(b Salò, bap. 20 May 1540; d Brescia, 14 April 1609). Italian maker of violins, violas and other bowed instruments. He came from a musical family that had a tradition of instrument making: his father and uncle were known as i violini. After his father's death, Gasparo moved permanently from Salò to nearby Brescia, a centre of bowed string and keyboard instrument making. He married Isabetta Casetti in 1564. It has been suggested that he served an apprenticeship with Girolamo di Virchi, but it is more likely that he learned his craft in his family workshop in Salò. By 1563 he was living in the via Palazzo Vecchio del Podestà, quite far from Virchi's residence. The two were friends, however, and Virchi stood as godfather to Gasparo's son, Francesco, in 1565. Gasparo settled in Contrada delle Cossere in 1575. His activities are recorded in a number of city documents from the period 1563–1609, where he is described variously as maestro di violini, magister instrumentorum musicorum and maestro di strumenti musici. At least three makers are known to have studied with him, in addition to his son: Alessandro di Marsiglia, G.P. Maggini and Giacomo Lafranchini, and he employed a workman named Battista.
While the 19th-century suggestion that Gasparo invented the violin is unconfirmed, it is equally difficult to find documentary evidence that the Cremonese master Andrea Amati was the inventor. The existence of a school of bowed string instrsument making in Brescia is continously documented from 1495–9, when a set of viols was made by an anonymous maker for Isabella d'Este Gonzaga. Gasparo is the brilliant successor of the style originated by Zanetto da Montichiaro, with whose son, Peregrino, he was probably acquainted.
Most of Gasparo's output, judging from existing instruments, took the form of tenor violas (see Viola, fig.1a). He also made viols of all sizes (including a bass viol held in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford), several violins, supposedly at least one cello, at least one cittern and several double basses. His reputation for crude workmanship is largely a result of the many nondescript 16th- and 17th-century instruments that have been erroneously attributed to him: in fact his designs were always meticulous and his craftsmanship of high quality. Among his characteristics are rather elongated soundholes (foreshadowing Guarneri), noticeable undercutting in the carving of his scrolls, and sometimes two rows of purfling or an inlaid decoration. His violas, many now considerably reduced from their original size, are regarded by many players as tonally better than any other. They have a full and reedy tone quality, combined with a stronger response than many Cremonese instruments. The double basses have always been eagerly sought after, their most famous champion being Domenico Dragonetti, whose three-string Gasparo bass is now in S Marco, Venice (for a portrait of Dragonetti playing this instrument see Dragonetti, Domenico). It is thought that Gasparo played a major role in the development of the 16' voice of the viol and violin families, and that he was influenced in this by the 12' and 16' registers already being included in organs built by the neighbouring Antegnati family. When Gasparo da Salò died his leading position as a maker in Brescia was taken over by his pupil Gio Paolo Maggini, and his trade was also continued by his son Francesco until at least 1615.
G. Livi: I liutai bresciani (Milan, 1896)
A.M. Mucchi: Gasparo da Salò: la vita e l'opera, 1540–1609 (Milan, 1940)
F. Dassenno and U. Ravasio: Gasparo da Salò e la liuteria bresciana tra Rinascimento e Barocco (Brescia, 1990)
U. Ravasio: ‘Vecchio e nuovo nella ricerca documentaria su Gasparo da Salò e la liuteria bresciana’, Liuteria e musica strumentale a Brescia tra Cinque e Seicento: Brescia 1990
CHARLES BEARE/UGO RAVASIO