Bibliograph

Lev's violin, a story of music, culture, and Italian adventure, Helena Attlee

Type

Label

Lev's violin, a story of music, culture, and Italian adventure, Helena Attlee

Language

eng

Illustrations

maps

Index

index present

Literary Form

non fiction

Main title

Lev's violin

Oclc number

1201300734

Responsibility statement

Helena Attlee

Sub title

a story of music, culture, and Italian adventure

Summary

From the moment she hears this violin for the first time, Helena Attlee is captivated. She is told that it is no ordinary violin. It's known as "Lev's Violin" and it is an Italian instrument, named after its former Russian owner. Eager to discover all she can about its ancestry and the stories contained within its delicate wooden body, she sets out for Cremona, birthplace of the Italian violin. This is the beginning of a beguiling journey whose end she could never have anticipated. Making its way from dusty workshops, through Alpine forests, cool Venetian churches, glittering Florentine courts, and far-flung Russian flea markets, Lev's Violin takes us from the heart of Italy to its very furthest reaches. Its story of luthiers and scientists, princes and orphans, musicians, composers, travellers and raconteurs swells to a poignant meditation on the power of objects, stories and music to shape individual lives and to craft entire cultures

Table Of Contents

Prelude -- First movement. Child of many fathers; Cremona and the modern violin -- Musical people; How violins became stars of the musical world -- Pilgrim in Cremona; The great violin-making dynasties -- Message from the mountains; The ancient trade in violin wood -- Second movement. Church music; A chapter in the life of Lev's violin -- Mood music; The lives of church violins and their musicians -- Political instruments; Violins at the Medici Court in Florence -- Cozio; The world's first violin collector and connoisseur -- Tarisio; The beginning of an international trade in Cremona violins -- Third movement. Old Italians; Violin dealing for a modern age -- Little Italys; The diaspora of Italians and their violins -- Musica popolare; Roma fiddles and Italian folk music -- Fourth movement. Twice looted; The fate of old Italians during the second world war -- Full circle; Revival in Cremona -- Violin A & E; The difference between copies and fakes -- Smuggled; Lev's violin in the USSR -- All about rings; A dendrochronology test and its result -- Coda

Target audience

adult

Classification