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{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2022}}
{{short description|Italian composer and violinist (1692–1770)}}
{{Infobox person
| name               = Giuseppe Tartini
| image              = Giuseppe Tartini (Tartini House).jpg
| alt                = 
| caption            = 
| birth_date         = {{birth date|1692|04|08|df=y}}
| birth_place        = [[Pirano]], [[Republic of Venice]]
| death_date         = {{death date and age|1770|02|26|1692|04|08|df=y}}
| death_place        = [[Padua]], [[Italy]]
| education          = [[University of Padua]]
| occupation         = {{ubl| Composer | Director of music | Violinist }}
| organizations      = [[Basilica di Sant'Antonio da Padova|Basilica di Sant'Antonio]] in Padua
}}
'''Giuseppe Tartini''' (8 April 1692 – 26 February 1770) was an Italian composer and violinist of the Baroque era born in Pirano in the [[Republic of Venice]] (now [[Piran]], Slovenia).<ref>{{Cite web|title=Giuseppe Tartini {{!}} Italian musician|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Giuseppe-Tartini|access-date=4 August 2020|website=Encyclopedia Britannica|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite encyclopedia |last1=Brainard |first1=Paul |title=Giuseppe Tartini |encyclopedia=[[The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians]] |year=1980 |page = 583| publisher = Macmillan| location = London| volume=18 |isbn=1-56159-174-2| quote = Italian composer, violinist, teacher and theorist.}}</ref> Tartini was a prolific composer, composing over a hundred pieces for the violin, the majority of them violin concertos. He is best remembered for his Violin Sonata in G Minor (the [[Devil's Trill Sonata]]).

==Early life==
[[File:Basilica of Saint Anthony of Padua - Monument to Giuseppe Tartini.jpg|thumb|Monument in the Basilica of St Anthony in Padua]]
Tartini was born on 8 April 1692 in [[Piran]]o (today Piran in Slovenia),<ref>{{Cite web|title=Giuseppe Tartini {{!}} Italian musician|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Giuseppe-Tartini|access-date=6 August 2020|website=Encyclopedia Britannica|language=en}}</ref> a town on the peninsula of [[Istria]], in the [[Republic of Venice]] to Gianantonio – native of [[Florence]] – and Caterina Zangrando, a descendant of one of the oldest aristocratic Piranese families.<ref>[http://www.portoroz.si/en/tartini Tartini] The official web site of Portorož and Piran</ref>

It appears Tartini's parents intended him to become a [[Franciscan]] [[friar]]{{citation needed|date=January 2021}} and, in this way, he received basic musical training. Tartini studied violin first at the ''collegio delle Scuole Pie'' in Capodistria (today [[Koper]]).<ref name="treccani enciclopedia"/>

He studied law at the [[University of Padua]], where he became skilled at [[Fencing (sport)|fencing]]. After his father's death in 1710, he married Elisabetta Premazore, a woman his father disapproved of because of her poverty, unknown father and greater age (she was 20, he was 18). Unfortunately, Elisabetta was a favourite of the powerful [[Giorgio Cornaro (cardinal)|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. In Assisi he studied under [[Bohuslav Matěj Černohorský]].<ref name="treccani enciclopedia"/>

==Career==
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 practice, 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".<ref name="Burney">{{cite book| last=Burney|first=Charles| title=A General History of Music, from the Earliest Ages to the Present Period. To Which Is Prefixed, a Dissertation on the Music of the Ancients |year=1789| publisher=T. Becket, J. Robson, and G. Robinson |location=London| edition=2| pages=564–565| volume =3}}</ref>

Tartini's skill improved tremendously and, in 1721, he was appointed ''[[Kapellmeister|Maestro di Cappella]]'' at the [[Basilica di Sant'Antonio da Padova|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]]. Between 1723 and 1725 he was in [[Prague]], where he was master of the chapel of the Count Kinsky.<ref name="treccani enciclopedia"/>

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 [[Poland|Polish]] [[composer]] and virtuoso [[violin]]ist [[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.

In 1726, Tartini started a violin school which attracted students from all over Europe. Gradually, Tartini became more interested in the theory of [[harmony]] and [[acoustics]] and from 1750 to the end of his life he published various treatises, in which he also treated problems of music theory on a mathematical basis.<ref name="treccani enciclopedia"/>

==Death==
He died of [[gangrene]] on 26 February 1770 in Padua.

==Memorials==
Tartini's home town, Piran (now in Slovenia), has a statue of him in the square, which was the old harbour, originally Roman, named [[Tartini Square]] ({{langx|sl|Tartinijev trg}}, {{langx|it|Piazza Tartini}}). Silted up and obsolete, the port was cleared of debris, filled, and redeveloped. One of the old stone warehouses is now the Hotel Giuseppe Tartini. 

His birthday is celebrated by a concert in the main town cathedral.

== Compositions ==
[[File:Piran Tartini Denkmal 10032007 04.jpg|thumb|right|Statue of Tartini in Piran, Slovenia]]
Today, Tartini's most famous work is the "[[Violin Sonata in G minor (Tartini)|Devil's Trill Sonata]]",<ref name="treccani enciclopedia">{{cite web|title=Tartini, Giuseppe|url=https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/giuseppe-tartini/|publisher=[[Enciclopedia Italiana]]|access-date=1 April 2021}}</ref> a solo violin sonata that requires a number of technically demanding [[double stop]] [[Trill (music)|trill]]s and is difficult even by modern standards. According to a legend embroidered upon by [[Helena Blavatsky|Madame Blavatsky]],{{citation needed|date=August 2020}} 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 concerto]] (at least 135) and [[violin sonata]]s (at least 100). Tartini's compositions include some sacred works such as a [[Psalm 51#musical|Miserere]], composed between 1739 and 1741 at the request of [[Pope Clement XII]],<ref>Biography at istrianet.org, under External links</ref> and a [[Stabat Mater]], composed in 1769.<ref>Biography on Allmusic, under External links</ref> He also composed trio sonatas and a sinfonia in A. Cataloguing Tartini's compositions is a challenge for scholars and editors. Tartini never dated his manuscripts, and revised works that had been completed or even published long before, making it difficult to determine when a work was written, when it was revised, and the extent of the revisions. 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.

Sixty-two manuscripts with compositions of Tartini are housed at the [[Biblioteca comunale Luciano Benincasa]] in [[Ancona]].<ref>[http://www.cultura.marche.it/musamarche/arim/5.html Biblioteca Communale Luciano Benincasa (AN)]</ref>

[[Luigi Dallapiccola]] wrote a piece called ''Tartiniana'' based on various themes by Tartini.

==Theoretical work==
In addition to his work as a composer, Tartini was a music theorist, of a very practical bent. He is credited with the discovery of [[combination tone|sum and difference tones]], an acoustical phenomenon of particular utility on string instruments (intonation of double-stops can be judged by careful listening to the difference tone, the "[[Combination tone|terzo suono]]"). He published his discoveries in a treatise "Trattato di musica secondo la vera scienza dell'armonia" (Padua, 1754). His treatise on ornamentation was eventually translated into French — though when its influence was rapidly waning, in 1771 — by a certain "P. Denis", whose introduction called it "unique"; indeed, it was the first published text<ref>Typically, Tartini never published the Italian original itself, but it circulated widely in manuscript, and [[Leopold Mozart]] appropriated sections of it for his own ''Violinschule'', written in 1754, published at Augsburg, 1756. (Sol Babitz, ed. "Treatise on Ornamentation" ''Journal of Research in Music Education'' '''4'''.2 [Autumn 1956:75–102]).</ref> devoted entirely to [[Ornament (music)|ornament]] and, though it was all but forgotten, as only the printed edition survived, has provided first-hand information on violin technique for modern [[historically informed performance]]s, once it was published in English translation by Sol Babitz in 1956. Of greater assistance to such performance was Erwin Jacobi's published edition. In 1961, Jacobi published a tri-lingual edition consisting of the French (basis of the following two), English (translation by [[Cuthbert Girdlestone]]), plus Jacobi's own translation into German (Giuseppe Tartini. "Traité des agréments de la musique", trans. and ed. Erwin Jacobi. Celle: Hermann Moeck Verlag, 1961). Of significant import, Jacobi's edition also includes a facsimile of the original Italian found in Venice in 1957, copied in the hand of Giovanni Nicolai (one of Tartini's best-known students) and includes an opening section on bowing and a closing section on how to compose cadenzas not previously known. Another copy (though less complete) of the Italian original was found among manuscripts purchased by the [[University of California, Berkeley]] in 1958, a collection that also included numerous ornamented versions of slow movements of concertos and sonatas, written in Tartini's hand. Minnie Elmer analyzed these ornamented versions in her master's thesis at UC, Berkeley in 1959 (Minnie Elmer. "The Improvised Ornamentation of Giuseppe Tartini". Unpublished M.A. thesis. Berkeley, 1959).

==Publications==
[[File:Tartini, Giuseppe – Trattato di musica secondo la vera scienza dell'armonia, 1754 – BEIC 13300595.jpg|thumb|''Trattato di musica secondo la vera scienza dell'armonia'', 1754]]
* {{cite book |title=Trattato di musica secondo la vera scienza dell'armonia|url=https://gutenberg.beic.it/webclient/DeliveryManager?pid=13300595|author=Giuseppe Tartini|location=Padova|publisher=Giovanni Manfrè|language=it|year=1754}}

== Fictional portrayal ==
Tartini is mentioned in [[Madame Blavatsky]]'s "The Ensouled Violin", a short story included in the collection ''Nightmare Tales''.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Parry |first1=Michel |title=Great Black Magic Stories |date=1977 |publisher=Taplinger Publishing Company |location=New York |page=106}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Blavatsky |first1=Helena |title=Premium Collection |date=2019 |publisher=e-artnow |location=Frankfurt am Main |isbn=978-80-273-0453-0}}</ref>

{{Blockquote | style=font-size:100% |Tartini, the great composer and violinist of the seventeenth [''sic''] century, was denounced as one who got his best inspirations from the Evil One, with whom he was, it was said, in regular league. This accusation was, of course, due to the almost magical impression he produced upon his audiences. His inspired performance on the violin secured for him in his native country the title of "Master of Nations". The Sonate du Diable, also called "Tartini's Dream"&nbsp;— as every one who has heard it will be ready to testify&nbsp;— is the most weird melody ever heard or invented: hence, the marvellous composition has become the source of endless legends. Nor were they entirely baseless, since it was he, himself; who was shown to have originated them. Tartini confessed to having written it on awakening from a dream, in which he had heard his sonata performed by Satan, for his benefit, and in consequence of a bargain made with his infernal majesty.}}

The folklore of the "Devil's violin", classically exemplified by a similar story told of [[Niccolò Paganini]], is widespread; it is an instance of the [[deal with the devil]]. A modern variant is the country song ''[[The Devil Went Down to Georgia]]''; the PBS segment on violin in its series "Art" was titled "Art of violin: the devil's instrument".{{cn|date=July 2024}}

Tartini's ''The Devil's Trill'' is the signature work of a central character in [[Daniel Silva (novelist)|Daniel Silva]]'s ''[[The English Assassin (Silva novel)|The English Assassin]]''. Anna Rolfe, the daughter of a Swiss banker, is a famous violinist and the sonata features prominently in the novel. The story of Tartini's inspirational dream is told.{{cn|date=July 2024}} The story also forms the basis of the mystery novel, "The Devil's Trill," by violinist and author Gerald Elias.{{cn|date=July 2024}}

Tartini's "The Devil's Trill" is also featured in the Japanese anime ''[[Descendants of Darkness]]'' (''Yami no Matsuei''). The three-part story is also named after the composition.{{cn|date=July 2024}}

==Notes==
{{reflist|2}}

==References==
* Paul Brainard: ''"Le sonate per violino di Giuseppe Tartini Catalogo tematico"'' - edition "[[I Solisti Veneti]]", Padua 1975
* Giuseppe Tartini: ''"Scienza Platonica fondata nel cerchio"'' by Anna Cavalla Todeschini for [[Accademia Tartiniana]] of Padua president [[Enzo Bandelloni]], executive committee [[Francesco Cavalla]], [[Edoardo Farina]], [[Claudio Scimone]]. The text reproduces an unpublished work, the manuscript is at the Sergej Mašera Maritime Museum in [[Piran]]. edizione [[CEDAM]]
* Giuseppe Tartini,''Trattato di musica secondo la vera scienza dell'armonia'', Nella Stamperia del Seminario, Appresso Giovanni Manfrè, Padua, 1754 – Riedizione Anastatica, Edition "I Solisti Veneti", [[CEDAM]], Padua, 1973
* Giuseppe Tartini, ''De' principj dell'armonia musicale contenuta nel diatonico genere – Dissertazione'', Stamperia del Seminario, Padua, 1767 – Facsimile edition, Edizione "I Solisti Veneti", [[CEDAM]], Padua, 1974
* {{cite EB1911|wstitle=Tartini, Giuseppe|volume=26}}
* {{cite book|author=Žitko, Duška |isbn=978-961-94328-6-0 |language=EN, IT, SL |publisher=Pomorski muzej Sergej Mašera, Piran |title=El Tartini in piassa: zgodba o spomeniku = storia del monumento = a story about the monument |year=2019}}

==External links==
{{Commons category}}
* [{{AllMusic|class=artist|id=q8035/biography|pure_url=yes}} Allmusic Biography]
* {{IMSLP|id=Tartini%2C_Giuseppe|cname=Tartini}}
* {{ChoralWiki}}
* [https://archive.today/20130222085123/http://www.tartini.net/ Tartini], a computer program that uses combination tones for pitch recognition
* [http://www.brikcius.com/Projects.uk.Tartini.html L'Arte dell'Arco] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150407002434/http://www.brikcius.com/Projects.uk.Tartini.html |date=7 April 2015 }}
* [http://istrianet.org/istria/illustri/tartini/ Giuseppe Tartini] – Prominent Istrians at istrianet.org

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Tartini, Giuseppe}}
[[Category:Italian Baroque composers]]
[[Category:Italian classical violinists]]
[[Category:Italian music theorists]]
[[Category:Pupils of Giuseppe Tartini| 01]]
[[Category:1692 births]]
[[Category:1770 deaths]]
[[Category:Composers for violin]]
[[Category:Italian classical composers]]
[[Category:Italian male classical composers]]
[[Category:Italian male classical violinists]]
[[Category:Istrian Italian people]]
[[Category:People from Istria]]
[[Category:People from Piran]]
[[Category:18th-century Italian composers]]
[[Category:18th-century Italian male musicians]]
[[Category:Deal with the Devil]]
[[Category:Musicians from Padua]]
[[Category:People of Tuscan descent]]