Well, up to this point I have never thought of making a WORLD for classical music. I love classical music to pieces. It is one of my very favorite genres.
In this WORLD I plan to get more people acquainted with classical music. I am going to pick one song by an author and put a little about the author in the post.
Today I'm featuring Giuseppe Tartini's famous Sonata The Devil's Trill
Giuseppe Tartini was born in Piran, a town on the peninsula of Istria, in the Republic of Venice (now in Slovenia) to an Italian father and Slovene mother.
It appears Tartini's parents intended him to become a Franciscan friar, and in this way he received a basic musical training. He studied law at the University of Padua, where he became very good at fencing. After his father's death in 1710, he married Elisabetta Premazone, a woman his father would have disapproved of because of her lower social class and age difference.
Unfortunately, Elisabetta was a favorite of the powerful Cardinal Giorgio Cornaro, who promptly charged Tartini with abduction. Tartini fled Padua to go to the monastery of St. Francis in Assisi, where he could escape prosecution; while there he took up playing the violin.
There is a legend that when Giuseppe Tartini heard Francesco Maria Veracini's playing in 1716, he was so impressed by it and so dissatisfied with his own skill, that he fled to Ancona and locked himself away in a room to practice.
Tartini's skill improved tremendously and in 1721 he was appointed Kapellmeister at Il Santo in Padua, with a contract that allowed him to play for other institutions if he wanted to. In Padua he met and befriended fellow composer and theorist Francesco Antonio Vallotti.
In 1726 Tartini started a violin school which attracted students from all over Europe. Gradually Tartini became more interested in the theory of harmony and acoustics, and from 1750 to the end of his life he published various treatises.
This video is a little choppy, but it was the best I could find.
Also, this video contains only the first movement of The Devil's Trill, which is about 14 minutes long. For the full version of the song here is the imeem link: LINK
---The story behind "Devil's Trill" starts with a dream. Tartini allegedly told the French astronomer Jérôme Lalande that he dreamed that The Devil appeared to him and asked to be his servant. At the end of their lessons Tartini handed the devil his violin to test his skill—the devil immediately began to play with such virtuosity that Tartini felt his breath taken away. When the composer awoke he immediately jotted down the sonata, desperately trying to recapture what he had heard in the dream. Despite the sonata being successful with his audiences, Tartini lamented that the piece was still far from what he had heard in his dream. What he had written was, in his own words: "so inferior to what he had heard, that if he could have subsisted on other means, he would have broken his violin and abandoned music forever."
Legend:
artini is mentioned in Madame Blavatsky's The Ensouled Violin, a short story included in the collection Nightmare Tales.
Tartini, the great composer and violinist of the XVIIth century, was denounced as one who got his best inspirations from the Evil One, with whom he was, it was said, in regular league. This accusation was, of course, due to the almost magical impression he produced upon his audiences. His inspired performance on the violin secured for him in his native country the title of “Master of Nations.” The Sonate du Diable, also called “Tartini’s Dream”—as every one who has heard it will be ready to testify—is the most weird melody ever heard or invented: hence, the marvellous composition has become the source of endless legends. Nor were they entirely baseless, since it was he, himself; who was shown to have originated them. Tartini confessed to having written it on awakening from a dream, in which he had heard his sonata performed by Satan, for his benefit, and in consequence of a bargain made with his infernal majesty.
Also,the anime 闇の末裔, Yami no Matsuei, Descendants of Darkness has an ark about the Devil's Trill-Devil's Trill (arc; tankōbon 2; episodes 4–6).
TAKEN FROM WIKIPEDIA
Today I am going to feature Niccolo Paganini and his Caprice No. 24.
Niccolo Paganini. (born Genoa, October 27, 1782, died Nice, May 27, 1840) was an Italian violinist, violist, guitarist, and composer. He was one of the most celebrated violin virtuosi of his time, and left his mark as one of the pillars of modern violin technique. His caprice in A minor, Op. 1 No. 24 is among his best known compositions, and serves as inspiration for other prominent artists from Johannes Brahms to Sergei Rachmaninoff.
About: Caprice No. 24 in A minor is the final caprice of Niccolo Paganini's 24 Caprices, and a famous work for solo violin. The work, in the key of A minor, consists of a theme, 11 variations, and a finale.
It is widely considered one of the most difficult pieces written for the solo violin. It requires many highly advanced techniques such as parallel octaves and rapid shifting covering many intervals, extremely fast scales and arpeggios including minor scales in thirds and tenths, left hand pizzicato, high positions, and quick string crossing. As a result, many violinists after studying for many years still lack the technique required for such a demanding piece.
[Taken From Wikipedia]
Paganini is one of my favorite violinist composers. He was amazing. Everything from his life to his flamboyant way of playing his violin.
Niccolo Paganini's Legacy:
A minor planet 2859 Paganini discovered in 1978 by Soviet astronomer Nikolai Stepanovich Chernykh is named after him.
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