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Scan 313
Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 1928
26 lines. Read by computer on 12 September 2026. Printed page 271. See the scan on archive.org.
1prehensive list of Tartini MSS. is given in Q.-L., and according to this authority they are to be found in the public and State Libraries of Dresden, Konigsberg, Mecklenburg-Schwerin, at Padua, and in the British Museum. The Journal encyclopédique de Venise for 1775 contains a paragraph stating that Captain P. Tartini, a nephew of Giuseppe Tartini, had deposited the following MS. compositions of his uncle with Antonio Zazzini (an excellent violinist): 42 sonatas, 6 sonatas and trios, 114 concertos, 13 concertos, etc., which were offered for sale by Carminer at Venice.
3The number of his published compositions is very extensive. His first book of sonatas, 'a 5 e 6 istrumenti,' op. 1, was published in Amsterdam, 1734. The second book appeared in Rome in 1745, and a large number of concertos for violin solo with orchestral accompaniment, as well as a trio for two violins and a bass, were published at various times at Amsterdam, Paris and London. A considerable number has been arranged and edited in recent years by Emilio Pente.
5His contributions to the literature of music were almost as numerous. The Municipio di Pirano possesses twenty-five of his MS. writings on matters dealing with various theoretical problems. His published works comprise: Trattato di musica, etc., Padua, 1754 (Giov. Manfre), 2nd edition, Paris, 1767 (Leduc). French translation, Traité des agréments, etc. … traduit par Sig. Denis, Paris, 1782. Riposta di G. T. alla critica del di lui trattato di musica di Monsieur Serre di Ginevra, Venice, 1767. De' principi dell' armonia musicale, Padua, 1767. English translation by Stillingfleet, London, 1771 (S. Baker and G. Leigh). Lettera del defonto Sig. G. T. alla signora Maddalena Lombardini, Venice, 1770. Italian with English translations by Doctor Burney, London, 1771, 2nd edition, 1779. German translation of the same by H. H. Rohrmann, Hanover, 1786.
7PORTRAITS, Etc.—A committee of Paduan admirers erected a life-size statue of Tartini in 1807 in the Prato della Valle, Padua. On the second centenary of Tartini's birth in 1892, the President of the Arca del Santo had a stone slab with a memorial inscription upon it placed in the first cloister of the Basilica. There is a portrait of him in the Gallery of the Filarmonico, Bologna. The engraver, Antoine Bonaventura Sberti, engraved a portrait of Tartini and placed the following distich upon it, written by Antonio Piombolo, professor of medicine at the University of Padua:
9'Hic fidibus scriptus claris, hic magnus alumnus
10Cui par nemo fuit, forte nec ullus erit.'
12The Abbate Vincenzo Rota of Padua prefaced his poem, 'L' incendio di tempio di S. Antonio,' published in Padua (by Conzatti in 1753), in which every stanza celebrates Tartini's genius, with a portrait of Tartini taken from life, and placed the following lines beneath it:
14'Tartini haud potuit veracius exprimi imago.
15Sive lyram tangat seu meditetur, is est.'
17This engraving also serves as a frontispiece to Fanzago's Orazione published in 1754. The Bibliotheca of Pirano possesses a portrait in oils of Tartini, and there is a memorial bust of him executed by Rosa in the Concert-hall of the Casino of Pirano. George Hart of Wardour Street possessed the original painting of Tartini's dream by Charles Joseph Hullmandel, who seems to have brought it out as an engraving. A drawing formerly in the possession of the late Julian Marshall was reproduced in earlier editions of this Dictionary. An engraving by C. Calcinoto is shown on PLATE LVI.
19BIBL.—FANZAGO, Orazione del Signor Abate Fanzago, Padua, 1770; FANZAGO, Elogi di Giuseppe Tartini; FAYOLLE, Notice sur Corelli, Tartini, etc., Paris, 1810 (Swedish translation, Stockholm, 1811: Burgh); Anecdotes of Music, London, 1814, German translation (Leipzig, 1820); HILLER, Lebensbeschreibungen, Leipzig, 1784, pp. 267-85; RUBBI, Elogi italiani, Venice, 1782 (12 vols.), vol. viii.; UGONI, Della letteratura italiana, Brescia, 1820; ORTELEPP, Ein musikalische Anthologie, Stuttgart, 1841, vol. ix. pp. 1-33; DR. HORTIS, Archeografo triestino, Nuova serie, vol. x. pp. 209-229; HORTIS, Lettere di G. T. (also printed separately); STANCOVITCH, Biografia degli uomini distinti dell' Istria; SERRE, Analyse critique de l'ouvrage de M. Tartini, 1763; THURN AND TAXIS (Count of), Risposta di un anonimo al celebre Sig. Rousseau, Venice, 1769; LALANDE, Voyage d'Italie, Paris, 1749, vol. viii. p. 292, etc.; HUET, École de violon, Châlons-sur-Marne, 1880; BURNEY, The Present State of Music in France; HOGARTH, History of Music; VIDAL, Les Instruments à archet; HART, The Violin and its Music; Inaugurazione del monumento di G. T., Trieste, 1898; TEBALDINI, L' archivio musicale della cappella Antoniana a Padova, 1895; VERNON LEE, The European Review, vol. xx. f. 11. iv.; Good Words, vol. xxxiv. p. 18; TAGLIAPIETRA, G. Tartini (poem), Milan, 1865; PARISINI, Carteggio del P. G. B. Martini, Bologna, 1888; DUBOURG, The Violin; PIPSON, Sketches and Anecdotes; BULL, Ole Bull; ANONYMOUS (Michel Lambert), The Chorister Boy, pp. 33-63; The Little Pilgrim, or Giuseppe Tartini; MONTROND, Musiciens les plus célèbres, Lille, 1853; Strad., vol. ix. 1898, Aug.; Strad., vol. xvi. June, July, 1905; CHARLES BOUVET, Une Leçon de Giuseppe Tartini et une femme violoniste au XVIIIe siècle, 1915.
21TASKIN, (1) PASCAL (b. Theux, province of Liège, 1723; d. Paris, Feb. 9, 17931), celebrated instrument-maker, and head of a family of musicians, migrated early to Paris, and was apprenticed to Etienne Blanchet, the best French clavecin-maker of the period. Succeeding eventually to the business, he improved the tone of his spinets and harpsichords by substituting slips of leather for the crowquills then in use in the jacks (1768). This 'peau de buffle' appliance was claimed as Taskin's invention, but was in use in the 16th and 17th centuries. (See JACK.) In 1772 Louis XV. offered him the post of Keeper of the Musical Instruments and the Chapel Royal, vacant by the death of Chiquelier, but the life at Versailles would not have suited the inventor, who wished to be at liberty to continue his experiments, and he contrived to get his nephew and pupil, Pascal Joseph (2), appointed in his stead. Having thus succeeded in preserving his independence without forfeiting the royal favour, he was shortly after elected an acting member of the corporation of musical instrument-makers (1775).
23He was brought more before the public by a piano in the shape of our present 'grands,' made for the Princess Victoire, the first of the
251 See Ernest Closson's article Taskin, S.I.M. xii. 237-38.
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