Guido Pascoli

Son of Immigrants

Guido’s parents arrived in Brazil around 1895 and were taken in by the Hospedaria de Imigrantes in São Paulo, which had been providing temporary shelter to immigrants since 1887. Pietro Pascoli became a bricklayer in São Paulo, met his wife, and together they moved to the village of Itobi. There, their five children were born: Benvenuto (1902), Americo, Guido (1905), Valdomiro, and Rosa. The Pascoli brothers spent part of their childhood in Itobi. The family moved to Poços de Caldas, where they were first introduced to violin making by the cellist and clarinetist Guido Rocchi.

Guido Rocchi played a major role in the lives of Guido and his brother. He played an important role in the Brazilian music scene. Rocchi had come to Brazil with an Italian opera company and stayed there. In São Paulo, he taught at the conservatory and had taught himself how to build string instruments.

In 1915, Guido’s oldest brother, Benvenuto, began repairing instruments for him. Guido followed in his brother’s footsteps, and both took lessons from Rocchi; Benvenuto played the clarinet, and Guido took violin lessons. Both brothers repaired instruments for the major casino and theater orchestras in Poços de Caldas. Given the number of Italian musicians who had moved to the region, these instruments were likely predominantly of Italian or French origin.

Furniture maker and violin maker in São Paulo

Under Rocchi’s guidance, Guido and his brother’s skills improved. In an interview, Guido cites 1922 as the first year he built a violin on his own. Benvenuto moved to São Paulo sometime in the early 1920s. Once again, Guido—who was 17 at the time—followed him shortly thereafter. During the day, he worked as a furniture maker, and in the evenings, as a violin maker. In 1922, the brothers opened their own shop, the “Casa di Musica e Liuteria Cremona.” In 1927, Benvenuto became the owner of another musical instrument shop. Salvatore Vitale was also registered at the same address. The brothers presumably worked for this luthier at first and later took over the business from him.

São Paulo had a thriving music scene with many theaters, movie theaters, and concert halls. The São José Theater hosted performances by traveling musical troupes that visited the city. But even before that, São Paulo had been on the tour itinerary of major Italian troupes. The theaters hosted a vast number of performances. The audience attending these performances was a new cosmopolitan class consisting largely of Italians.

Consequently, there was a high demand for musical instruments. In São Paulo, both the trade in and the production of stringed instruments were primarily the work of Italian immigrants. Their small businesses provided employment for other Italian immigrants. Fritelli, an Italian contemporary, was resourceful and successful, and as a result, he quickly became a role model for younger violin makers such as the Pascoli brothers.

Rio de Janeiro and his first business

After a year, Benvenuto moved to Rio de Janeiro. In the 1920s and ’30s, that city was considered a hub of musical vitality. There, Benvenuto began a collaboration with Amos Bartolini, an Italian musician who taught at Rio’s opera house (Theatro Municipal). Together, they became the owners of “Casa Santa Cecilia.” Guido had since married and also moved to Rio in 1928. At first, he worked briefly with his brother; later, he became an independent violin maker. Throughout the 1930s, Guido built string instruments of outstanding quality commissioned by professional musicians.

The rift between Guido and Benvenuto

In 1937, a rift developed between Guido and Benvenuto that drove them further apart as they grew older. Benvenuto was a strong advocate of Italian nationalism and, in honor of the Italian fascist leader Benito Mussolini, built a violin he named “Il Duce” and sent it to the Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome. He also produced many forgeries. Guido, on the other hand, devoted himself entirely to Brazilian violin making and founded a violin-making school.

Nationalism; Old and New Brazilian Influences

Nothing is known about him between 1940 and 1948. He built one more violin in 1948, but after that, until 1954, he built virtually no instruments at all. However, in 1955 he returned to São Paulo and began his most productive and creative period as a violin maker.

"Brasiliano" viola model, Music Instrument Fund collection

That creativity found expression in new designs for string instruments. Brazil was experiencing tremendous social and cultural growth at that time. A wave of national consciousness emerged, which found expression in a unique musical style and design language, often rooted in Brazilian tradition. During those years, Guido designed two models that embodied this spirit: the Marajoara violin and the Brasiliano. The former was based on motifs discovered during excavations of early Brazilian tribes, which were wildly popular among artists; Guido based the Brasiliano on the lines of the revolutionary new city of Brasília. Designs for these instruments were already circulating as early as the late 1950s. In an article he wrote in 1963, he explained what motivated him to let his model be influenced by urban design.

Neither model was particularly popular among musicians, yet he turned the Brasiliano into a quartet, inlaid with symbols of Rio in mother-of-pearl, “to honor the city of Rio de Janeiro,” as he explained.

Convinced of the quality of his new Brasiliano model, he entered the International Violin Making Competition in Liège in 1958 and 1960, but without any notable success.

The violin-making schools

In 1955, Guido started a school for violin making in Rio. Luiz Bellini was his first student. After Bellini completed his training, he continued to work with Guido until 1960. Fully trained in Guido’s methods, Bellini went to Rembert Wurlitzer in New York in 1960, where the workshop was led by the legendary Simone Fernando Sacconi. Bellini’s craftsmanship made such an impression on Sacconi that he would remain there for the rest of his life.

In 1962, Guido became a board member of Funarte, a financial fund of the Ministry of Culture. Because of his work for this foundation, he had to return to Rio, but he was in a better financial position and had a steady job.

He hoped to carry out his plans to further develop violin making in Brazil in Brasília. The school began as a department of the “Universidade de Brasília” (UNB), but due to a lack of support—and likely also because of the situation that arose after the military coup in 1964—he was unable to get his school off the ground. In 1970, he returned to Rio de Janeiro, where he was eventually able to successfully establish his school.

For nearly ten years, he led his school with great dedication and ingenuity. This was not without its challenges; he was unable to obtain the necessary wood, and financially, he was entirely dependent on the financial support of two foundations. Working together on a single instrument was one of the two pillars on which the teaching philosophy was based; the other was building instruments independently.

Guido fell ill in the early 1980s and lost his sight, but continued to teach with the support of his students and friends. Without Guido’s enthusiasm, the school was forced to close shortly after his death in 1987.

Instruments and Bows

Guido built only a small number of instruments. They were crafted with skill and precision, which led to high demand for them within the country itself. Outside Brazil, his work is virtually unknown. He later added a Brazilian touch to the Italian tradition, which was not appreciated by everyone. Guido, as well as his brother, experimented extensively. Guido bent the thin layer of wood on the top and back under pressure and intense heat before shaping it. This kept the curvature minimal. Benvenuto experimented with a movable soundpost.

The pine wood for the top was not sourced locally but was imported; Guido made the back and ribs from Brazilian grumichama wood.

Guido Pascoli was not only a violin maker, but he also crafted excellent bows. They were—and still are—highly sought after in Brazil. He made them from exquisite pernambuco. He did not make the frogs from ebony, but from a dark, native Brazilian wood that was lighter than ebony, which kept his bows remarkably light. He stamped them with “G. Pascoli Rio.”

Sources

The Strad; The Brazilian lutherie tradition, forged by the contribution of Italian migrants, nov. 2017.

Trento A, 2016, Italians in São Paulo: Work and Leisure, 1880–1940, Navegar

Da Gloria Leitao Venceslau, M. en Sando R., The Pascoli Brothers; Violin Making and Immigration in Twentieth-Century.

Sampilippo M., 2016, Italians in Brasil, Rome

Gropillo C., 1977 Two instruments of Guido Pascoli, Jornal do Brasil,

Tarizio, Cozio Archive, accessed 2024