Enrico Rocca (b.

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The ...

, 21 April 1847 – Genova, 9 June 1915) was an Italian

violin The violin, sometimes known as a '' fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone ( string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument ( soprano) in the family in regu ...

maker of the 19th and the 20th Centuries and son of

Giuseppe Rocca Giuseppe Rocca (27 April 1807 – 27 January 1865) was an Italian violin maker of the 19th century. Rocca's preferred models were the 1742 Alard Guarneri and the 1716 Messiah Strad. His instruments are appreciated today and are considered be ...

. Although he worked differently from his father

, Enrico's work takes more inspiration from Eugenio Praga.

Biography

Enrico Rocca was son of Giuseppe, who is considered probably the most important maker of the 19th century; Enrico had a very hard life and he wasn't trained all the way by his father. The loss of his father at the age of 19 forced him to run away from his family. He ended up working as a boatman, a sailor, a ship carpenter (for many years) and a woodworker. He opened his workshop in 1878. After twenty years passed on the docks of the port of Genova, he began violin making building mainly six strings lombard mandolins and guitars; he started making violins only after 1890. By the turn of the century and after Praga's death (1901), Enrico Rocca became the pre-eminent violin maker in Genoa. His work is always dominated by a great spontaneity and reveals a strong personality. He was consistent in his production as well as style till his death. His preferred models were

Guarneri The Guarneri (, , ), often referred to in the Latinized form Guarnerius, is the family name of a group of distinguished luthiers from Cremona in Italy in the 17th and 18th centuries, whose standing is considered comparable to those of the Amati an ...

Stradivari Antonio Stradivari (, also , ; – 18 December 1737) was an Italian luthier and a craftsman of string instruments such as violins, cellos, guitars, violas and harps. The Latinized form of his surname, '' Stradivarius'', as well as the collo ...

and

Amati Amati (, ) is the last name of a family of Italian violin makers who lived at Cremona from about 1538 to 1740. Their importance is considered equal to those of the Bergonzi, Guarneri, and Stradivari families. Today, violins created by Nicolò ...

. Enrico Rocca's instruments are much appreciated today.

Quotes

"There’s no evidence of pupils, but it seems highly likely that Eugenio Praga had occasionally relied on the collaboration of Enrico Rocca, since there are many similarities in their technique and in the models used. " - Alberto Giordano

References

*
::: Alberto Giordano&C. - Fine violins, violas and cellos in Genoa :::
at www.giordanoviolins.com * La Liuteria Italiana / Italian Violin Making in the 1800s and 1900s - Umberto Azzolina * I Maestri Del Novicento - Carlo Vettori * La Liuteria Lombarda del '900 - Roberto Codazzi, Cinzia Manfredini 2002 * Dictionary of 20th Century Italian Violin Makers - Marlin Brinser 1978 * * * Walter Hamma, ''Meister Italienischer Geigenbaukunst'', Wilhelmshaven 1993,

External links

::: Alberto Giordano&C. - Fine violins, violas and cellos in Genoa :::
at www.giordanoviolins.com 1847 births 1915 deaths Italian luthiers Businesspeople from Genoa 19th-century Italian musicians {{Italy-musician-stub