  Giuseppe Tartini Prominent Istrians
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Giuseppe Tartini Prominent Istrians
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 iuseppe
Tartini was born on April 8, 1692 in Pirano (now Piran), Istria. His
father, Giovanni Antonio Tartini, originated from Florence, but moved to
Piran around 1685. He was a successful trader and later worked as a
recording clerk in the salt trade.
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"Fugue in G" from Six Fugues, Opus 1 (playing in the background) |
violinist born in Pirano |
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His mother, Caterina Zangrando, was a
noblewoman descended from one of the oldest families in Piran.
Giuseppe's parents earnestly wanted their son to enter the Franciscan Order but they did not get their wish. The historians of the Minorite Cloister in Piran (Trani, Granich, Frasson and others) claim that Giuseppe's parents rented a room for him at that cloister for two years after 1700 AD and that he got the basics of his musical education there. However, instead of choosing the monastic life, Tartini attended the University of Padua. In 1710 he matriculated in jurisprudence, having also studied theology, philosophy and literature. It was not long before he abandoned this for the study of music, especially the violin. He also studied the art of fencing in which he later became a master. He went on to develop interests in other Renaissance pursuits as well, including mathematics and astronomy. At the age of 18 he eloped with Elizabeth Premazone, a fellow student and the niece of cardinal Giorgio Cornaro, bishop of Padua. The couple kept their marriage a secret for three years but once discovered, the bishop ordered Tartini's arrest for abduction and he was forced to flee Padua leaving his wife who was sent to a convent. Tartini probably travelled to Rome, then was offered asylum at the Monastery of Assisi where Padre Boeme guided him through his musical studies, there studying with the famous Czech musician Bohuslav Ceznohorsky. Two years later, in 1715, Tartini was found by some pilgrims from Padua, and they told him his wife had been pardoned by the cardinal. With the charge against him also dropped, he emerged from his seclusion to return to his wife and perfect his violin playing with Gasparo Visconti in Cremona.
In 1716 he was invited to enter a contest with Francesco Maria Veracini at the Palace Pisani-Mocegino in Venice, but finding himself unready he went to Ancona for further study. While there, Tartini wrote his Arte dell' Arco and he discovered the acoustic phenomenon of resultant tones, which he dubbed terzo sono. By about 1720 he had returned to Venice. Athough not the first to discover the so-called combination tone, third tone, or difference tone, which results when two tones forming a perfect consonance are sounded, his name has always been identified as the co-discoverer in 1714 because he made it the basis of a new system of harmony which is now referred to as "Tartini's tone," then laying down this system in his 1754 treatise, "Trattato di musica."
In 1728 he founded a violin school in Padua which he named "Scuola delle Nazioni". He took in students from all over Europe and many of the latter 18th century's most famous performers were taught by Tartini, including Pasqualino, Carminati, Bini, Lombardini, Ferrari, Capuzzi, Girolamo Asconio Giustiniani, Graun, Naumann and Holzbogen. Tartini's closest friend and disciple was Pietro Nardini. Tartini developed a style of bowing that is still practiced as a standard, and the influence of his compositions spread to France, England and Germany, but throughout the remaining twenty years of his life Tartini concentrated on his theory more than composition. Between 1739 and 1741 Tartini visited many Italian cities including Naples and Rome where he composed, at Pope Clement XII's request, his single composition for the church, Miserere, for four, five, and eight voices, which was performed by the Sistine choir 1768. |
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Works: Tartini published several treatises on musical theory:
His compositions include more than 130 Concerti for violin, two Concerti for flute and two Cello concerti as well as over 170 Sonatas for violin, with or without continuo, some 50 Sonatas a Tre and 4 Sonatas a Quatre, plus a small number of sacral vocal pieces, written in the last year of his life. Only some 20 concerti and 50 sonatas were ever published so the remainder exist only in the forms of manuscripts. Apparently he was unconcerned with self-marketing, and many of his "programs" have only been reconstructed from private correspondence in the twentieth century. Tartini's use of a secret code was the source of much speculation until deciphered by Dounias, a Greek musicologist (1900-1962). His dissertation on Tartini's violin concertos (Die Violinkonzerte Giuseppe Tartinis, Wolfenbüttel, 1935) catalogued them according to tonality. The 'D' (Dounias) number does therefore not refer to the chronology of composition.
Reasons for Tartini's use of a secret code are speculative, but it is likely that he used it to hide secular ideas from works played in church. Until Dounias deciphered the code in 1932 (using the now standard method of analysis of letter frequency), many outlandish theories were forwarded about the mystical qualities of what was written. The rather prosaic quotations from libretti by Pietro Metastasio came as a disappointment to many! The code is a simple substitution-cipher: Tartini's heritage is kept in a Piran museum and in the regional archives in Koper (Capodistria) and Izola (Isola). Due to the lack of chronology in the manuscripts, a catalogue of Tartini's concerti was drawn up by Minos Doumias, numbered according to their keys. It was possible for some of the works published during Tartini's lifetime to be dated a little more accurately and Doumias has divided the remainder on style, sorting the concerti into three main periods: prior to 1735, 1735-1750 and after 1750.
Tartini tells us:
The result is a wild bit of madness (keep in mind we're talking Baroque music here, not Black Sabbath) in three movements and it successful with his audience. Years before the dream, Tartini reputedly sliced up his hand in a fencing match and had to quit playing the violin. Frustrated by this, he took up composing and attracted young protégés from all over Europe, thus bringing to mind the phrase "those who can't do, teach." The Devil's Sonata is so treacherous that it almost seems to spite those who might dare attempt it. Andrew Manze, dubbed "the Grapelli of the Baroque," in his interpretation of this composition rips through this obstacle course of trills and finger stretches at lightning speed; he saws away with such vigor that occasionally the violin runs actually sound more like a burning bluegrass fiddle or a Hendrix guitar riff than a Baroque sonata, only to drop back into controlled quietude once again. The textures and mood changes that Manze pulls out of Tartini's work are phenomenal for such a short piece (the entire work is only 18 minutes). It's hair-raising, thrilling stuff due not only to the content of the work but to its insane, perfectionist execution.
The Tartini Family Tomb in Piran At the 300th anniversary of Giuseppe Tartini's birth, the exact plan of old tombs was found in the archives of the Minorite Church of St. Francis in Piran. Among those tombs there was also one belonging to the Tartini family. The church has many tombs that have never been marked, so the exact place of the Tartini's tomb could never been located. Besides the tomb plans another document was discovered, confirming the discovery.The friars chose the father of the famous violin player, Giovanni Antonio Tartini, as patron of the monastery. On 25 May 1699 he was given a church tomb that earlier belonged to the Petronio family. He received the tomb as a sign of gratitude for his close ties with the monastery. The family of Tartini was reminded several times to mark the tomb with their name, which never happened. On 12 March 1992 the tomb was opened and it was confirmed that the remains of the deceased are still in it. Nine members of the Tartini family are buried in the tomb; there are no documents whether Giuseppe Tartini's father lies there, too. In March 1992 the monastery furnished the tomb with an inscription in Latin:
Commemoratives: The town of Piran raised a monument to the memory of Giuseppe Tartini in 1896 (the 200th anniversary of his birth) on the main square which is also named after him. Also named in his honor is the house in which Tartini was born and the theatre which is the central cultural institution in Piran. Tartini's house has been restored and is open to the public. In 1845 a memorial plaque was built into the facade in memory of the great maestro.
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The page compliments of Marisa Ciceran Created:
Tuesday, October 19, 1999, Updated
Saturday, January 03, 2009 |
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Returning
to Padua, on 16 April 1721 he was appointed "primo violino e capo di concerto"
(first violinist and conductor of the orchestra) at the Church of St.
Anthony, a position he held until 1765 and interrupted only for a short
period which he was employed in Prague. He refused many flattering
invitations to visit other countries but accepted Count Kinsky's
invitation to attend the coronation of Charles
VI. There, he was offered his first major appointment as a
member of Kinsky's orchestra where he remained until 1726. He
then returned to Padua.
His violin works are the repertoires of present-day violin
virtuosi. One of his best known sonatas is
"I heard a sonata
so unusual and so beautiful performed with such mastery and
intelligence, on a level I had never before conceived was possible! I
was so overcome that I stopped breathing and awoke gasping. Immediately
I seized my violin, hoping to recall some shred of what I had just heard
- but in vain. The piece I then composed is without doubt my best, the
Devil's Sonata, but it falls so far short of the one that stunned me
that I would have smashed my violin and given up music forever if I
could but possess it." 
Tartini died on February 26, 1770 after a long illness.
The city of Padua put on an elaborate funeral for him at the Basilica of St. Anthony,
Cloister, a small 13th century church connected with the University of
Law in Padua. The church was rebuilt at the end of the 17th century following an
aisleless plan. The façade dates back to the late classical period and is now being radically restored.
It contains a Baroque high altar with statues which are ascribed to Giovanni Bonazza and an altarpiece by M. Bonaccorso, as well as the tomb of Tartini and his
wife.
