Gasparo Da Salò

Gasparo da Salò (May 20, 1542, Salò - April 14, 1609) is the name given to Gasparo di Bertolotti, one of the earliest violin makers and an expert double bass player. Around 80 of his instruments are still in existence.

He was born in Salò on Lake Garda, in a family with legal, artistic, musical and craft interests. His grandfather Santino, a land and flock owner who it is believed likely produced musical gut strings, moved from Polpenazze to Salò, capital of the Riviera del Garda, possibly in search of the greater opportunities then available in Salò, whose music scene was very rich and vibrant. Gasparo was the son and nephew of two accomplished musicians, Francesco and Agostino, who were violin players and composers of the highest professional level, distinguished enough to be referred to in surviving documents as the "violì” or in extended form, to avoid doubts, the "violini."

In addition to being an expert in musical instruments, Gasparo's uncle Agostino was the first Kapellmeister of Salò and his son Bernardino, Gasparo's cousin, was a virtuoso musician (violinist and trombonist), who worked in Ferrara at the powerful Este music court, and then in Mantua for Vincenzo Gonzaga I, during which time he was a contemporary of Monteverdi, and finally in Rome as "Musician of His Holiness the Pope in the Castle of S.Angel."

Gasparo's musical education took place during a period of growing refinement and professionalism among the musicians and violin players of Salò and Brescia, many of whom played in the Basilica of St. Marco in Venice, as among the musicians of many European courts from the early 1540s onward. His deep education in musical performance, undertaken by his noted musical family, is evidenced in a document found in Bergamo concerning music in San Maria Maggiore dated 1604, in which Gasparo is cited as a very talented violone player.

When his father died, around 1562, he moved to Brescia. It appears Gasparo immediately rented a house and set up shop in the neighborhood hub of musical life, the Contrada Antegnati, known for the presence of a famous dynasty of organ builders and other skilled multi-instrumentalists, all of whom were located in the Second Quadra St. John, in front of the Palazzo Vecchio del Podestà (now Via Cairoli). From his ability almost immediately to rent a house with a shop in this sought-after neighborhood, and considering the slight possibility of a substantial inheritance, given his conspicuously large number of brothers and sisters, we can surmise that Gasparo was enjoying some measure of success in the family's traditional string making trade. His business was successful enough to allow him to marry Isabetta Cassetti, the daughter of an artisan potter and glassmaker three years later. During this time Gasparo cultivated a relationship with Girolamo Virchi, one of the most prominent artist-craftsmen of the city, cited in a 1563 document as "maestro de musica instrumentis." And in 1565 Virchi became godfather to Gasparo's child Francesco, the first of six others, three sons named Marcantonio, two of whom died in infancy, and three daughters.

In addition, in that neighborhood there lived two very famous organists of Brescia Cathedral, Fiorenzo Mascara and his successor Costanzo Antegnati, and a noted violin player, Giuseppe Biagini. Like many other Brescian multi-instrumentalists, Mascara was also an excellent viola da gamba player. This direct knowledge of, and friendship with,Virchi and Antegnati's work opened up new artistic horizons resulting in improvements to the sound and design of strings and stringed instruments. An Appraisal of the Policy of 1568 (a tax return) testifies to a flourishing business, which continued to grow significantly. In 1575 he bought a house in the Cossere district, his historic headquarters, and subsequently manufactured many instruments. His workshop quickly became one of the most important in Europe in the second half of the 16th century for the production of every type of stringed instrument of the time. Gasparo developed the art of lutherie to a very high level, and passed on this tradition to five known students: his eldest son Francisco, the Frenchman Alexandro de Marsiliis (from Marseille, France), Giovanni Paolo Maggini from Botticino in the surroundings of Brescia, Jacomo de Lafranchini from Valle Camonica, and a luthier known only as Baptista. Exports reached Rome, Venice and France, as is clear from the Policy of 1588 and other documents; and he bought strings and precious woods for his art from Rome and Venice. The business allowed him to acquire extensive landholdings in the territory of Calvagese, with adjoining manor houses and farmhouses. Gasparo is known to have provided substantial assistance to his sister Ludovica, and acted as guardian to the three sons of his wife's brother, Rocco Cassetti, presumed dead, along with his own wife, in the plague of 1577.

He died April 14, 1609. The short but significant death act survives and reads: Messer Gasparo Bertolotti maestro di violini is dead & buried in Santo Joseffo. The exact location where his remains lie among the graves of the Brescian musical pantheon, in company with Antegnati Costanzo, Don Cesare Bolognini and Benedetto Marcello, is not known. One of his most famous double basses, with a rapidity of response similar to that of a violin (owned by the 18th - 19th century virtuoso Domenico Dragonetti) is preserved today in the Basilica of San Marco in Venice; a second, exceptionally rare bass, possibly the only surviving example of a classical violone contrabasso with a six hole peg box, was discovered by the Roman master luthier and restorer Luigi Ottaviani in the stores of the Museum of Musical Instruments in Rome, where it is now displayed.