opinions as to the most satisfactory quality of tone for its purpose and
considered it the best. Milan is situated in Lombardy, north-west of
Cremona, and distant from it between forty and fifty miles; not a very
long way at any time, but quite sufficient for each place to cultivate
or indulge in any artistic or musical fancies or whims independently of
the other. We find maker after maker in Milan keeping within certain
limits as regards the quality of tone produced there; I do not know of
one whose instruments emitted other than the Milanese quality.
We may, I think, safely assume that so far from loosely and
superficially instructing his pupils, Stradivari's tuition was of a
deeper, far-reaching kind than has ever been suspected. If the tone of
Lorenzo Guadagnini is compared with that of the makers who were working
in Milan when he arrived, it will not be difficult to perceive that the
Milanese type is still retained, although much enlarged and matured, in
fact become freshly developed, throwing out the additional qualities for
the obtaining of which the great master of Cremona had carefully
trained his gifted pupil. All this is not in the least interfered with
by the fact of Joannes Battista Guadagnini's tone differing in some
respects--and more at times--with that of his father, but rather helped
by it; both assert on their tickets that they were instructed by
Stradivari, and both show the results of their training in that
largeness and impressiveness which is so much beloved of violinists and
which without doubt came from their great teacher. Josef, the son of
Joannes Battista Guadagnini, appears also to have either been instructed
by Stradivari or to have assisted under his personal supervision--which
would amount to much the same thing. We may perceive in the tone of this
maker also the influence of the great master in the same directions as
are manifested in the works of his father and grandfather, they are all
of the Stradivarian school.
Let us now turn in another direction. Alexandri Gagliano of Naples tells
us that he too was a pupil of Stradivari, and looking at his work there
is nothing about it inconsistent with his statement; his typical design
is formed upon that of Stradivari, and many of his details of
workmanship are such as can only have been carried out as the result of
either a lengthy study, or from being under the immediate supervision of
the master.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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