Chapter 01 of 5
The Workshops of Cremona
A small Italian town, a family of makers and the man whose name became a byword for perfection.
- The Town
Cremona
Cremona is a small city in northern Italy, on the River Po. For two centuries it was the violin-making capital of the world.
- The Founder
Andrea Amati
In the mid-1500s a Cremona craftsman, Andrea Amati, made some of the earliest violins of the shape we still use today.
- The Design
Nearly unchanged
The violin's basic design has barely changed since: four strings, a hollow body, an arched top and two f-shaped holes.
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Could you answer this?
Roughly how many Stradivari instruments survive today?
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🎻 The Violin That Can't Be Copied
- 01The Workshops of CremonaA small Italian town, a family of makers and the man whose name became a byword for perfection.
- 02The Secret IngredientIce ages, chemicals and varnish: the long hunt for Stradivari's secret.
- 03The Blind TestGoggles, top violinists and a result that shocked the music world.
- 04Million-Dollar WoodRecord auctions, a violin almost never played and who really owns the Strads.
- 05Stolen StradsThefts, a deathbed confession and a cello left in a taxi.