#1
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Guarneri basses
I read about a 19th-century Italian virtuoso who travalled around Europe with a Guarneri bass. (With detachable neck, of all things.) I know that there has been some copying of the Guarneri model - for instance, Alfred Meyer makes Guarneri copies - but I always thought that it was the same with the Guarneri type models as with Stradivari; a famous maker who didn't actually build any basses, only got them attributed to him in lack of knowledge/for want of money/for convenience, or that any seriously made copies where a violin/cello model was simply adapted to the DB.
Now, this suggests that I was wrong. Are there really some Guarneri made Double Basses in the records? |
#2
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??
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#3
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I have a picture of a guy called Zubin Mehta, whose bass looks just like the one on the
alfred Meyer site, but obviously is an old bass. He was a bassist who became a conductor (he seems to be alive and kicking). There's a lot about him on the web, but I have people coming to dinner and must go. His photo, with the bass, is in a book called 'Images of Music' by Erich Auerbach. I hope this is of help. |
#4
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ok, but..
I just read this and I am a bit confused;
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Markneukirchen Germany is IN Bohemia? I thought Bohemia was on the Czech side on the border across thru Prague. In the Historical map with Bohemia in red, Markneukirchen is just on the border but doesn't look to be IN Bohemia, just next to it with Prague being smack in the middle as I had believed it to be. I would expect any Guild of Bohemia to be more centered like in Prague rather than in Germany just on their western border or outside of it. Strange I think. |
#5
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That is their lousy English, I believe. At least, when I used my lousy German and an online translator to interpret the German version of the page, the text says that the violin making tradition was established by Bohemian makers and that the first GERMAN violin maker guild was founded there in 1677. Perhaps it's not their English but just a goof.
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#6
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Mehta is a prety big deal...Used to be Principal Conductor of the LA phil. I believe he's in Israel now? There's historic footage on Youtube of him performing the Trout Quintet with Jackie Dupres, Pearlman, Zukerman and Barenboim on piano. Excuse my spelling. |
#7
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What a clip! I've just watched it, unfortunately with no sound. He was playing German, I thought he played French.
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#8
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That's funny, I've seen it with sound. He played German and I believe he studied Double Bass and Conducting at the Vienna Conservatory way back when.
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#9
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Guerneri basses
The Guarneri family worked in Cremona, Italy. There are no known basses by any of the Cremona families although there is one bass attributed to G.B. Rogeri who studied there.
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#10
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Neither Meyer nor Pöllmann have responded to my question as to which bass they used as a blueprint. I guess we deal with attributions in both cases - as well as with the Guarneri that Dall'Occa supposedly played back in the days - attributions that may not even prove very trustworthy if tried today. A good model is a good model, I guess.
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#11
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I too would like to know where they got the model to go with the name. But...there is a Strad Viol in the Shrine to Music...you can see it here: http://www.usd.edu/smm/Cellos/Stradi...CelloViol.html . The Viol was about cello size...but with the sloping shoulders of a DB. Someone added to it to make it a cello shape...but you can still perfectly see the Viol outline. Someday I intend to turn this viol outline along with the ff holes and blow it up to DB proportions. To me this is what a Strad DB would have looked like had a DB been made by his shop.
Also...when we first started playing with bass shapes...I took the Guarneri template I used for a viola I made and added sloping shoulder to it to see how it would look as a bass. It looked too much like the "Carcassi" basses you see from Eastern Europe. |
#12
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oh?
Didn't a confirmed Ruggeri sell recently to Toronto for a huge sum? Storioni and his pupil Ceruti also made basses but slightly later. I agree on this that Strad' didn't and the Amati family has yet to produce a confirmed DB. As far as any of the Guarneri members, this I am not certain of. I do know that as far as the larger instruments go, Venice was far more active in Basses (aka V.Cellos) and Double Basses in that period.
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#13
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Isn't there at least one confirmed bass by Nicolo's son, Hieronymous II? Of course, he is considered far inferior to his father as well as to his contemporary, Stradivari, but people aren't always right. (Especially when it comes to basses... and attributions.)
Thomas Martin makes copies of a Ruggeri double bass, built in 1695, then apparently owned by a Dutch player. Maybe that's the same bass as the one sold to Toronto, or - all the better - there are more than one..? Last edited by Joel Larsson; 06-16-2009 at 02:28 PM. Reason: link posted |
#14
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confirmed?
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#15
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Amati, Shmati
More importantly, how does it sound??
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#16
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#17
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Pöllmann responded:
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#18
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humm
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#19
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well..
Well, I have no idea. I have never played either of them. Only saw them in pictures.
One day maybe you will get to play the Storioni and the Big Ben Gamba of mine and compare it to what you have played or heard so far. The only way to learn about these basses, origins or sounds is to see a lot of them, examine them, play then and listen to them. Pictures only fill in a small part of the puzzle. Real life hands-on from what I have learned is the only way. 'Experience' as they say is the best teacher. |
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