The masterpieces of the Cremonese stringed-instrument facing science.
The historical city of Cremona hides a secular know-how, the stringed-instrument manufacture. The today’s violin makers are the rigorous heirs of the talented Andrea Amati, inventor of the violin, his son Nicolo who was the most notorious member of the family, of Andrea Guarneri, father of the eponymous dynasty but also of the famous Antonio Stradivari, student of Nicolo Amati. They were the creators, the artists who made prestigious violins, violoncellos and violas which a great number arrived to us. Their prices reach astronomical sums. April 22, 2005 in New York, a Stradivarius of 1699 was sold for I,6 million Euros. One year later, an other one was sold for 2,7 million Euros.
Thanks to science, the acoustics experts can measure the frequency of the strings vibrations, the resonance so as the power intensity. Are they higher than all those since manufactured? Is the price difference of the yesteryear instruments in comparison of the contemporaries ones justified?
The chaotic history of Cremona left in legacy a historical center with rich and varied buildings and as much sacred than civil. Splendid arcades of Palazzo Comunale (13th century) which face the cathedral of Romanesque and Lombardic architecture partly encircle the Piazza del Comune, the artistic heart of the city. From there, runs a maze of lanes where the few 120 workshops of stringed-instrument makers are hidden…
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