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Scan 218
The story of the violin, 1904
6 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 176. See the scan on archive.org.
1Story of the Violin
3slippery metal of man's memory. Born at Pirano, a little place in Istria, on April 12th, 1692, he received a splendid education, and by way of recreation was taught the elements of music and the violin. By whom the latter is not known; presumably it was a priest, one of the Padri dalle Scuole Pie at Capo d'Istria, where Giuseppe went to school; one of those modest, patient mediocrities, sowers of small seed, who by the grace of God sow greatness once in a while. At the age of eighteen Tartini was sent to Padua to study law, but fortunately the current of his life was turned into another direction. After an adventurous and stormy youth of melodramatic flavour (a secret marriage, flight, hiding in a cloister, discovery, etc.), Tartini became eventually the greatest violinist and violin composer of his time. Essentially he was his own teacher. Of great influence on his development, however, was Veracini, whom he heard in Venice on the occasion of a contest¹ which had been arranged between the two artists. Tartini was so impressed by the superiority of his rival's playing that, without so much as crossing swords, he quitted the field and retired (then a man of twenty-four) to Ancona for further study. The outcome of this was the wonderful command of the bow and the technique of the left hand for which he became noted.
5¹ Public contests—artistic tournaments, in other words—between violinists were quite a common occurrence in those times; not seldom the very sacred precincts of the church were chosen as the arena for the combatants.
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