Giuseppe Tartini (1692 – 1770) was an Italian Baroque
composer and violinist. He was born in Pirano, a town
on the peninsula of Istria, in the Republic of Venice
(now in Slovenia) to Gianantonio – native of Florence
– and Caterina Zangrando, a descendant of one of the
oldest aristocratic Piranese families.
It appears Tartini's parents intended him to become a
Franciscan friar and, in this way, he received basic
musical training. He studied law at the University of
Padua, where he ...(+)
Giuseppe Tartini (1692 – 1770) was an Italian Baroque
composer and violinist. He was born in Pirano, a town
on the peninsula of Istria, in the Republic of Venice
(now in Slovenia) to Gianantonio – native of Florence
– and Caterina Zangrando, a descendant of one of the
oldest aristocratic Piranese families.
It appears Tartini's parents intended him to become a
Franciscan friar and, in this way, he received basic
musical training. He studied law at the University of
Padua, where he became skilled at fencing. After his
father's death in 1710, he married Elisabetta
Premazore, a woman his father would have disapproved of
because of her lower social class and age difference.
Unfortunately, Elisabetta was a favorite of the
powerful Cardinal Giorgio Cornaro, who promptly charged
Tartini with abduction. Tartini fled Padua to go to the
monastery of St. Francis in Assisi, where he could
escape prosecution. While there, Tartini took up
playing the violin.
Legend says when Tartini heard Francesco Maria
Veracini's playing in 1716, he was impressed by it and
dissatisfied with his own skill. He fled to Ancona and
locked himself away in a room to practise, according to
Charles Burney, "in order to study the use of the bow
in more tranquility, and with more convenience than at
Venice, as he had a place assigned him in the opera
orchestra of that city". Tartini's skill improved
tremendously and, in 1721, he was appointed Maestro di
Cappella at the Basilica di Sant'Antonio in Padua, with
a contract that allowed him to play for other
institutions if he wished. In Padua he met and
befriended fellow composer and theorist Francesco
Antonio Vallotti.
Tartini was the first known owner of a violin made by
Antonio Stradivari in 1715, which Tartini bestowed upon
his student Salvini, who in turn gave it to the Polish
composer and virtuoso violinist Karol Lipiński
upon hearing him perform: the instrument is thus known
as the Lipinski Stradivarius. Tartini also owned and
played the Antonio Stradivarius violin ex-Vogelweith
from 1711. Today, Tartini's most famous work is the
"Devil's Trill Sonata", a solo violin sonata that
requires a number of technically demanding double stop
trills and is difficult even by modern standards.
According to a legend embroidered upon by Madame
Blavatsky, Tartini was inspired to write the sonata by
a dream in which the Devil appeared at the foot of his
bed playing the violin.
Almost all of Tartini's works are violin concerti (at
least 135) and violin sonatas. Tartini's compositions
include some sacred works such as a Miserere, composed
between 1739 and 1741 at the request of Pope Clement
XII, and a Stabat Mater, composed in 1769.[4] He also
composed trio sonatas and a sinfonia in A. Tartini's
music is problematic to scholars and editors because
Tartini never dated his manuscripts, and he also
revised works that had been published or even finished
years before, making it difficult to determine when a
work was written, when it was revised and what the
extent of those revisions were. The scholars Minos
Dounias and Paul Brainard have attempted to divide
Tartini's works into periods based entirely on the
stylistic characteristics of the music.
Source: Wikipedia
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giuseppe_Tartini ).
Although originally written for Flute & Orchestra, I
created this Interpretation of the Fugue in G Major
from "Sei Fughe" for Winds (Flute, Oboe, Bb Clarinet,
French Horn & Bassoon) and Strings (2 Violins, Viola,
cello & Bass).
SHEET MUSIC