• SYMPHONIA CAELESTIS

    SYMPHONIA CAELESTIS

    A study about philological reconstruction of medieval instruments from sculptures, paintings, manuscripts.
  • CHARTRES PSALTERY

    CHARTRES PSALTERY

    A study about philological reconstruction of medieval instruments from sculptures, paintings, manuscripts.
  • ORGANISTRUM

    ORGANISTRUM

    A study about philological reconstruction of medieval instruments from sculptures, paintings, manuscripts.
  • CITOLA

    CITOLA

    A study about philological reconstruction of medieval instruments from sculptures, paintings, manuscripts.

Giuseppe Severini.

Graduated in 1981 at Universitas Studiorum Mediolanensis, in Medieval History, then joined  Conservatory Pollini, Padua and moved his first steps in Lutherie following some well known luthiers as Carlo Raspagni, Vincenzo de Bonis and others. He dedicated several studies to baroque mandolin with special attention to its involvement in Opera buffa and Commedia dell’Arte, then to reconstruction of stringed instruments of the Middle Ages, Viellas and Symphonias mainly. Some articles published in reviews, exhibitions of Lutherie in Italy and France, concerts (playing Oud, Hurdy Gurdy, Psaltery and vocals) and teaching in his Casa della Musica e della Liuteria in Randazzo, Sicily, a Medieval house in which everybody can see his workshop and the permanent exhibition of over 60 reconstructions of music instruments from Prehistory to the Middle Ages. In one hour lesson he explains origins and features of many instruments, playing all of them to the public (max.50 listeners).

 Back to front Medieval Lutherie   https://youtu.be/S35WneRycw4

 

Instruments

  • CHARTRES PSALTERY

    CHARTRES PSALTERY

    CHARTRES PSALTERY. Two halves, top/sides and back, carved separately then glued. Ten double steel strings, brass tuning pegs. Bass string cm.44. From Chartres cathedral, Portail royal, XII century.
  • CITOLA

    CITOLA

    CITOLA , sound box and neck carved from one piece of Cypres . Sound board, Spruce. Vibrating string length cm.42, four metal strings (brass and steel), movable wooden frets. From Oxford MS (All Souls Coll).

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  • Organistrum

    Organistrum

    ORGANISTRUM . Sound box carved from one piece of Red Willow, sound board, Spruce. Eleven keys, allowing to play two octaves full chromatic scale along the three gut strings. Two lines polyphonic playing with drone.

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  • Psaltery

    Psaltery

    PSALTERY. Two halves, top/sides and back, carved separately then glued. Fifteen double steel strings, brass tuning pegs. Bass string cm.44, higher string cm 10.5. From Chartres cathedral, southern gate, XIII century.

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  • Rebab

    Rebab

    REBAB, sound box and neck carved from one piece of wood or molded in clay. Sound board half wood, half parchment. Vibrating string length cm.34, two gut strings; cm. 48. From paintings in Cappella Palatina, Palermo, 1150c.

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  • SYMPHONIA

    SYMPHONIA

    SYMPHONIA. Carved or build in several pieces. Eleven keys, diatonic scale, three gut strings, vibrating string length cm.36. From Cantigas de santa Maria.

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  • Rebec

    Rebec

    REBEC, XV century (Beato Angelico, Tabernacolo de’Linaioli.) Not hyperphilological. This instrument, body entirely carved in Maple, curved sound board in Spruce, three gut strings, no soundpole, is the direct ancestor of the Violin and the closest to it, in measures and way of playing.

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  • Viella

    Viella

    VIELLA , from sculpture in Nicosia Cathedral (Enna), XIV century. Head, neck and sound board carved in one piece of Fir, flat back in Cypress. Double melody strings, two other single strings on fret board, one drone string out of the fingerboard. Slightly curved bridge.

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  • Italian Cetra

    Italian Cetra

    ITALIAN CETRA, from B. Antelami’s sculpture in Parma baptistery, XII century. I previously made many of these instruments with the standard technique: body/neck carved in one piece and sound board added. Now I carve the block upside-down, adding a flat bac.

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  • Psalterium Decachordum

    Psalterium Decachordum

    PSALTERIUM DECACHORDUM , from Chartres Cathedral, XII century. Upper part carved in one piece of Poplar, Beech carved back. Iron tuning pegs. Gut strings or English iron. Tuning: c’ d’ e’ f’ g’ a’ b’ c’’ d’’ e’’. Bass string cm 35.

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