Giovanni Grancino (1637–1709), son of Andrea Grancino, was one of the early Milanese

luthiers A luthier ( ; AmE also ) is a craftsperson who builds or repairs string instruments that have a neck and a sound box. The word "luthier" is originally French and comes from the French word for lute. The term was originally used for makers of ...

, and may have worked with his brother, Francesco. Giovanni was the most prominent member of the family of luthiers . Other members included Andrea Grancino, Francesco Grancino, Gianbattista Grancino (or Giovanni Battista Grancino) and Paolo Grancino. Their instruments were played by

Yehudi Menuhin Yehudi or Jehudi (Hebrew: יהודי, endonym for Jew) is a common Hebrew name: * Yehudi Menuhin (1916–1999), violinist and conductor ** Yehudi Menuhin School, a music school in Surrey, England ** Who's Yehoodi?, a catchphrase referring to t ...

(violin),

Siegfried Palm Siegfried Palm (25 April 1927 – 6 June 2005) was a German cellist who is known worldwide for his interpretations of contemporary music. Many 20th-century composers like Kagel, Ligeti, Xenakis, Penderecki and Zimmermann wrote music for ...

(cello) and

Adrian Beers Adrian Simon Beers MBE (6 January 1916 – 8 April 2004) was a British double bass player and teacher at the Royal College of Music and the Royal Northern College of Music. He was a principal player in the Philharmonia Orchestra and the Eng ...

(double bass), among others. Grancino's workshops were all located on ''Contrada Larga'', now ''Via Larga'' in Milan. His instruments bear the characteristic ''segno della corona'' (mark of the crown). Although the luthiers of

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

created instruments of varying quality, Grancino's

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 ...

viola ; german: Bratsche , alt=Viola shown from the front and the side , image=Bratsche.jpg , caption= , background=string , hornbostel_sachs=321.322-71 , hornbostel_sachs_desc=Composite chordophone sounded by a bow , range= , related= *Violin family ...

cello The cello ( ; plural ''celli'' or ''cellos'') or violoncello ( ; ) is a bowed (sometimes plucked and occasionally hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually tuned in perfect fifths: from low to high, C2, G ...

s and

double bass The double bass (), also known simply as the bass () (or by other names), is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed (or plucked) string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra (excluding unorthodox additions such as the octobass). Similar i ...

es are considered superior. Grancino used a varnish which was a finely textured clear yellow to pale brown color. Grancino's early instrument patterns and designs were influenced by

Niccolò Amati Nicola Amati, Nicolò Amati or Nicolao Amati (, ; 3 September 1596 – 12 April 1684) was an Italian master luthier from Cremona, Italy. Amati is one of the most well-known luthiers from the Casa Amati (House of Amati). He was the teacher of ...

of Cremona, whose impressive works influenced many Italian luthiers of the period. However, Grancino's later productions show flatter arching and narrower form under the influence of

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 ...

. Grancino's cellos tend to be larger than others, yet with a clear sound characteristic of the Italian luthiers. The Grancino manufactory was continued by members of the Testore family. The eldest of them,

Carlo Giuseppe Testore Carlo Giuseppe Testore (c. 1665–1738) was an Italian luthier, who worked in his later life in Milan. Biography Testore was born in Novara. A student of Giovanni Grancino, he went to Milan in 1687 and set up his workshop at the Sign of the Eag ...

, built a violin for Grancino which is now housed in the

National Music Museum The National Music Museum: America's Shrine to Music & Center for Study of the History of Musical Instruments (NMM) is a musical instrument museum in Vermillion, South Dakota, United States. It was founded in 1973 on the campus of the Universit ...

on the campus of the

University of South Dakota The University of South Dakota (USD) is a public research university in Vermillion, South Dakota. Established by the Dakota Territory legislature in 1862, 27 years before the establishment of the state of South Dakota, USD is the flagship uni ...

. Among Grancino's students was the Milanese luthier Giovanni Vasallo.von Lütgendorff, II, p.532. Grancino's violins play an interesting role in fiction. Canadian author, Emily-Jane Hills Orford's (born Toronto, 1957) novel, "Spring" (PublishAmerica 2005), features a Grancino violin with a mystery to unravel. American Harold Decker's self-published novel, "I, Giulia: The View Through F-Holes," recounts the life of his treasured Grancino violin. Canadian children's performer, Peggy Hills, (born Toronto 1950) also featured a Grancino violin in her children's recording, "Peggy's Violin", which was nominated for a Juno in 2007.

References

* Kulik, A. 'Reise ins Jahr 1710. Ein Grancino-Cello gibt sein Geheimnis preis', ''Toshiba Visions'', German Edition Nr.5, 2001, p. 48-51. * * *

Walter Hamma Walter Hamma (22 September 1916 – 11 August 1988) was a German violin maker. His father, Fridolin Hamma, was an influential violin maker. Walter Hamma was pupil of the violin making school in Mittenwald 1933-1935. He worked with Ferdinand Ja ...

, ''Meister Italienischer Geigenbaukunst'', Wilhelmshaven 1993, *Willibald Leo Freiherr von Lütgendorff, ''Die Geigen und Lautenmacher von Mittelalter bis zur Gegenwart'' (2 vols) (Frankfurt 1922).

External links

Examples of Grancino violin labels, Lütgendorff II pp.616 Fig 288 and 617 Fig 299.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Grancino, Giovanni 1637 births 1709 deaths Italian luthiers Businesspeople from Milan