. "No, she's too small for that, she probably won't be able to do it. Well, okay, we'll see," he decided.

It is difficult for Giuseppe Guarneri to work his violins in a small low chamber with a thick saw, a large planer, but the days are now going faster.

First violin, second, third... Days change...

The jailer sells violins. He got a new dress, he became significant and fat. At what price does he sell violins? Giuseppe Guarneri Del Gesu does not know this. He gets smoke and wine. And it's all.

This is all he has left. Are the violins he gives to the jailer good? If only he could not put his native name on them!

Can varnish, the one he uses, improve the sound? It only muffles the sound and makes it immobile. Carriages are allowed to be covered with this varnish! The violin shines from him - and nothing more.

And all that is left of Giuseppe Guarneri is smoke and wine. Sometimes a girl comes to him. He spends hours with her. She tells the news that happens within the walls of the prison. She herself does not know more, and if she knew, she would be afraid to say: it is strictly forbidden for her father to mutter too much.

The father sees to it that the inmate cannot receive news from friends. The jailer is afraid: now this is a very stately, dear to him inmate. He profits from it.

In the intervals between orders, Guarneri makes a long small violin from a fragment of a spruce board for a girl.

This is a sordino, he explains to her, you can put it in your pocket. It is played by dance teachers in wealthy homes when they teach dressed up children to dance.

The girl sits barely audibly and sensitively listens to his stories. It happens that he tells her about life in the wild, about his workshop, about his violins. He talks about them as if they were people. It happens that he suddenly forgets about her presence, jumps up, begins to wander around the cell with long strides, waves his arms, says tricky words for a girl. Then she becomes melancholy, and she imperceptibly slips away from the cell.

Death and eternal life

Every year it becomes more and more difficult for Antonio Stradivari to work hard on his own violins. Now he must resort to the help of others. Increasingly, the inscription began to appear on the labels of his instruments:

Sotto la Disciplina d" Antonio

Stradiuari F. in Cremonae. 1737.

Changes vision, hands are wrong, it is more and more difficult to cut out efs, varnish lays in uneven layers.

But cheerfulness and composure do not leave the master. He continues his daily work, getting up early, going up to his terrace, sitting at the workbench in the workshop, working for hours in the laboratory.

He needs a lot of time at the moment to complete the violin he has started, but he nevertheless brings it to the end, and on the label with pride, with a trembling hand, he makes an addition:

Antonius Stradivarius Gremonensis

Faciebat Anno 1736, D" Anni 92.

He stopped thinking about everything that once worried him; he passed to a definite decision: he would take his secrets with him to the grave. It is better that no one owns them than to return them to people who have neither talent, nor love, nor insolence.

He gave his family everything he could: both security and a noble name.

During his long existence, he made about a thousand instruments that are scattered around the world. It's time for him to take a break. He loses his life gradually. Now nothing overshadows his last years. In Guarneri he was wrong. And how could it look to him that the same unfortunate man sitting in prison could somehow prevent him? Good Guarneri violins were easily an accident. Now this is clear and confirmed by the facts: the violins that he now makes are rough, incomparable with the former ones, the prison violins are unworthy of the Cremonese masters. Master fell...

He did not want to think about the conditions under which Guarneri worked, what kind of wood he used, how stuffy and black it was in his cell, that the tools he worked with were more suitable for making chairs than for working on violins.

Antonio Stradivari calmed down that he was wrong.

In front of the house of Antonio Stradivari, on St. Dominica, people are crowding.

The boys are running around looking out the windows. The windows are covered with dark curtains. Quiet, everyone is talking in an undertone...

He lived ninety-four years, it is hard to believe that he died.

He survived his wife for a short time, he respected her greatly.

And what will happen to the workshop now? Sons for not in the old man.

Close, for sure. Paolo will sell everything and put the capital in his pocket.

But where are their capitals, and so dad left enough.

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