An instrument that brings with it the highest ideals of democracy, revealing the deep bond that binds the Tuscan culture to the American one. This is a very special gift, commissioned by some supporters of the American democratic soul, who, knowing the President's profound interest in stringed instruments, well thought of entrusting its creation to the genius of Jamie Lazzara, Florentine luthier of American origin.
Jamie Lazzara has been a master luthier and restorer of bowed, stringed and plucked instruments since 1985. From her six square meter workshop in via dei Leoni, 4/r in the center of Florence, awarded the prestigious prize for the excellence of her work by the Society of St. John the Baptist, come the instruments built for the most important classical and rock musicians in the world. Examples, among which we remember the "waterspout" for Luca Di Volo and the reconstruction of a Lyra arm, based on a drawing by Leonardo da Vinci. Last but not least Ithzak Perlman, who exhibited his Stradivarius “Lazzara” (1993) traced on the original of 1714, on the occasion of Barack Obama's inauguration concert at the White House.
Therefore, left to the fine craftsmanship of Lazzara, the interpretation of the most suitable tool for Obama, the result wasundoubtedly a work of art. The violin, built on the Stradivari model, is built entirely by hand with wood precious spruce, using the construction techniques of the '700, which provided for starting from the heart of the instrument, from its soundboard, studying the interlocking positioning of the soul, according to a complex scheme of geometric relationships. The instrument is made unique by a particular brown colour, given by an alchemical root extract. The paint is natural, based on linseed oil and fused amber, a quality that determines its incomparable sound.
However, it is surprising how alongside such excellence in workmanship, Jamie Lazzara wanted to "embed" a particular note on both sides of the violin, which echoes the eighteenth-century revolutionary atmosphere, a period in which artistic fictions often concealed secret messages of a political nature. In fact, on the harmonious and slender body of the violin, an inscription, decorated with molten gold leaves, stands out: “All men are created equal”!
It was the year 1776, when the Declaration of Independence of the United States of America was ratified in Philadelphia. It was Thomas Jefferson who wanted to insert this same sentence, which defines the principle of equality, the basis of the current constitutions and since then a founding pillar, valid for every modern society. On the opposite side of the violin is a variant of the same: "All men are equally free by nature and independent". It was not Thomas Jefferson who authored this sentence, but Philip Mazzei, a doctor from Poggio a Caiano (FI), an expert in commercial traffic with the New World, a faithful friend of Thomas and, it is suspected, the inspirer of revolutionary movements, as a disseminator of libertarian ideals throughout Europe, following the success of the American Revolution.
The historical reliability of the sibylline phrase "of the Italian" was also recognized by JF Kennedy in his book "A Nation of Immigrants" and today it returns in all its power, rendered through the metaphor of the "Lazzara" violin, bearing witness to the weight that Italian culture had in the second half of the 700th century in the creation of the founding values of today's Western societies. The violin in turn is an instrument with a complex history, not only an interpreter of the highest classical scores, but also an inspiring object of the notes of a music rooted in popular culture, such as the "folk" genre, plumbed by studies, aimed at understanding the 'evolution linguistics and culture of a country, as demonstrated by the research of Caterina Bueno, a friend of Jamie Lazzara. The touch of the Master Luthier, Jamie Lazzara, through the homage to the former professor of Constitutional Law at the University of Chicago and current President of the United States, thus manages to draw the geographical boundaries of a story that has protagonists, today as three centuries ago, Italy and the United States, clearly emphasizing how the great cultural changes often start from the bottom up, to then be translated into those values that determine the choices of social coexistence that lead to the development of nations.
Values, those same values whose meaning has been so lost today, in a moment of "crisis of democratic forms of government", that we need to go back to understanding their historical evolutions, to acquire awareness of their real significance again .
Journalistic text by Ilaria D'Adamio.
Complete photo shoot by Andrea Ruggeri & Gerardo Gazia of Nonamephoto.
