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Tales of bassist Domenico Dragonetti - From the archive: March 1906

2026-03-13T10:06:00

Domenico_Dragonetti_by_George_Richmond

To mark the 60th anniversary of the death of Domenico Dragonetti, The Strad recalls some incidents from the legendary Italian bassist’s life

Dragonetti was the son of a poor musician who played the kettledrums at musical festivals. In the Benedictine Monastery of St. Pietro at Vincenzo he discovered the famous double bass by Gasparo da Salo, which the monks presented to him. He tested the power of this bass when staying at the monastery of St. Giustina at Padua, when he imitated the rolling of thunder, bringing the monks out of their cells in the middle of the night…

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