Deconstructing the Andrea Amati ‘King’ cello

Figure 9: The head of the cello is remarkably well preserved

In an article from June 2015, Matthew Zeller examines five centuries of alterations made to the world’s oldest cello, housed at the National Music Museum in Vermillion, South Dakota, and asks what they reveal about the evolution and development of the standard cello form

Made in the mid-16th century, the ‘King’ cello by Andrea Amati is a prime example of an instrument that is not what it once was: it has been drastically reduced in size. Alteration stood at the forefront of musical instrument development during the last quarter of the 18th century and throughout the 19th. Changing the size of an instrument is just one of many types of alteration that are as important to the study of music and musical instruments as an appreciation of makers, composers, performers and performance practice. Understanding how an instrument was altered is the first step to understanding its place in the larger study of instrument evolution.

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