Amati 5 String Cello

July 11, 2023, 11:33 AM · A bit off the core of this board, but I see that the Met Museum has bought the H Amati cello with 5 strings. Has anyone seen such a model copied recently, or otherwise heard gossip about this one? Supposedly Amaryllis Fleming used it to record the 6th Suite of Bach, as originally intended.

Replies (8)

LUIS CLAUDIO MANFIO

July 12, 2023, 1:38 PM · I think that if you want a 5 string cello, you will have to commission it.

Paul Deck

July 12, 2023, 3:38 PM · Or marry someone with deeper pockets than the Metropolitan Museum.

Stephen Symchych

July 12, 2023, 4:21 PM · Yes, I could always buy the Museum from its trustees. Just wondering if any of the period instrument gang had instigated a copy or two.

LUIS CLAUDIO MANFIO

July 13, 2023, 7:20 PM · There is a Strad Poster of this cello, a good maker can make one with these plans. https://www.thestradshop.com/store/thestrad/brothers-amati-cello-c-1600-poster/

Paul Carlson

July 13, 2023, 8:24 PM · G Amati cello, really pretty!

Stan Yates

Edited: July 13, 2023, 9:48 PM · A really good Baroque cellist I heard at Heifetz had someone do a very ingenious mod to a 3/4 size Jay Haide by placing some sort of overlay on the neck to allow a wider fingerboard. Couldn't have been nearly as expensive as a commission from scratch. I'll see if I can dig up a video.

p.s. Sixth suite I hear is way easier on a 5 string cello than a normal cello.

Andrew Victor

Edited: July 14, 2023, 7:50 AM · In the final section of her book "The Well Tempered Cello," Miranda Wilson discusses acquiring and learning to play a 5-string cello. Wilson is now a professor of cello at the University of Idaho following a professional performing career. She managed to get her university to fund the purchase of a carbon-fiber 5-string instrument tailored to the requirements for her use in in the final movement of a a concert of all 6 of the Bach Cello Suites. She had previously played the 6th Suite on her standard 4-string cello.

I have played cello for over 70 years (as well as violin and viola) and I had a 5-string viola for a while and there are real problems getting used to a "middle" string after spending your life familiar with "outer and inner left and right" strings.

By the way, Wilson's book is a wonderful read for musicology, and autobiography.

Mark Breiger

July 14, 2023, 12:12 PM · There are workshop made 5 string cellos after Amati. So you do not need to commission one to get one.

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