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compofer, than any 'other author who flonrifhed during the 

 firft fifty or fixty years of the laft century. Though he 

 made CorelU his model in the purity of his harmony, and 

 fimplicity of his modulation, lie greatly furpafTed that com- 

 pofer in the fertility and originality of his invention ; not 

 only ill the fubieas of his melodies, but in the truly canta- 

 bile manner oi treating them. Many of his adagios want 

 nothing but words to be excellent pathetic opera fongs. 

 His allegros are fometimes difficult ; but the paffages fairly 

 belong to the inftrumeiit for which they were compofed, 

 and were fuggclled by his confummate knowledge of the 

 finger-board, and powers of the bow. He certainly repeats 

 his paffages, and adheres to his original mollvo, or theme, 

 too much, for the favountc defultory ilyle of the prefent 

 times ; but it niuft be allowed that by his delicate feleftion 

 and arrangement of notes, his patTages are always good ; 

 play them quick, or play them flow, they never feem un- 

 mc-ining or fortuitous. 



Indeed, as aharmonill, he was perhaps more truly fcientific 

 than any other compofer of his time, in the clear.nefs, charafter, 

 and precifion of his bafes ; which were never cafual, or the 

 cffeA of habit or auricular prejudice and expeftation, but 

 learned, judicious, and certain. Yet, with all our partiality 

 for his ftyle, talents, and abihties, as well as veneration for 

 his principles and chara<Eler, we muft, in juftice to others, 

 own, that though the adagio and folo playing in general 

 of Ws fcholars were exquifitely polifhed and expreffive, yet 

 it feems as if that energy, fire, and freedom of bow, which 

 modern fymphonifts and orcheftra-playing require, were 

 wanting. Perhaps the refinement of a Nardini and force of 

 a Viotti are incompatible. 



Since the time of Tartini, the produftions of Boccherini, 

 Haydn, Vanhal, Mozart, Pleyel, and others, have occa- 

 fioned fuch a revolution in violin-mufic and playing, by the 

 fertility and boldnefs of their invention, that compofitions 

 which were then generally thought full of fpirit and fire, 

 appear now totally tame and infipid. 



This admirable mufician and worthy man died the 26th 

 of February, 1770, to the great regret of the inhabitants 

 of the city of Padua, where he had refided nearly fifty years, 

 and where he was not only regarded as its chief and moft 

 attraftive ornament, but philolopher, faint, and fage. He 

 had no children. 



M. de Lalande fays, he had from his own mouth the fol- 

 lowing Angular anecdote, which ihews to what degree his 

 imagination was inflamed by the genius of compofition. 

 " He dreamed one night, in 1713, that he had made a 

 compaft writh the devil, vi-ho promifed to be at his fervice 

 on all occafions ; and during this vifion every thing fuc- 

 ceeded according to his mind ; his wifhes were prevented, 

 and his defires always furpafTed by the affiftance of his new 

 fervant. In fhort, he imagined he gave the devil his violin, 

 in order to difcover what kind of a mufician he was ; when, 

 to his great aftonifhment, he heard him play a folo fo Angu- 

 larly beautiful, and executed with fuch fuperior tafte and 

 precifion, that it furpaffed all he had ever heard or conceived 

 in his life. So great was his furprife, and fo exquifite his 

 delight upon this occafion, that it deprived him of the 

 power of breathing. He awoke with the violence of this 

 fenfation, and inftantly feized his fiddle, in hopes of ex- 

 preffing what he had juft heard, but in vain ; he, however, 

 then compofed a piece, which is perhaps the beft of all his 

 works, (he called it the Devil's Sonata,) but it was fo in- 

 ferior to what his fleep had produced, that he declared he 

 fhould have broken his inftrument and abandoned mufic for 

 ever, if he could have fubfifted by any other means." 

 He was one of the few compofers of his time, who con- 



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ftantly drew from his own fource ; his melody was full of 

 fire and fancy, and his harmony, though k-arned, yet fimple 

 and pure ; and as a performer, iiis (low movements evince 

 his tafte and expreffion, and his hvely ones his great hand. 

 He was the firft who knew and taught the power of the 

 bow ; and his knowledge of the finger-board is proved by 

 a thoufand beautiful pafiages, to which that alone could 

 give birth. His fcholar, Nardini, who played to us many 

 of his beft folos, as we thought, very well, with refpeft to 

 correftnefs and expreffion, affured us that his dear and 

 honoured matter, as he conftantly called him, was as much 

 fuperior to himfelf in the performance of the fame folos, 

 both in the pathetic and brilliant parts, as he was to any 

 one of his fcholars. 



Of his theoretical writings, we have had occafion to fpeak 

 frequently and freely in former articles, particularly in our 

 analyfis of his System, and Stillingfleet's Commentary. See 

 Stillingfleet. 



His praftical works or compofitions, always for his own 

 inftrument, the violin, confift of twelve folos on Corelli's 

 model, fix with double ftops and fugues, with fix of a lighter 

 kind, in fingle ftops, op. 1*, fix folos, op. 2', publiftied by 

 WaKh, about the year 1 746, in a more free and original ftyle. 

 The firft of this fet, in E*, which was Brown's " Cheval de 

 Battaille," appeared more than ten years at every concert at 

 which he performed a folo in London. Two fets of concertos, in 

 a very florid and difficult ftyle, collefted in MS. by travellers, 

 and publiftied in Holland by Le Cene and Witvogel with- 

 out the author's permiffion, he called in, and cancelled the 

 plates. However, we procured a copy from Holland, that 

 was printed after the plates were fcratched. We fcored 

 feveral of them, and found more beautiful paffages, more 

 difficulties and knowledge of the finger-board, than in any 

 other violin folo concertos which w^ had ever feen. Many 

 feta of beautiful folos were printed at Paris of his compofi- 

 tion, which are wholly unknown in England. More than 

 200 of his violin concertos and folos were difperfed over the 

 continent in MS. ; many of his unedited folos we procured 

 from his favourite difciple Nardini, at Florence, after his de- 

 ceafe. If the concertos which he compofed for his own per- 

 formance in the church of St. Antonio de Padua could be pro- 

 cured, they would probably be in a grave and ecclefiaftical 

 ftyle, peculiarly fuitable to the place and piety of the author. 



TARTON Raire, in Botany, a name ufed by fome 

 authors for the heath-fpurge, or that fpecies of the thymelsa 

 which is called yannaman^a in the catalogues of the Materia 

 Medica. 



TARTOOR, in Geography, a town of Hindooftan, in 

 the circar of Cicacole ; 9 miles S. of Vifianagram. 



TARTRATES, or Tartrites, in Chemlflry, falts 

 formed by the combination of any bafe with the tartareous 

 acid. Thefe falts are numerous ; as with fome the acid 

 forms two falts, differing in the proportions of the acid and 

 bafe, and alfo as it is liable to form triple falts in which two 

 bafes are united with their refpeftive portion of acid into one 

 uniform compound. All the foluble alkaline and earthy tar- 

 trites, the latter being lefs foluble than the former, are de- 

 compofed by the falts of lead, and the acid of all is deftroyed 

 by calcination, leaving the bafe in the ftate of carbonate. 



Tartrate, Super, of Potajlj, is a combination of potafli 

 and tartareous acid in excefs (whence its name), and to which 

 it is owing that it has an acid tafte, and that it reddens blue 

 vegetable colours. This is the cream of tartar; or tartarum 

 actdulum, the nature and manufafture of which have been 

 defcribed under the article Tartar. (See alfo Super-tar^ 

 trate of potajh under Salts.) This fait is not foluble with- 

 out great difficulty, requiring about 30 part* of boiling 



water. 



