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TartiniSound : The technique of the right hand. In finding, as did Rousseau, a criterion for the beautiful, Tartini attached the greatest importance to the art of " singing on the violin " . Though Tartini never composed music for the opera, he could not have failed to come into contact with the influence of the operatic bel canto with its warmth and uplift, its portamenti and various melodic ornaments and the influence of expressive human song. Also of influence were the chamber and folk songs, especially the Italian and Slavic songs that were so familiar to him. " Non suona, ma canta sul violino " was what his contemporaries said of Tartini's playing. This is confirmed by the numerous compositions in which he uses the expressive violin cantilena. In this respect, as in several others, Tartini was developing the precepts of Arcangelo Corelli's school, remembering the " singing " of Corelli's bow, the song-like slow movements of his violin sonatas and also the broad " breath " of his pupils' bows, especially that of Giovanni Battista Somis. However, following the spirit of the times and his own esthetic convictions, Tartini went further than Corelli. This was in the content of the violin's " singing " ; its " objective " character was replaced by a more subjective and emotional use of the expressive mode, which was also more lyrical and soulful. " Giuseppe Tartini is one of the leading figures of the Italian school of violin-playing in the 18th century, a school whose art is as meaningful today as it ever has been " - David Oistrakh The importance that Tartini attached to the song-like quality and to the development of the broad violin tone can be seen from one of the principal exercises that he recommended in his letter to a pupil. It consists of so-called " son filé " , " sustained tones " ; exercises in these sounds have since then become a stable element in violin teaching. In Regole per ben suanare il Violino ( Rules for playing the violin well ) by Tartini, and rewritten by his pupil Giovanni Francesco Nicolai, Tartini differentiates two manners of playing : cantabile and sonabile. According to him, the singing manner of playing cantabile required slurring and coherence, as distinct from sonabile. Tartini used to say to his pupils, " per ben suonare bisogna ben cantare " ( " to play well it is necessary to sing well " ). Without doubt this applied both to the cantilena and to the technical passages that Tartini wished to hear not only well played, but also well " sung " . " There is no doubt but that Tartini stood for the truest expression of the beauty of violin playing, for the best example of style, in the broadest sense of the word, of his epoch. " - Leopold Auer There can be no doubt that Michelangelo Abbado is right when in his research into Tartini's works he finds " more eloquent and unprejudiced " evidence of the exceptional expression and song-like quality of Tartini's style in the compositions of the latter ( especially in the cantabile and mournful ones ) and often in his adagios, which are soulful and song-like in the Slavic manner. In spite of the influence of vocal art that we have already noted, the song-like qualities of the Tartini style of bowing had their own instrumental specific features. For all the similarity of the sound of the violin and the human voice, that of the violin has its own expressive peculiarities close to those of the human voice, but by no means coinciding with them. The peculiarities of vibrato, portamento and articulation in performance on the violin that are connected with the art of bowing, dynamics, etc. were things for which Tartini had a profound understanding. He gave them full play in his art, in complete accord with the nature of the expressive modes of the violin. Tartini did not simply sing on the violin, he sang expressively. According to his contemporaries, when Tartini heard a violinist who played well, but formally, he remarked , " It's beautiful, it's difficult, but it says nothing to the heart. " When talking of the cellist Antonio Vandini and wishing to stress the extreme expressiveness of his manner of playing, cotemporaries said that he was skilled in " speaking " on his cello. There can be no doubt that Tartini also possessed this skill in a high degree. His singing on the violin had a rare expressiveness, a wealth of dynamic colours, a beautiful vibrato which he played on a par with other ornaments designed to intensify the melodic expression, and it was refined in artistic taste. It is of interest to note that Tartini achieved this exceptional expression in his performance, according to some accounts, with a relatively soft tone and with a comparatively limited use of vibrato. What helped to create the expression was the rare profundity of the playing and important qualities such as sweetness and warmth of tone ( no wonder Carlo Gozzi talks of Tartini's " sweet violin ! ", exceptional purity of intonation, accomplished articulation of the musical phrase, complete mastery of bowing, and " speaking " bowing ( that accorded with the element of declamation in poetic human speech ) . Click here for a Tartini "Allegro Assai" for Solo Violin ( soon ! ) |
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