ged as
conductor and remained in that position three years, then returning to
his old post at Padua, from which nothing induced him to part, except
for brief intervals. At Padua Tartini carried on the chief work of his
life and established the Paduan school of violin playing. His ability as
a teacher is proved by the large number of excellent pupils he formed.
Nardini, Bini, Manfredi, Ferrari, Graun, and Lahoussaye are among the
most eminent, and were attached to him by bonds of most intimate
friendship to his life's end.

Tartini's contemporaries all agree in crediting him with those
qualities which make a great player. He had a fine tone, unlimited
command of finger-board and bow, enabling him to overcome the greatest
difficulties with remarkable ease, perfect intonation in double stops,
and a most brilliant shake and double-shake, which he executed equally
well with all fingers. The spirit of rivalry had no place in his amiable
and gentle disposition. Both as a player and composer Tartini was the
true successor of Corelli, representing in both respects the next step
in the development of the art.

Tartini lived until the year 1770. He had, as Doctor Burney says, "no
other children than his scholars, of whom his care was constantly
paternal," Nardini, his first and favourite pupil, came from Leghorn to
see him in his sickness and attend him in his last moments with true
filial affection and tenderness. He was buried in the Church of St.
Catharine, a solemn requiem being held in the chapel of San Antonio,
and at a later period his memory was honoured by a statue which was
erected in the Prato della Valle, a public walk at Padua, where it may
be seen among the statues of the most eminent men connected with that
famous university.

Jean Marie Leclair, a pupil of Somis, was a Frenchman, born at Lyons,
and he began life as a dancer at the Rouen Theatre. He went to Turin as
ballet master and met Somis, who induced him to take up the violin and
apply himself to serious study. On returning to Paris, he was appointed
ripieno-violinist at the Opera, and in 1731 became a member of the royal
band, but he, although undoubtedly superior to any violinist in Paris at
that time, never seems to have made much of a success, for he resigned
his positions and occupied himself exclusively with teaching and
composition, and it is on the merits of his works that he occupies a
high place among the great classical masters of the violin. Lec