TARTINI, GIUSEPPE

Violin virtuoso, teacher, and composer; b. Pirano (Istria), Italy, April 8, 1692; d. Padua, Feb. 26, 1770. After learning the rudiments of music in the town of his birth, he went to Padua (1709) to study at the university. His father desired him to enter the Friars Minors Conventual, but the youth gained his own wish to study law, while continuing his violin study. His secret marriage in 1713 to Elisabetta Premazona, a protégée of Cardinal Cornaro, met with strong disapproval, and Tartini fled to Assisi, where he stayed with the Franciscans for two years, composing and perfecting his violin technique. Following his reconciliation with the cardinal he returned to Padua, and from then on devoted himself to teaching, composing, and writing theoretical works such as Trattato di musica secondo la vera scienza dell' armonia (Padua 1754). In 1721 he was appointed violinist to the Cappella del Santo at Padua, and in 1728 he set up a violin school soon recognized throughout Europe for its excellence. In music

history he stands out as a theorist and teacher rather than as a composer. His music follows the standard forms of the day: sonatas, trios, concerti, and church works, many of them still in MS.

Bibliography: e. heron-allen, Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. e. blom 9 v. (5th ed. London 1954) 8:312–315. a. capri, Giuseppe Tartini (Milan 1945). p. brainard, Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart, ed. f. blume (Kassel-Basel 1949–). g. beechey, "Giuseppe Tartini (1692–1770)," The Consort 48 (1992), 8–17. p. brainard in in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. s. sadie (New York 1980). m. dounias, Die Violinkonzerte Giuseppe Tartinis: als Ausdruck einer Künstlerpersönlichkeit und einer Kulturepoche (Zurich 1966). f. b. johnson, "Tartini's Trattato di musica secondo la vera scienza dell'armonio: An Annotated Translation and Consideration of Its Historical Significance" (Ph.D. diss. Indiana University, 1985). a. pavanello, "Il Trillo del diavolo di Giuseppe Tartini nell'edizione di Jean Baptiste Cartier," Recercare 11 (1999) 265–79. m. pincherle, Tartiniana (Padova 1972).

[f. j. guentner]