sposition proving unfitted to cope with
the jealousy of Lully, chief violinist in France, and with sundry
annoyances in other lands, he returned to Italy and entered the service
of Cardinal Ottoboni in Rome. In the private apartments of the prelate
there gathered a choice company of music lovers every Monday afternoon
to hear his latest compositions. Besides his solos these comprised
groups of idealized dance tunes with harmony of mood for their bond of
union, and played by two violins, a viola, violoncello and harpsichord.
They were the parents of modern Chamber Music, the place of assemblage
furnishing the name.

Refined taste and purity of tone, we are told, distinguished the playing
of Corelli, and to him are attributed the systematization of bowing and
the introduction of chord-playing. He heads the list of musicians who
protest against talking where there is music. On one occasion when his
patron was addressing some remarks to another person, he laid down his
violin, and on being asked the reason said "he feared the music was
disturbing the conversation." This did not prevent him from being held
in the highest esteem. After his death Cardinal Ottoboni had a costly
monument erected over his grave in the Pantheon, and for many years a
solemn service, consisting of selections from his works, was performed
there on the anniversary of his funeral.

It was during a period of retirement in the monastery of Assisi that
Giuseppi Tartini (1692-1770) resolved to quit the law course in the
University of Padua and seek a career with his violin. He became a great
master of this, a composer of works still regarded as classics, and a
scientific writer on musical physics. His letter to his pupil, Signora
Maddelena Lombardini, contains invaluable advice on violin practice and
study, especially on the use of the bow, and his treatise on the
acoustic phenomenon known as "the third sound," together with his work
on musical embellishments, may at any time be read with profit.

It was after hearing the eccentric violinist Veracini that His Satanic
Majesty appeared to Tartini in a dream and played for him a violin solo
surpassing in marvelous character anything that he had ever heard or
imagined. Trying to write it down in the morning he produced his famous
"Devil's Sonata," with its double shakes and sinister laugh, a favorite
of the violinist, but to the composer ever inferior to the music of his
dreams. It is rather curious that any