Scan 50
Groves Dictionary of Music and Musicians Vol.5, 1925
10 lines. Read by computer on 12 September 2026. Printed page 24. See the scan on archive.org.
1solo violin alone; if he wishes counterpoint also, my fee will be three zecchini. Some of my pupils pay me more, but I am accustomed to two zecchini for the violin alone. If the youth is gifted, in one year, if God wills, his studies will be completed, as scholars with small talents have completed their studies in two years. . . .’ From the time that Tartini returned to Padua after his residence at Prague not even the most tempting offers could induce him to leave his native country again. For this, his wife—for whom the biographies have no praise—was mainly responsible. She was apparently a nervous, suffering, exacting creature, who yet commanded her husband’s patient devotion to the end of his life. On her account he was content to forego conquests farther afield, and thus refused the proposal of Sir Edward Walpole—who heard him while passing through Padua in 1730—to come to London. His wife ‘agreed with him’ that it was best for them to be satisfied with their state. ‘Although not rich, I have sufficient and do not need for more,’ is the manner in which he is reported to have declined the offer. The invitation of Louis Henri, Prince of Condé, to come to Paris met with a similar reply in the same year. Then came the renewal of the offer by the Duc de Noailles; in 1734 this again was declined, as was also the tempting offer of Lord Middlesex, who thought that 3000 lire would surely lure the great violinist from his native land to London. However, although gifted with an apparently modest ambition, Tartini occasionally toured in his own country. A little before 1740 he journeyed to Rome at the request of Cardinal Olivieri, at whose Palace he met all the noblesse of the city, and even Pope Clement XII. himself. It was at the request of this Pontiff that Tartini wrote his ‘Miserere,’ which was performed on Ash Wednesday in the Sistine Chapel. With regard to this ‘Miserere’ it is worthy of note that all modern writers credit Tartini with no other vocal composition. Recently, however, Signor Tebaldini has recorded that among the Archives of the Santo at Padua is preserved a MS. entitled ‘Salve Regina: a quattro voci ripieni,’ which is the ‘Ultima compositione del Celeb. Maes. Giuseppe Tartini.’ In the same place there are also some canzone of Tartini for two and three voices. On his way to Cardinal Olivieri’s Tartini visited Venice, Milan, Florence, Livorno, Bologna, Naples, and Palermo, receiving enthusiastic ovations wherever he went. The admiration of the Neapolitans reached such a climax that it is said they tried to carry the astonished violinist round the town. At the conclusion of his visit to Rome Tartini returned to Padua never to leave it until his death, although he was pressed by the Prince of Clermont to visit Paris and London in 1755.
3Stancovitch, in his Biografia degli uomini dis-
5tinti dell’ Istria (Capodistria, n.d., p. 278), says that the rumour of Tartini’s coming to Paris spread all over that city in 1755, and was ventilated at a public meeting, but Tartini, firm in his principles, soon put an end to their hopes, and finally disappointed the Parisians. During all this time Tartini employed his days in indefatigable musical studies, in playing, composing, and teaching, and his hours of repose were passed in the society of most of the great men of the day. Even when declining years prevented him from playing, he continued composing. (Some of these works are preserved in the Cappella del Santo at Padua.) In 1768 his health began to fail him. He wrote his friend Riccati in that year, telling him that he had suffered from an attack of convulsive paralysis, and it had confined him to the house for nearly six months. This was the beginning of the end. A month later he was moved from his bed to a sofa, and became more hopeful of recovery, but instead of this he grew worse. A cancerous growth formed in his foot, and caused him terrible suffering until his death on Feb. 26, 1770, aged seventy-seven years. Tartini’s last moments were soothed by the presence of his affectionate pupil Nardini, who came expressly from Leghorn to be with his master, and followed his remains to the grave. The great violinist was buried in the church of St. Catherine of Padua. A requiem composed by his friend Vallotti was sung in the church of the Santo, and the Abbé Fanzago delivered a laudatory oration which was published at Padua in the same year.
7Tartini practically divided his personal property, which consisted of certain investments, amongst his family during his lifetime ‘so that,’ as he states in a letter to his people dated 1769, ‘there is nothing to leave you at my death except my furniture and my money. That may pass to my legitimate heirs at Pirano. In the absence of such (I mean males) the inheritance may pass to the Tartinis of Florence.’ Some of his manuscripts and other articles he left to his pupil Giulio Meneghini of Padua, and some to the Postmaster-General, Count Thurn and Taxis. To his friend Professor Colombo he entrusted his literary work Delle Ragioni e delle Proporzioni (six books), that he might superintend its publication. Colombo unfortunately died shortly after, and the manuscripts were apparently all lost except those portions of the materials which served for the work now preserved in the Archives of Pirano.
9As a man Tartini was universally beloved and respected by his fellows. He was of a pious nature, and frequently told his friends that his happiness consisted in his submission to the will of the Almighty, and not to his own. He devoted his life to the highest forms of art and science, although his practical knowledge was not always sufficiently sound to place the result of his researches upon a solid basis. An instance of
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