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Scan 219
An Encyclopedia of the Violin, 1925
16 lines. Read by computer on 28 September 2026. Printed page 191. See the scan on archive.org.
1"I would recommend every violinist to study these Caprices with the greatest care, as he will gain greatly by their study."
3Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) followed the road taken by the ancient masters of the violin, and often made use of their figurations in the composition of his master works. He has, of course, employed them with the greatest latitude, and left their manner of performance to the artists who may play them. The latter, however, at times exceed the bounds of the artistically permissible, and entirely change the frame within which these works should be confined.
5When Arcangelo Corelli (1653-1713) handed on his artistic legacy to Giuseppe Tartini (1692-1770), the latter in turn extended the horizons of violin achievement by important technical developments in the musical masterpieces he wrote; and numerous notable violinists were trained in the school he founded in Padua, in 1728. In Tartini's famous sonata "The Devil's Trill," the technical innovations he introduces in trilling are most important. Unfortunately, I have been unable to discover an edition of Tartini's own day, and owing to the great diversity of the signs which I had previously found in manuscript written by the Paduan master, I am inclined to believe that any number of supplementary ones have been added to those originally given. In the Allegro Moderato of "The Devil's Trill" Sonata, the trill marked by the sign tr should unquestionably be marked with the sign or ; and besides, the trill, like every other technical combination, is not practicably playable unless the tempo in which it is executed is left to the player. It is impossible to play a true trill on a sixteenth note with the tempo set at 108 = , M.M.
7Le Trille du Diable-Tartini (1)
9Again, further on, we find:
11Le Trille du Diable-Tartini (2)
13When playing at the expense of rhythm and measure, it is quite evidently possible to execute a rich, well-nourished trill on any note desired, and at any degree of speed; but the first thing to be done is to obey the laws of music and of rhythm, which inexorably reject all that is in poor taste, and all liberties detrimental to them.
15In the allegro assai of "The Devil's Trill" Sonata (see complete analysis elsewhere in this work) we undoubtedly have one of the earliest examples of a trill used to illustrate a theme, a departure in which Tartini has been followed by other famous composer violinists, one of the most outstanding of whom,
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