tune. "If you do not hear the bass," Tartini would say to his pupils,
"the thirds or sixths which you are playing are not perfect in
intonation."

At Ancona, Tartini attained such reputation as a player and musician
that he was appointed, in 1721, to the directorship of the orchestra of
the church of St. Anthony at Padua. Here, according to Fetis, he spent
the remaining forty-nine years of his life in peace and comfort, solely
occupied with the labors connected with the art he loved.

His great fame brought him repeated offers from the principal cities of
Europe, even London and Paris, hat nothing could induce him to leave his
beloved Italy. Though Tartini could not have been heard out of Italy,
his violin school at Padua graduated many excellent players, who were
widely known throughout the musical world. Tartini's compositions
reached no less than one hundred and fifty works, distinguished not only
by beauty of melody and knowledge of the violin, but by soundness
of musical science. Some of his sonatas are still favorites in the
concert-room. Among these, the most celebrated is the "Trille
del Dia-volo," or "Devil's Sonata," composed under the following
circumstances, as related by Tartini himself to his pupil Lalande:

"One night in 1713," he says, "I dreamed that I had made a compact with
the devil, who promised to be at my service on all occasions. Everything
succeeded according to my mind; my wishes were anticipated and desires
always surpassed by the assistance of my new servant. At last I thought
I would offer my violin to the devil, in order to discover what kind of
a musician he was, when, to my great astonishment, I heard him play
a solo, so singularly beautiful and with such superior taste and
precision, that it surpassed all the music I had ever heard or conceived