Tantum ergo - Tartini (1692-1770) - Three High Voices

Contrapunctus Early Music - A High Voices Ensemble
David E. A. Acres, Director
www.Contrapunctus-EM.com
Recorded Live at The Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist, Cleveland, Ohio.
Giuseppe Tartini studied divinity and law at Padua, and at the same time established a reputation as a swordsman. Before the age of 20 he secretly married a protégée of the archbishop of Padua, resulting eventually in his arrest. Disguised as a monk, he fled from Padua and took refuge in a monastery at Assisi.
There his violin playing attracted attention and ultimately influenced the archbishop to allow Tartini to return to his wife in Padua. In 1716 he went to Venice, later to Ancona, and eventually back to Padua, where he was appointed principal violinist at the Church of San Antonio in 1721. He directed the orchestra of the chancellor of Bohemia in Prague (1723-26), then returned once again to Padua, where he founded (1728) a school of violin playing and composition. He made a concert tour of Italy in 1740.
Tartini’s playing was said to be remarkable for its combination of technical and poetic qualities, and his bowing became a model for later schools of violinists. His compositions include more than 100 violin concertos; numerous sonatas, including the Trillo del Diavolo (Devil’s Trill), written after 1735; quartets; trios; symphonies; and religious works, including a five-part Miserere, a four-part Salve Regina, Stabat Mater and tonight’s Tantum ergo, for which he wrote three different versions.