TS · YALE · U EN M
· INSTR CAL U SI U
of the Yale University Collection of Musical Instruments
Number 28
v Acquisitions
ION · OF · M CT LE
N EW S L ETT E R
ITY · C OL ERS IV N
Fall 2005
the Lute” and “Love Songs in Shakespeare’s Time.” Joseph Iadone died Two fine early 20th-century lutes by the distinguished Bavarian luthier on March 23 of this year at the age of 89. Hermann Hauser (1872-1952) were presented to the Collection last fall An important early 20th-century harpsichord that was given to the Colby the late Joseph Iadone. The two instruments were made in Munich lection in 1999 by Conservator Robert Robinette was delivered early this and date from 1919 and 1934, respectively. The bodies of both lutes are year to the museum. This two-manual instrument by John Challis has formed of nine maple ribs, and the tables are of quarter-sawn spruce. the distinction of being that maker’s “Opus 1.” Challis was the most Both also have seven courses of strings (six important American maker in the first half of double courses and a chanterelle). the last century. At 19 he went to England as Hermann Hauser’s name is legendary in the first recipient of a Dolmetsch Foundation the modern history of guitar and lute makScholarship to study with Arnold Dolmetsch ing. After the 19th-century Spanish master for four years. Returning to America in 1930, Antonio de Torres (1817-1892), Hauser is he set up shop in his native Michigan and beprobably the luthier most instrumental in gan producing clavichords, harpsichords and defining the characteristics of the modern later pianos, recognized for their stability and Spanish classical guitar. Both Andres Segoprecision mechanisms. Challis was of the via and Julian Bream played Hauser instruschool that chose to employ modern practices ments for many years. Hauser originally and materials in instruments that were in his met Segovia at a concert, at which Segovia view an improvement on the old methods of explained to him the ideal characteristics he building. Although his products were eclipsed was seeking in a guitar. He showed him an for a period when the vogue for “copies” of instrument by Santos Hernandez, which was old harpsichords was at its height, a younger, agreed upon as the starting point for Hausless doctrinaire generation of musicians is now er’s work. Several years later Hauser pretaking a second look at Challis’s instruments, sented Segovia with a guitar that delighed many of which have survived well over decades the maestro, who frequently referred to it as of use, while the more fragile and less well“the greatest guitar of our epoch”. made products of some of his competitors are Hauser was also forward-looking in his today unplayable and unredeemable. The Colinterest in the lute. Along with his elder lection’s other conservator, Frank Rutkowski, contemporary Arnold Dolmetsch, Hauser presented to the museum an archive of John was a pioneer in the 20th-century revival of Challis’s papers including correspondence, Two fine 20th-century lutes by Hermann Hauser were presented to the lute, and he built a number of fine lutes photographs, and clippings. the Collection last season by the late master lutenist Joseph Iadone, based on examples from the end of the 16th- Mus.B ‘46, Mus.M ‘53. An early 20th-century silver-plated cornet century when the instrument had assumed with three piston valves made by the imporis classic form with seven to nine courses of strings. Although today’s tant American firm of C. G. Conn of Elkhart, Indiana, was purchased players prefer instruments that are lighter in construction and more last season with the support of the Associates Fund. closely modeled after period instruments, Hauser’s lutes remain unsurv Concert Series passed in quality of workmanship and represent an admirable example of an original synthesis of modern practice and historical model. v Harpsichordist Bradley Brookshire will inaugurate the 37th annual It is especially fitting that these lutes should come to the Collection, series of concerts at the Collection on October 17 with a recital of music for the donor, Joseph Iadone, had many connections with Yale. He reby Bach and Handel. Hailed as a “rising star on the New York early ceived the bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the Yale School of Mumusic scene” by the New York Times, he has gathered similar plaudits for sic, where he studied under Paul Hindemith, a noted champion of the his appearances throughout Europe and the US. His recent tours have revival of music from earlier repertories. During these years he played taken him to such venues as the Liszt Academie in Budapest; the Barwith Yale’s Collegium Musicum, a group encouraged by Hindemith that bican Centre in London; the Festival des Cathédrales in Paris; Schloss performed music on historical instruments from the Yale Collection and Brühl in Cologne; Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall & Merkin Concert the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Hall, all in New York; and the Kennedy Center and the Folger Library in In the 1960s, Iadone helped to establish one of the country’s first Washington, to name only a few. His recordings have met with similar early-music workshops at Windham College in Vermont. Here for nearly approbation from critics. His recording of J. S. Bach’s Six French Suites twenty years he was mentor and master to an entire generation of lute received a Grammy award in 2001. players. In 1978 he took up a position at the University of Hartford’s Mr. Brookshire studied the harpsichord under Edward Parmentier, Hartt School of Music, where he taught until 1990. Andreas Staier, and Arthur Haas. He has taught at Mannes College, Mr. Iadone performed widely as a soloist and in ensemble with the and at the Escuela Nacíonal de Musica in Mexico City. A member of the New York Pro Musica, the Renaissance Quartet, and his own Iadone Purchase College Conservatory of Music faculty since 1998, Brookshire Consort. He also made several noted recordings, including “The Art of holds the position of Director of Graduate Studies.