Outstanding Italian composer, teacher, violinist virtuoso and musical theorist J. Tartini occupied one of the most important places in the violin culture of Italy in the first half of the XVIII century. In his art merged traditions coming from A. Corelli, A. Vivaldi, F. Veracini and other great predecessors and contemporaries. Tartini was born into a noble family. Parents intended their son for a career as a priest. Therefore, first he studied at the parish school in Pirano, and then at Capo d'Istria.
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Outstanding Italian composer, teacher, violinist virtuoso and musical theorist J. Tartini occupied one of the most important places in the violin culture of Italy in the first half of the XVIII century. In his art merged traditions coming from A. Corelli, A. Vivaldi, F. Veracini and other great predecessors and contemporaries. Tartini was born into a noble family. Parents intended their son for a career as a priest. Therefore, first he studied at the parish school in Pirano, and then at Capo d'Istria. There Tartini began playing the violin. The life of a musician is divided into 2 sharply opposite periods. Windy, intemperate in nature, looking for dangers - such he was in his youth. Tartini’s willfulness forced his parents to abandon the idea of sending his son on a spiritual path. He's going to Padua to study law. But Tartini also prefers fencing to them, dreaming of the activities of a fencing master. In parallel with fencing, he continues to engage in music more purposefully. The secret marriage to his pupil, the niece of a major clergyman, dramatically changed Tartini’s plans. The marriage aroused the indignation of the aristocratic relatives of his wife, Tartini was persecuted by Cardinal Cornaro and was forced to hide. His home was a Minorite monastery in Assisi. This was the beginning of Tartini’s second life. The monastery not only sheltered the young man and became his refuge during the years of exile. It was here that Tartini’s moral and spiritual rebirth took place, where his true development as a composer began. In the monastery he studied the theory of music and composition under the guidance of the Czech composer and theorist B. Montenegro; independently studied the violin, achieving true perfection in mastering an instrument, which, according to contemporaries, even surpassed the play of the famous Corelli. In the monastery Tartini stayed 2 years, then another 2 years he played in the opera house in Ancona. There the musician met with Veracini, who had a noticeable influence on his work. Tartini's exile ended in 1716. From that time until the end of his life, with the exception of short breaks, he lived in Padua, leading the Chapel Orchestra in the Basilica of St. Paul. Antonio and performing as a violinist in various cities of Italy. In 1723, Tartini received an invitation to visit Prague to participate in musical celebrations on the occasion of the coronation of Charles VI. This visit, however, lasted until 1726: Tartini accepted an offer to take up the position of chamber musician in the Prague chapel of Count F. Kinski. Returning to Padua (1727), the composer organized a music academy there, giving much energy to teaching. His contemporaries called him the “teacher of nations.” Among Tartini’s pupils are such outstanding violinists of the XVIII century as P. Nardini, G. Punyani, D. Ferrari, I. Nauman, P. Lausse, F. Rust and others. He changed the design of the bow, lengthening it. The skill of keeping the bow of Tartini himself, his extraordinary singing on the violin began to be considered exemplary. The composer created a huge number of works. Among them are numerous trio sonatas, about 125 concertos, 175 sonatas for violin and chembalo. The latter in the work of Tartini received further genre-stylistic development. The vivid imagery of the composer’s musical thinking was manifested in the desire to give his works programmatic subheadings. The sonatas “Abandoned Dido” and “Devil’s Trill” became especially famous. The last remarkable Russian music critic V. Odoevsky considered the beginning of a new era in violin art. Along with these works, the significance of the monumental cycle “Art of the bow” is great. Consisting of 50 variations on the theme of Corelli’s gavot, it is a kind of set of technical techniques that have not only pedagogical value, but also high artistic value. Tartini was one of the inquisitive musicians-thinkers of the XVIII century, his theoretical views found expression not only in various treatises on music, but also in correspondence with major musical scientists of that time, being the most valuable documents of his era.