Andrea Fornari

Andrea Fornari was a woodwind instrument maker, born and died in Venice, around 1753 and 1841 respectively. His output allows us to trace the evolution of the oboe and cor anglais in late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century Venice.

In a petition of 1792, he claimed to make every kind of woodwind instrument, including flutes, recorders, shawms and the chalumeau, which he called «salmuò». To vouch for the quality of his work, he cited the oboists Pietro and Giuseppe Ferlendis.

Some twenty oboes and around twenty-seven cors anglais survive, most of them dated between 1791 and 1832. The earliest oboes have vase-shaped bells without a bulb; those made after 1810 show the influence of the Dresden school. The cors anglais are curved and covered in leather. The earliest use ivory and ebony, while the later examples are more restrained, perhaps because of Venice's economic crisis.

He also invented a bass oboe, or basset oboe, now held in the Museo Teatrale alla Scala in Milan. His son Pietro, born in 1793, played the clarinet and made wind instruments; some examples marked FORNARI / A VENEZIA may be his work.