Serassi, a family of Italian organ builders, active in Bergamo between 1720 and 1870. The workshop was founded by Giuseppe I (1693–1760) and later taken over by his sons Andrea Luigi (1725–1799), who significantly improved the mechanics of the instruments, and Giovanni Battista (1727–1808). The most prominent representative of the family was Andrea Luigi’s son, Giuseppe II Antonio (*16 November 1750 Bergamo, †19 February 1817 Bergamo), builder of nearly 350 instruments and author of a work on the Como organ (Descrizione ed osservazioni pel nuovo organo posto nella chiesa del S.S. Crocifisso dell’ Annunziata di Como, Como 1808), a catalogue containing descriptions of 345 instruments built by the Serassi family (Catalogo degli organi fabbricati da Serassi di Bergamo, Bergamo 1815) and an outline of the history of organ building in northern Italy (Sugli organi, lettere a G.S. Mayr, P Bonfichi e C. Bigatti, Bergamo 1816, facsimile edition, ed. O. Mischiati, Bologna 1975). He contributed greatly to the development of organ building thanks to his many inventions, including an underground transmission connecting organs located in two opposite choirs in the church of Sant’Alessandro in Bergamo. His company was then taken over by his son Carlo I (1777–1849), who ran it with his brothers (Andrea II, Alessandro, Giuseppe III, Giacomo, Ferdinando I) under the name Fratelli Serassi. He gained enormous renown and received numerous awards, and his instruments became a symbol of prestige for churches in both large cities and smaller towns, from Piedmont to Corsica and from Tuscany to Sicily. After his death, the company was run by his brother Giacomo (1790–1877), assisted by his nephews (Giuseppe IV, Carlo II, Vittorio) and a group of highly skilled employees. However, in the 1870s, the company began to face a serious crisis. The last representative of the family, Ferdinando II (1832–1894), son of Carlo II, still collaborated with organ builder Casimiro Allieri in Sicily, building excellent organs in Ragusa, Modica and Chiaramonte Gulfi. Upon his death, the company ceased operations, and in 1895 the name of the famous builders was incorporated into the name of the Locatelli organ-building company from Bergamo (Successore alla vecchia ditta Fratelli Serassi). The Serassi family established the largest and most significant Italian organ-building company of the 19th century, with 654 instruments built in 1858 and as many as 707 in 1868. Serassi closely followed the 16th-century organ-building tradition, mainly that of C. Antegnati’s Lombard organs, focusing on achieving clear tone colour and adhering to traditional construction methods. Their instruments, with two or three manuals (organo di risposta and organo eco), have been preserved in many cities in Lombardy and Piedmont – in Bergamo (in the churches of S. Alessandro in Colonna, 1782, and S. Anna in Borgo Palazzo, 1857), in Brescia (Duomo Vecchio, 1824, with pipes by Antegnati from 1538), in Colorno (in the church of S Liborio, 1791), in Lodi (in the cathedral, 1798 and 1837), in Madignano (1795), in Piacenza (in the church of S. Maria di Campagna, 1838), in Pisogne (1856), in Primulana near Como (1858), in Florence (in the church of S Lorenzo, 1863) and in Tende in France (1807). F. Moretti (known as Padre Davide da Bergamo, 1791–1863) and V. Petrali (1832–1889), among others, composed organ works specifically for Serassi instruments.
Literature: W. Shewring Organs in Italy, “The Organ” XXXV, 1955–56 and XXXVI, 1956–57; R. Lunelli Der Orgelbau in Italien, Moguncja 1956; C. Traini Organari bergamaschi, Bergamo 1958; E. Meli La ricerca e la tutela degli organi storici ed artistici nella regione lombarda, “L’Organo” I, 1960; X. Sant L’organo Serassi della Collegiata di Tenda, “L’Organo” XII, 1974; O. Mischiati L’organo di Santa Maria di Campagna a Piacenza, Piacenza 1980; O. Mischiati L’organo Serassi della Chiesa di San Liborio a Colorno e il suo restauro, Parma 1985; G. Berbenni Lineamenti dell’organaria bergamasca dal secolo XV al secolo XVIII, Bergamo 1992; O. Mischiati Repertorio toponomastico dei cataloghi degli organari italiani 1587-1930, Bologna 1995; G. Berbenni I Serassi celeberrimi costruttori d’organi. Le vicende umane, patrimoniali e professionali, 4 vols., Guastalla 2012; Biografia di Carlo Serassi, Celebre costruttore d’organi, 1849. Scritta da Giambattista Cremonesi, ed. G. Berbenni, Guastalla 2013; G. Berbenni Catalogo degli organi Serassi, Ordinamento cronologico e aggiornamento (1722-1893), Guastalla 2014; G. Berbenni I rapporti tra Giovanni Simone Mayr e i celebri organari Serassi. Sue considerazioni sull’organo italiano, in: Simon Mayr, der bayerische Komponist im europäischen Kontext, eds. F. Hauk, I. Winkler, München-Salzburg 2016.
