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Building a Brescian viola after Gasparo da Salo
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estebanana
Posts: 9367
Joined: Oct. 16 2009
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 RE: Building a Brescian viola after ... (in reply to estebanana)
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I began this project with a lot or research that began a long time ago, and more recently with some books on the history of the viola.
The first thing I did was to make a practice scroll to understand how the spiral was cut on Brescian instruments. They are decidedly different than the scroll from Cremona which are very elegant. Brescian work is a bit more robust and not as refined, but still has a beauty.
The spiral of the Brescian violas usually have an undercut, that is the scroll turns and it looks like each turn is cut deeper at a slope. Cremonese work by contrast cuts straight across the turn. See what I mean. The place called the throat, where the shell of the pegbox meets the spiral, is also much different than Cremonese work. The throat is not high and curved in, but simply hits the spiral in one line off the front of the pegbox.
I wanted to learn why this happens, and it has to do with technique and the tools you choose to use to cut the scroll. So here is my study, I won't use it on the viola, I will cut a new one out of maple.
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I don't play viola, but I am interested. Mainly I want to build violas to sell so I am working up a couple models.
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https://www.stephenfaulkguitars.com
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Date Dec. 10 2014 10:27:09
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estebanana
Posts: 9367
Joined: Oct. 16 2009
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RE: Building a Brescian viola after ... (in reply to estebanana)
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You mean in eye is lower that the other when you look at the scroll face on? Yes one eye is dropped a bit. I don't see this as an error on Brescian work, they were like that. If you copy it you can even them out or if they come out a bit uneven it is ok. The important thing is to let the work breathe and have spontaneous feeling. Lots of copeis belabor the work and it loses freshness. These scrolls were cut fast and loose and there two ways to think about it. In accurate bench copies of a specific instrument you would want to copy everything mm by mm even the flaws. So if the eye drooped, you would include that in the bench copy.
The other way is to work to the same level of finish and detail as that particular school did, and in Brescia they were not fussy, so if you begin to be fussy it will look like you are confused between Cremona and Brescia, which I am not. These early violas can be quite rough, especially the Peregrino family so I am not worried about "off kilter: or wobbely details as long as they are not put in on purpose to look wonky.
I'm just trying to work in the natural way they worked in Brescia and not be too uptight. Later if I make an Amati viola, that is the time to be more careful about symmetry, but even in Cremonese work on makers other than Stradivari and the Amatis you will see asymmetrical problems all over the place. Even instruments that are radically built off center. Really picky symmetry is a Cremonese thing, you can see real off symmetrical in the Venetians also, so I am not too worried about it. If I were doing Strad and Amati's or makers who were heavy under the influence of them, I would worry about it.
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Date Dec. 11 2014 1:36:40
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Anders Eliasson
Posts: 5780
Joined: Oct. 18 2006
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RE: Building a Brescian viola after ... (in reply to estebanana)
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quote:
You mean in eye is lower that the other when you look at the scroll face on? Yes one eye is dropped a bit.
Yes, thats what I mean, and I dont agree that its been dropped "a bit" its dropped a lot 
You know that I dont care about copies. I try to build everything as good as I can. That they were in a rush in another place in another century, I dont want to be my problem. I dont need perfection, but I like good workmanship.
Besides, the ones that have seen the violins that I have made have directly lookes at the following:The body being in balance and harmonic, the eyes being in balance (the stick being straight), all the way through when you turn the scroll, The f-holes being parallel to the rim when looking from the side of the violin, and the quality of the purfling in the corners..
Besides that, of course, the neck angle and the height of the bridge. Wheather it was an exact shape of this or that Stradivarius, noone has been interested in.
On the other hand, I agree that perfection is not the goal in itself. Perfectly machine cut scrolls look dead. There need to be some imbalance or "danger" somewhere something that catches your attention. Fx: of the 3 top scrolls, I find the top one the most interesting. Besides its unbalanced "eyes", its very elegant and slim. I think its the same in the bottom picture, where it is also very elegant and gracefull and I dont care about the gouge marks or the fact that its a bit flat on the top.
I´m getting better at making scrolls. They are correct, the eyes in balance etc, but they still need some of that lightweight elegance.
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Blog: http://news-from-the-workshop.blogspot.com/
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Date Dec. 11 2014 8:15:39
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estebanana
Posts: 9367
Joined: Oct. 16 2009
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RE: Building a Brescian viola after ... (in reply to estebanana)
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Anders,
I think you are making to much of a sketch or practice scroll, my intention was to study the tool path needed to make the undercut, is not the same process as making the flat cut of Cremona scroll and I wanted to study the difference.
Scrolls, purfling and edge work really tell you where a violin is from. Cremona had a 'look' and Brescia had a 'look'. The degree of finish you choose to put in your own work is highly personal and in the violin craft, unlike guitar making, there is a latitude of what is good and good. Most everyone agrees putting 'mistakes' in the work on purpose is really tricky, you have to have technical facility to make a perfect scroll before you attempt to make one with planned defects in a direct copy. But on the other hand, if you are making sketches and studies as learning pieces, perfection in a study piece does not matter much if you learned a skill. That is why the scroll is not finished, I learned what I needed to know and that was that.
I feel the study of regionalism and regional style, or a particular families style is important because each family or region had methods of doing things that helped determine how the instruments looked. Cremona had a specific way of doing edges, Brescia had a specific way of making purflings. Some Cremonese families used dyed paper to make purfling and some used dyed pear wood, etc. all these small details are important to study and study and study because these are the elements that determine how things were done technically. And the whole thing is a puzzle, know a regional method and another piece pops into place.
Everyone has their own way of going about making, and really it's just how each person puts together the puzzle. Some pieces fit and some don't.
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To go on about scrolls in particular, just for anyone who is interested:
If you want to study the scroll, look at Amati scrolls, they are far and away the best. But they are tighter in width near the throat and this causes the A string peg, or D on viola/ cello, to be cramped. Stradivari made the scroll wider on the back the "shell" at that point where the spiral and the pegbox area meet. But it is not as beautiful as the taper on the shell of the Amati scroll.
The Amati scrolls also show tool work, and Strad worked to scrape out any tool marks. He was really the odd one, probably obsessive compulsive. The Amati family had a method of carving and the design is elegant, they worked carefully at ratio a proportion and did not over refine the work. It was just natural, but careful. The Amati work is characterized especially by the way the the final chisel cut was made in the eye, it looks like a comma. Stradivari did not do that.
Amati scrolls look like something that grew on a vine, delicate tendrils that curl. Strad scrolls look more like perfection carved in marble on a Greek temple. In Brescia scrolls look like rolled up newspapers, all beautiful in their own ways.
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Date Dec. 14 2014 1:32:26
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