Tartini and the Sonata for Unaccompanied Violin

Abstract

mHE NAME OF GIUSEPPE TARTINI has never, to my knowledge, been linked by musical scholarship to the tradition composition and performance music for violin alone. And yet for a number years now we have been in possession evidence showing that such a connection does actually exist. chief clue is contained in a letter written by Tartini in February 1750 to his friend and countryman, the poetaesthete Francesco Algarotti, who occupied a position as chamberlain at the court Frederick the Great at Berlin. One Frederick's special favorites, Algarotti had recently intervened with the Prussian monarch on behalf one Tartini's pupils who sought a position in the court orchestra. As it happened, the application was unsuccessful, there being no vacancies for violinists at that time. To Tartini himself, however, a very definite advantage did accrue as a result the negotiations. He was commissioned to submit an unnamed number compositions for the inspection and criticism, as he writes, of that wondrous monarch. These events may be followed in Tartini's correspondence with Algarotti in the years 1749 and 175o, a but significant part which has come down to us.' letter with which we are presently concerned is dated Padua, February 24, 175o, and announces the forthcoming arrival in Berlin the compositions Frederick had commissioned through Algarotti. Tartini describes the works as small (piccole sonate) and makes the following remark about their manner performance: The sonatas mine which have been sent to you are notated with a bass part for the sake convention [per ceremonia].... I play them without the bass, and this is my true intention. Interestingly enough, this letter, first published in 1884, has reappeared in print as late as 1945 without any commentary on the passage quoted.2