Città:
Milano
Year:
1909
Liutaio:
Leandro Bisiach
From “
Il Museo della Musica” by Artemio Versari
This instrument which was highly appreciated in its time by musicians and music amateurs, is simply a normal viola usually with 6 or 7 strings but equipped with the same number of resonance strings.
Stretched at a medium distance from the strings of the small bow and the belly, the resonance strings vibration when relative vibrations produced by the other strings sollicited them. This produced a greater resonance and a remarkable softness of sound.
The viola d’amore appeared in the late 17th century and was very popular until at least the late eighteenth century. The principle of sympathetic strings was used on various-sized violas, and violas da gamba.
This created an authentic family, to whose members special names were given, like in the case of the viola d’amore da gamba, called viola pomposa. The origin of the term d’amore is uncertain. A possible derivation has been given by the cupid head carved at the tip of the peg box. Others have suggested, refering to the incorrect Eastern origin of the resonance strings, that viola d’amore might be a deformation of viola de’mori (of the Moors).
From “
Il Museo della Musica” by Artemio Versari
Leandro Bisiach was undoubtedly one of the most creative and genial makers of his time.
Gifted with great charm and personality, he briefly apprenticed in the workshop of Antoniazzi before opening the firm that bore his name.
The firm acquired fame at both national and international levels for the production and trade of all sorts of instruments.
His son Andra, Carlo, Giacomo and Leandrino collaborated in the buisiness, as did several other makers from Lombardy and other regions.
From “
La grande Liuteria Italiana” by Artemio Versari
As was previously mentioned, the Antoniazzis had close ties with the Bisiachs, a family that made Milan one of the most important violin making centres in modern history.
Born in Casale Monferrato in 1864, Leandro Biasiach studied to be a violinist before going into violin making. After meeting the Antoniazzis, he decided to move to Milan around 1886. The relationship that held them together at that time was very inportant: Bisiach's natural ability as a businessman coupled with the violin making experience of Gaetano Antoniazzi and his sons produced a very successful partnership.
The Bisiach workshop soon became famous and sought out by the most important musicians. In that period the workshop relocated within Milan on several occasions. In 1916 Count Chigi Saraceni called Bisiach to Siena to set up a musical instrument museum and an adjoining violin making workshop. Leandro briefly returned to Milan, before returning to Siena for another couple of years.
He moved back to Milan for good in 1922. He re-opened the workshop though it changed location often until the beginning of the 1930s , at which time he left the business to his children.
He retired to Venegono, a village near Varese, where he continued to deal and restore instruments until his death in 1945.
His workshop was one of the most important in Italy and played a crucial role in the future of Italian violin making in that it served as training ground for a large number of excellent craftsmen. In addition to the Antoniazzis, he relied on the assistance of Gaetano Sgarabotto, Giuseppe Ornati, Ferdinando Garimberti, Igino Sderci and many others. His workshop was quite furnished and provided new, copied and antique instruments in addition to offering services of restoration and maintence.
He had business relationships with the most important Italian and foreign dealers.
He won prizes in many exhibitions including London 1895, Atlanta 1895-96, Paris 1900, Milan 1906, and Brussels 1910. His early instruments reaveal the influence of the Antoniazzis. Even though he always supervised the finishing work in the later instruments, they are more difficult to identify given the great number of luthiers who help him. He principally used models of Stradivary, Guarneri, Balestrieri, Gagliano and Ceruti.