Scan 47
Groves Dictionary of Music and Musicians Vol.5, 1925
18 lines. Read by computer on 12 September 2026. Printed page 21. See the scan on archive.org.
1TARARE
3dei Fiorentini at Naples, and later by Charles Mathews.
5To the above it may be added that a curious account of the cure of a person bitten by the tarantula spider is given, in a letter signed Stephen Storace (the father of the better-known musician), in The Gentleman's Magazine, for Sept. 1753. Storace says that he was called upon to play the particular tune associated with the cure; but this he did not know, and tried sundry jigs without effect, until learning the proper tune from the lips of an old woman, he played it with a satisfactory result. He gives the following as the traditionary melody, and states that the scene of the occurrence was a village ten miles from Naples.
7The Tarantula Tune.
9etc.
11TARARE. Opera, in prologue and five acts (afterwards three acts); words by Beaumarchais, music by Salieri. Produced at the Grand Opéra, Paris, June 8, 1787. Translated into Italian (with many changes of text and music) as 'Axur, Re d'Ormus,' for the betrothal of the Archduke Franz with Princess Elizabeth of Württemberg at Vienna, Jan. 8, 1788. Produced in English as 'Tarrare, the Tartar Chief,' at the English Opera-House, London, August 15, 1825.
13TARISIO, LUIGI, an able and perhaps the first judge of old violins, who created and supplied a demand for old Italian instruments both in England and in France, at a time when the work of Stainer and his school practically monopolised the market. Originally an obscure Italian carpenter who plied a house-to-house trade, he gradually became cognisant of the valuable violins which were scattered among the Italian peasantry at the beginning of the 19th century, and the carpenter became merged in the collector, dealer, and connoisseur. Tarisio's talent for detecting the characteristics of the great Italian luthiers amounted to genius, but, in addition to this, he possessed a shrewd knowledge of human nature, and he drove excellent bargains. His modus operandi was principally based on the system of a so-called exchange, whereby he himself invariably benefited. His humble profession admitted him not only into the homes of the cottagers, but into many sacristies and convents also, whence he more than frequently emerged with a fine Italian instrument, obtained in exchange for a shining new fiddle from his own pack. In 1827 Tarisio made his way to Paris, introduced himself and his sack of fine instruments first to M. Aldric, a dealer of dilettante tastes, who, after some doubts occasioned by the pedlar's shabby appearance, was eventually compelled to recognise him as one of the greatest violin connoisseurs of the day. For over twenty years after his first visit to Paris, Tarisio's advent there was welcomed by all the foremost dealers, and through his importation numbers of the finest Italian violins came into France, and, after his appearance in London in 1851, into England also. Despite his nomadic life, Tarisio considered Italy his home always. He owned a small farm in the province of Novara, and shortly before his death he settled in Milan, where he established himself in an attic over a restaurant in the Via Legnano, Porta Tenaglia. Here, amid comfortless surroundings, he was found dead one morning in 1854, with over 200 violins, violoncellos, and altos in his small domicile. To his family he left a fortune of 300,000 francs, a sum which represented his profits in violin-dealing during twenty years; and in addition to this his relatives received the purchase-money paid by J. B. Vuillaume after Tarisio's death for the instruments found in the Milanese attic, and for the five magnificent violins which had been hidden away at his farm. Among the latter number was the 'Messie' Stradivarius, which had been preserved for over sixty years in the collection of Count Cozio di Salabue. Tarisio purchased it on the death of the latter in 1824, and concealed its whereabouts until his death, with a view, no doubt, to enhancing its value from a sensational point of view. During his visits to the various dealers he frequently referred to the treasure he would reveal to them one day, i.e. a Stradivarius violin in superb condition that had never known the touch of a bow, and it was its promised advent that gained for it the title of the 'Messiah' in professional circles. An interesting account of Tarisio's personal appearance is given by W. E. Hill & Sons, in their monograph, Antonio Stradivari. Their informant was Mr. Van der Heyden of Brussels, who met Tarisio on various occasions.
15Hill, Antonio Stradivari; Haweis, Old Violins; Vidal, Les Instruments à Archet; Reade, Readiana; Racster, Chats on Violins.
17TARTINI, GIUSEPPE, founder of an important school of violin-playing at Padua, and originator of certain improvements in the construction and technique of the bow, was born at Pirano, a seaport town of Istria, April 8, 1692. Fanzago, his contemporary (author of the Lodi di G. Tartini, Padua, 1770), records that Tartini's father was a member of a good Florentine family; a man whose philanthropic nature led him to give largely to the Church, which
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