Scan 63
Biographical Sketches and Anecdotes of Celebrated Violinists, 1877
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1Diavolo, or "Devil's Sonata," was composed under peculiar circumstances, as he tells us—or, at least, as M. de Lalande tells us he had it from Tartini's own lips; and as Nardini, a pupil of the latter, afterwards confirmed it to Michael Kelly.
3"One night in 1713," he says, "I dreamt that I had made a compact with the devil, who promised to be at my service on all occasions. Everything succeeded according to my mind, my wishes were anticipated, and desires always surpassed by the assistance of my new servant. At last I thought I would offer my violin to the devil, in order to discover what kind of a musician he was, when, to my great astonishment, I heard him play a solo so singularly beautiful and with such superior taste and precision, that it surpassed all the music I had ever heard or conceived in the whole course of my life. I was so overcome with surprise and delight that I lost my power of breathing, and the violence of this sensation awoke me. Instantly I seized my violin in the hopes of remembering some portion of what I had just heard, but in vain! The work which this dream suggested, and which I wrote at the time, is doubtless the best of all my compositions, and I still
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