Paolo Soprani documents

[Deleted member 48]

The only picture of Paolo Soprani we have is a painting:
http://www.comune.castelfidardo.an.it/visitatore/index.php?id=400028

This Italian website has a photo of a house that is said to be the birthplace of Paolo Soprani (1844-1918):
http://www.comune.castelfidardo.an....lole/1863-paolosoprani_leggendapellegrino.htm

It is said the house still exists in the Recanati and Castelfidardo region:
È la casa ancora esistente in territorio recanatese in cui nascerà Paolo

Has anyone ever visited or seen this house?

Paolo Soprani (1844-1918), Pasquale Soprani (1852-1914) and Settimio Soprani (1860-1924) were brothers.
We only have a photo of Settimio Soprani (its the man with the moustache wearing a hat):
http://blogs.mondomix.com/accordeon.php/2009/03/11/title-12

If there is one, I would love to see a photo of Paolo Soprani. The painting seems to be a realistic portrait, but a photo would be welcome.

The Google cultural institute has published a photo early 20th century of the Paolo Soprani accordion factory workers. This same photo is in the Castelfidardo accordion museum. You have to scroll to the right to get to this photo. One can click on the photo to enlarge:
https://www.google.com/culturalinstitute/exhibit/the-accordions-of-castelfidardo/gQElShxx?hl=en

Sadly there is no exact year of this photo to give it a precise date.
Settimio Soprani is said to have started his own accordion factory in 1872. And Paolo Soprani continued his accordion factory with his sons Luigi and Achille.
Could it be possible that Luigi and Achille are in this early 20th century photo? I cant recognize someone looking similar to the Paolo Soprani painting, but one never knows.

The history photo gallery of the Settimio Soprani website shows many interesting vintage photos of the accordion factory:
http://www.settimiosoprani.it/Gallery/HG/HG.html

A unique photo of the Settimio Soprani factory (fabbrica di armonici):
http://cittadinodicastelfidardo.altervista.org/settimio-soprani-1872/

2 vintage photos of the Piatanesi accordion workshop:
http://www.piatanesi.altervista.org/Storia.html

photo of Egidio Galvan (1873-1944), an accordion maker I hadnt heard of until now:
http://www.egidiogalvan.it/chi-siamo
http://www.egidiogalvan.it/sala-museo

There seem to be more of these historic photos of the past, but they are all over the internet on a great number of Italian web pages.
Takes a lot of time to find them.

I wouldnt be surprised if one day a Paolo Soprani photo pops up...

 

[KLR]

From the Settimio Soprani website:

[thumbnail]https://ec12.cdn.zooeffect.com/Fabb...EXP131068800&d=AsDA7AAxvuAAjQjzAoHHlSG&as=mp3[/thumbnail]

Talk about dangerous. Wonder what all those belts were driving - buffers is my guess. Not grinders for reed tongues, surely. This is photo #9 in their gallery, if anyone wants to see it full size.

 

[Deleted member 48]

This Italian website mentions in the year 1918 (in february) a Requiem Mass, composed by a certain R. Casimiri, was played by the orchestra for the funeral of a Paolo Soprani in the village of Loreto.
Loreto is close to Castelfidardo and Recanati.

http://www.paolosoprani.com/Soprani/?lin=en
He (Paolo Soprani) died in his house on 20th February 1918, when he was 73 years old.

http://www.tebaldini.it/luoghi/loreto.htm
Febbraio, Castelfidardo (Ancona), Chiesa Collegiata
Missa da Requiem di R. Casimiri (pei funerali di Paolo Soprani)

Bottom of this page is a photo, dated 10/11 august of 1903, of a reunion of members of musicians of the Marche region.
Maybe Paolo Soprani knew some musicians in this photo.

 

[Deleted member 48]

Who is fluent in Italian ?

(question is about the history of Paolo Sopranis past in Castelfidardo and the accordion business)

It is about Paolo Soprani entering Castelfidardo politics, in the communal council in 1889.
From 1905 to 1914, for some years he was mayor in Castelfidardo.

Id like to have a good translation in English of this Italian text.

http://www.imprese.san.benicultural...e=normal&viewMode=normal&articleIdPadre=35007
Al successo industriale Soprani accompagna una diretta partecipazione alla vita politica cittadina. Entrato nel 1889 a far parte del Consiglio comunale, nel 1905 diventa Sindaco di Castelfidardo

 

[artelagro]

KLR you are making me feel old when you say Talk about dangerous. Wonder what all those belts were driving We had a DC driven line shaft in our small machine shop right up to 1966.
I spent the first 15 years of my working life in the drawing office and I would love to see the draughtsmen and their surroundings in an accordion factory.
Garth

 

[EMan]

Stephen, I speak fluent italian - if you want something translated.

I have a Paolo Soprani - PA, 120 Bass - circa 1920-25. It was my Dad's ( who taught me). I have a pic of it, but am unable to upload as it bigger than 1 meg. Anyone know how I can change that, so I can up load it ? I also have all the correspondence from Soprani to my Dad, circa 1926 when he bought it.

I'd be happy to share the pic if anyone can help with the uploading issue.

As far as the "all the belts" question, Garth hit it spot on. I was in manufacturing before retiring and had clients up until the late 60's that were powering their entire factory floor with these shafts. The predecessor to individual motors.

Ed

 

[EMan]

Here is the translation: (surprisingly done by Google, not me)



At the head of the city
Al Sopranos industrial success accompanies a direct participation in the political life. Joined in 1889 became part of the City Council, in 1905 became Mayor of Castelfidardo, appearing in the popular Union list formed by socialists and republicans. Only two years later, however, after a new round of elections he marked the defeat of the Left, Sopranos change deployment, placing itself at the head of a junta moderate. It is useless protests of his former allies, who are calling for his resignation: it remains at the head of the city government until 1914, however, achieving some notable achievements, especially in the areas of school and public housing. After leaving the post of mayor, he was elected provincial councilor in a conservative list, however picking a modest consensus that led him to leave the polling station.
Entrepreneur, Mayor and richest man in Castelfidardo on the eve of the "Great War," Sopranos is still closely tied to its peasant origins, continuing to feel the landed property as the main measure of wealth and well-being. At the dawn of the twentieth century it is in fact the owner of a thriving farm of 29 hectares, a wealth expected to grow in the following years. In a pamphlet was printed in 1915 ( How to increase the hand of agriculture operates and eliminate poverty and unemployment in Italy ), it goes to propose to the Government the opening of agricultural colonies to break up a labor force out of work, to obtain cultivable small batches to be delivered to sharecroppers.
He died in Castelfidardo at the beginning of 1918; three years before he finally succumbed to his sons the enterprise guide, destined to remain for much of the twentieth century one of the largest producers in the area. Transited, not without suffering serious consequences, through the violent crisis in the second half of the last century affecting the industry, still the Paolo Soprani Accordions manufactures and sells accordions.

 

[KLR]

Sorry to bring anybody down. You should read about central shaft power as used outdoors, for things like oil drilling - things were done on a much larger scale. Not exactly OSHA spec. In the pre electrical days people used to derive treadmill power using farm animals - including dogs.

 

[Deleted member 48]

Thanks for the Google translation of the Castelfidardo political career of accordion industry pioneer Paolo Soprani.

I will continue the online search of a photo of this man. Maybe Ill contact the Castelfidardo accordion museum again by email to ask for them to search for photo(s).

By the way, another accordio pioneer maker from Italy, Giuseppe Ianni, close to Teramo and Pescara.
Ianni has both diatonic organetti and chromatic accordions
http://ianniorganetti.it/museo-dellarmonica/
I love the photos in the La nostra storia section.

ORGANETTO ABRUZZESE - tra leggenda cronaca e storia

 

[Deleted member 48]

To my surprise I learned the well known painting of Paolo Soprani is based on a photo...
The painting is printed in many books and articles about the history of accordion, but I was totally unaware that there is an actual photo of Paolo Soprani.
The portrait in the museum is the painting, based on the photo.

The Castelfidardo accordion museum was so kind to email us this photo for the accordion forum.
I would like to thank the Castelfidardo museum for sending the photo.

I upload the .jpg photo here.

Paolo Soprani, having been mayor of Castelfidardo for some years, and captain of the accordion industry, it would be possible his photo could be in local newspapers of his time. A mayor and captain of industry must have attended some social and festive events.
(I don't know if an online scan search in the Ancona, Marche, Castelfidardo newspapers could turn up something, if the newspapers have been digitized online)

They are also in the process of trying to reconstruct the accordion past in Italy of Giuseppe Galleazzi (1852-1945), who emigrated first to France and then to the USA, but this research can take some time.

 

[JerryPH]

Now that was really nice of them to do! I hope they check in here and see how everyone enjoys this and how we show our appreciation and thanks.

 

[Deleted member 48]

There is a chance some accordion historian will write a biography on Paolo Soprani later. I don't know for sure, but don't exclude the possibility a book about the life of Paolo Soprani in the future.
I have heard they have a some more documents, and as said, a scan search of old newspapers and archives is also possible.

Time will tell.
In the meantime, may 2016 saw the publication of a book of the life and work of Ernst Hohner, another captain of the accordion industry in Trossingen, Germany.
The book is called "„Leben in zwei Welten, Ernst Hohner und Trossingen".

 

[JerryPH]

There is a guy that did a tour of the new and old abandoned original Hohner plant, including the inside of Hohner's house across the street and posted a whole bunch of pics , it was fascinating. Enticed me to consider doing a similar tour while one day doing my Castel Fidardo exploration vacation.