Short visit at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford
Pics of the 3 big violas in the Ashmolean collection
Even if not strictly Violoncello da Spalla related, we thought readers of this newsletter might appreciate some pics of the beautiful big violas in the Ashmolean Museum collection. We went there last month, and we have news: after Brexit, the museum shop stopped shipping abroad, so it was impossible to get technical drawings ordering from outside of the UK. Now they offer this service again! It’s not yet on the website, so you may need to write an email and ask directly, but they can now ship worldwide.
News from da Spalla world
Have a look at this beautiful iconography that recently came up on Facebook:
It’s wonderful, is it? “Supported with a strap attached to a button of the mantle”, like in Walther’s or “a strap attached to the chest” like Mattheson’s treatises!
Updates from our workshop
This past week Daniela started to move things from our apartment to our new workshop, which is just a few steps away. Alessandro is experimenting with different bridge designs.
Featured video of the week
This interview with cellist Hidemi Suzuki is dense with ideas and suggestions:
Were these tenors played da braccia?