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Andrea Amati

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Nationality
  
Italian

Children
  
Girolamo Amati

Role
  

Name
  
Andrea Amati

Occupation
  
Grandchildren
  
Nicola Amati

On the left is “The King” violoncello by Andrea Amati in the Shrine to Music Museum. This instrument has been reduced in size while on the right, is the projected reconstruction of the original dimensions of the instrument, extrapolated from the methods of geometrical design employed by Andrea Amati and the reconstruction of the figures in the painting on the back of the instrument.

Born
  
1505 (age 72)

Known for
  
Credited with constructing the first musical instrument of the modern violin family


Died
  
December 26, 1577 (aged 72), Cremona, Italy

gasparo de sal giovanni paolo maggini andrea amati stradivari guarneri jacob stainer


Andrea Amati was a luthier, from Cremona, Italy. Amati is credited with making the first instruments of the violin family that are in the form we use today. According to the National Music Museum in Vermillion, South Dakota:

Contents

Andrea Amati

It was in the workshop of Andrea Amati (ca. 1505-1577) in Cremona, Italy, in the middle of the 16th century that the form of the instruments of the violin family as we know them today first crystallized.

Andrea Amati

Several of his instruments survive to the present day, and some of them can still be played. Many of the surviving instruments were among a consignment of 38 instruments delivered to Charles IX of France in 1564.

Andrea Amati

To celebrate andrea amati s birthday


Role in the development of the modern violin

Andrea Amati

According to a biography by Roger Hargrave, Amati was one of the top candidates scholars have advanced for the "inventor of the violin." The two other candidates he named were Fussen born in a region now part of present-day Germany. The other candidate he named was Gasparo' da Salo from Brescia.

Andrea Amati


The violin-like instruments that existed when Amati began his career only had three strings. Amati is credited with creating the first four stringed violin-like instrument. Laurence Witten also lists Amati and Gasparo' da Salo, as well as Pellegrino de' Micheli, also from Brescia; as well and Ventura di Francesco de' Machetti Linarol, of Venice. Amati's first violins were smaller than modern violins, with high arches, wide purfling, and elegantly curved scrolls and bodies.

Made by Andrea Amati, a decorated violin with four strings, high arches, wide purfling, and elegantly curved scrolls and bodies in a front, back, and side view on a black background.

Andrea Amati's two sons, Antonio Amati and Girolamo Amati were also highly skilled violin makers, as was his grandson Nicolò Amati, who had over a dozen highly regarded apprentices, including Antonio Stradivari and Andrea Guarneri.

References

Andrea Amati Wikipedia