Giuseppe Raspanti’s Lute Workshop

They open the door for me; I am ready to know more about a noble artisan’s craft.  The room resounds with notes; he makes bows, she makes them vibrate. 
Giuseppe Raspanti was born in Firenzuola in April 1948, with an innate passion for wood and woodworking.  He learned various manual techniques of joinery and cabinet-making, until fate led him to meeting his wife Miriam Sadun, a concert violinist and teacher at Florence’s Conservatorio Luigi Cherubini.  From that meeting grew a passion for lute-making, and so for an even more specific artistic niche: bow-making:  “it was my wife, a violinist, who convinced me.  I went to a lute-maker but it wasn’t a productive relationship.  Then I had the idea of making bows and succeeded in contacting the master bow-maker Gavioli in Bologna.  I went to his house where he offered to teach me the craft.  First, he explained to me how to build the necessary tools and then how to use them”.  Begun in 1985, the relationship had a fruitful development; after an early period when he studied French bow-making, Raspanti began to build Baroque, classical and modern bows.  He then was lucky enough to have Master Lucchi’s advice. 

You learned the craft in a private workshop but are there schools that teach this particular branch of lute-making?

Yes, there is an excellent lute-making school in Cremona but there is a big difference between theory and practice, just learning how to plane requires a lot of time and patience. 
The Cremona school lasts two years; you then become either a lute-maker or a bow-maker but you are still a novice when you leave school.  They teach you the basics, and then each one must find the refinements alone.  No one discloses trade secrets and an apprenticeship with a master craftsman becomes necessary.  I believe that you have to find out certain things on your own. 

Perhaps, only a few really know this craft but everyone can understand the importance of a good bow. 

In fact, few know that the bow produces a good part of the sound:  when the horsehair is drawn across the strings of a violin, viola, cello or double bass, the bow begins to vibrate.  The instrument creates a sound with the strings and the sound-box.  The bow, with the horsehair and its elasticity, creates the other half of the sound.  A good instrument with a bad bow produces a worse sound and vice versa, so they are complementary units. 

Has the bow always had this importance?

No, on the contrary, up to a certain time in history the bow was considered an accessory and not a real instrument; they weren’t careful with the details.  They weren’t even bended.  They were thick sticks that were curved in the opposite direction. 
Then there were the Baroque bows that are still used to play Baroque music. 
Afterwards there was a transition period between the Baroque bow and the modern one, a period in which a higher, less elongated point began to be seen, with bands and decorations on the back part.  Bows were anonymous until the 19th century, when François Xavier Tourte, who became famous for having made the first modern bow, and others began to create the bases of the modern bow and to work independently and sell directly to musicians.  Bow-making became a true craft in Paris, and the bow created there became famous throughout the world.  (In Italy we can boast of an illustrious center like Cremona). At the time, musicians like Tartini and Viotti traveled around Europe playing and teaching, coming in contact with local bow- and lute-makers.  Perhaps they owned a Stradivarius, a Guarneri del Gesù or an Amati, so they looked for bows that would improve the sound even more.  Thanks to this collaboration between great musicians with high-quality instruments and master craftsmen, bows as valuable as the violins were produced. 

Is there a good market for this type of craft?

Yes, also because bows made by artisans are usually bought by top-level musicians, the high value is revealed in the painstaking choice of materials and the craftsman’s precision in building them. 
I generally sell directly to musicians who learn of my existence from colleagues or because they see a bow with my name on it being used by someone. 
The bow is made from wood and so far technology has not been able to reproduce the sound made with this material; in reality, it is very probable that they will never succeed. 
When he comes to me, the musician tests more than one bow and tries to understand which one best meets his needs, also because no two bows are the same.  Each stick has a different response, even if I have worked with all of them in the same way, they are never identical.  There is always an imperceptible difference. 
My exclusive model is the fish head bow.  I consider it my visiting card. 

info:
Archi Raspanti
Via Capodimondo, 33
50136 Florence
Tel and fax 055.662335
cell. 347.8327033
archiraspanti@yahoo.it