While we cannot always trace a musical instrument right back to its source, we can often establish certain milestones in its evolution. In some cases we have historical records. In some cases the instruments themselves have survived through the centuries, having been handed down from generation to generation. Amati violins fall into this category and the work of a family of luthiers in Cremona in Italy forms one of the most important milestones in the evolution of the violin family.
Violin-like bowed string instruments have existed for a very long time and seem to have developed in parallel in many different places. The violin as we know it today however owes its form to Andrea Amati. It was he who modified the structure of the early violin and gave it its fourth string. In fact, the violins he designed are not too different from those played all over the world today.
The earliest known Amati violins were made in the 1560s. For a variety of reasons (many of them based on speculation), very few pre-Amati and early Amati violins have survived. Interestingly enough, even among the non-Amati instruments of that period, the surviving instruments are mainly violas – hardly any violins or cellos. So while we can’t really be certain of this, it was probably his design which inspired the luthiers who came after him.
Andrea Amati must have been quite famous – we do know that he made thirty eight instruments for Charles IX of France. Many of the surviving Andrea Amati violins are from this batch of instruments, including the one in the photograph which is also probably the oldest of the survivors. This also makes some of these surviving Andrea Amati violins among the world’s oldest dated violins – however, the exact age cannot be confirmed in many cases. As with a lot of other old stories, the story of the violin is full of maybes, possiblys and probablys – this is because what little information we have has been put together from all sorts of strange places such as fragments of parchment found inside the bodies of the instruments.
While we don’t know much about Andrea Amati, we do know that other members of his family became luthiers too. His grandson – Nicola Amati – went on to become one of the most celebrated luthiers in history. By the 1620s, he was one of the main luthiers in the workshop and then by a sudden twist in circumstances he became one of the main luthiers of the city. This twist was a plague which claimed most of his family and made him one of the only master luthiers in the years to come. He slowly made his own modifications to his grandfather’s style and developed a style of violin making which is known even today as the Grand Amati style. His patterns involved precise mathematically derived curves, outlines and corners with the varnish that is so characteristic of violins. The result was that the violins of the Grand Amati pattern became the most sought after instruments of their time.
The Amatis and their violins have become such a celebrated part of violin history that they have even begun to appear in fiction. Stories with such links between imagination and reality always carry a little additional thrill. One of my favourites of this type is a story by Satyajit Ray whose subplot involves an Amati violin fondly referred to by its owner as ‘The Strings of Amity’. Though the violin and the story are fictional, Nicola Amati was certainly real and the story served as my introduction to the magical world of Amati violins.
Just like how the Pandits and Ustads of yore eventually began to share their musical wealth with students from outside the family and the gharana, Nicola Amati too began to accept apprentices from outside the family. It is possible that he was pushed into doing so by the dwindling numbers in the luthier community after the plague. Whatever the reason, he ended up being an inspiration and a teacher for many other upcoming luthiers including one whose name is known to almost every violin lover even today – Antonio Stradivari.
Thoughts on Music 
Why not do one on the Stradivarius? May require some research though.
Anyway nicely done.
Rdk
Thank you. I will eventually do one on Stradivari. I decided on the Amatis for this post partly because of the reference in the story and partly because they were already an established luthier family before Stradivari came along.
Thanks for the piece.
The tone of a well-made violin is unmistakable. Unfortunately, many of the modern “electronic” violins have abandoned acoustics and have gone for weird contraptions that have only the fingerboard and pickups, the tone & harmonics be damned….
It would be good to document the secrets of these European master craftsmen so that their legacies are kept alive.
Thank you. Yes, what you say about the tone is very true. I’ve been reading about instrument makers in general and I find it quite amazing to read about the care they take/took to get the perfect tone.
Thank you dear Mythili for drawing my attention to Amati of which I had no idea. I thought it was Stradivarius, Stradivari who first made the fine-tuned violin. However, KRS introduced me to The Lost Stradivarius, a novel by Meadows Falkner. I was about 18 and trying to learn violin from KRS (it was a fiasco for I just could not manage to make the two hands work as friends) and KRS was the teacher. He would start some raga and then say something about the classic. I borrowed it from AU library and had some unforgettable, if somewhat chilling hours reading it. The novel never left my psyche and I introduced an identical idea in my novel in Atom and the Serpent. But the find there augurs good for an unfortunate couple.
One lives and learns. I only knew of Amity International.
Continue your musicial journey, all the best!
With admiration and love
K.Gajalakshmi
Thank you very much. I too knew only of Stradivari until I read that book. In fact, at that time I thought Amati was fictional as well.
Dear Mythili:
Your piece is very interesting. Did any of our Carnatic music violin artistes ever use a Stradivarius or Amati? I have a vague memory Lalgudi Jayaraman handled one when he went abroad. Was it a news item or in the biography that was publisehed two years back? I wrote a programme on violin’s history and how Indian artistes adroitly made it a permanent and popular component of katcheries, on request from Trichy AIR and it was broadcast also with appropriate clippings. The well known violinists Sri Ramanujacharyulu and Sri Nagai Muralidharan were instrumental in conceiving and producing the same. Maybe ten years back.
With good wishes and looking forward to the next post,
Affly
Prema Nandakumar
Thank you very much! Interesting to know about your program.
As usual a very interesting piece. The Lost Stradivarius is at home (the book I mean!), scary!
Glad you were able to use the pic from the Oxford Ashmolean visit.
Thank you. Yes, I’ve seen the book but I haven’t read it (yet).
I don’t have much exposure with regard to violin. But your write up leaves me intrigued. Would love to see an article about the Veena soon from you🙂Keep the good work!
Thank you 🙂 I’ll certainly write about the Veena sometime!