This is the 2nd part of a five-part series thoroughly analyzing Giuseppe Tartini’s The Devil’s Trill Sonata. If you want to learn about Tartini’s personal history, the backstory of the piece, as well as a brief discussion of a few other links between the violin and the devil, click here to the first part!
In the last part we provided the context, gave a bit of history. Now, let’s finally look at the actual music with the first movement…
Let’s begin with the main melodic line (0:36-1:00 in the YouTube video linked here). As you can see in the sheet music above, it’s quite a unique melody, to say the least. There’s a plethora of different notes; quarter notes, dotted quarter notes, eighth notes, all of them to emphasize, to push and pull, while the slurs and ties allow them to glide and swim through as a coherent melody. The variety’s refreshing, as many melodies have an obvious and repetitive pattern, and while it may look messy visually, it sounds distinct. This plays into the rhythm, which I feel is a main component of why this melody is so powerful (as it is the backbone to any melody). Like I said, the note variations means that the timing is constantly different, so it wouldn’t be easy for an audience to clap along to this as they might a dance beat. Take Beethoven’s Ode to Joy for example:
This is a basic 4/4 pattern. It’s on the nose, and if you had a metronome playing the music would align perfectly with the beat. Everything’s even, most of the notes are quarter notes, creating a hypnotic rhythm and overall melody, yes, but it’s not exactly rhythmically extraordinary (save for the touch of emphasis in the 4th bar). Regardless of whether you can read sheet music or not, visually you can see that Beethoven’s melody is much cleaner than Tartini’s. They’re both brilliant musical lines, but The Devil’s Trill holds a certain quality to it that, while slightly more complicated and maybe less memorable, is undeniably brilliant.
I also feel like the time signature of 12/8 allows for considerable room for the melody to “breathe.” Looking at two ways we could write it gives us a good idea of the expanse and quirkiness of the time signature:
The above example is written using eighth notes, everything tying together with the emphasis on the first beat of every triplet. The next is using dotted quarter notes:
Compare these two variations to more popular and simpler time signatures, like 4/4 and 6/8:
Especially with 4/4, they’re fairly rigid time signatures in comparison to the expansive 12/8. There isn’t much room for variation, all notes needing to be tied up perfectly before moving onto the next bar. The only way to cheat this (that I can think of) would be to add a tie between two notes of the same tone in order to bypass the bar line. 12/8 doesn’t need to do this as it has all the space, time, and flexibility to do what it wishes, and in Tartini’s melody, he takes advantage of this availability with flourish. Every broken pause, every second of a tone held slightly longer than normal, is taken advantage of and adds more meaning and variety and uniqueness to the melody and to the story that’s being told. Speaking of stories…
I like to think of movements as chapters in a story, and to me, this 1st movement tells a story of damnation. Emotionally, the listener is guided through a wide range. From sorrow, to anger, to bitterness, to despair, to resentment…Every imaginable emotion that one can imagine when they think of what it is to be damned is represented in this piece. When we think back on the lore, we know that it was in Tartini’s dream that he sold his soul to the devil, so we could say that it is Tartini himself who has been damned and this is his cry. However, given that it was the devil who actually played this piece, it could also be interpreted that this is Satan’s retelling of his emotions as he was cast from heaven. Either way, the next part (my favourite part) of the movement combines both of these theories. Listen to 2:37 - 3:05 from the video.
The above sheet music is a rough estimation of what was played. It features a technique very significant to the piece, and that is something called double stops. This is when two notes are played simultaneously on two separate strings of the violin. From what I know of the violin (which is very little and experienced only through my few months of recently practicing the instrument), this is extremely difficult. The violinist would have to angle the bow at a specific angle to hit both of the strings while alienating the others, plus they’d have to keep that bowing consistent while also playing the written notes required. Never mind dynamics. You can hear from the audio what this sounds like when done successfully, and I think it’s absolutely beautiful.
Now, The Devil’s Trill is specifically known for its demanding double stop trills, and while this specific portion doesn’t feature those, the “basic” double stops are more than enough because their integration is the highlight of this story in my mind. Upon first hearing the piece, I thought this section was played using two violins, not one. I began to create a narrative in which Tartini and the devil were playing a duet. It sounded like two twin voices weaving in and out of sound together, echoing each others’ pain while playing a game in which one would lead, the other supporting harmoniously, until the first would hand off the melody to the second and they would take turns crying out their individual pain with the other always backing.
That’s just what I imagine when I listen to this portion, but combined with the technical element, it overall makes for an astounding first movement to a legendary piece. I think if anyone were to listen to any one of the four movements we’re going to cover, it should be this one. It’ll get you hooked onto the rest, anyway.
In the next part we’ll take a look at the much more energetic and almost comical 2nd movement!
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