Charles Burney

The Present State of Music in France and Italy (2nd, corrected edition)

London: T. Becket and Co., 1773

Padua

sured me that his dear and honoured
master, as he constantly called him, was
as much superior to himself, in the per-
formance of the same solos, both in the
pathetic and brilliant parts, as he was to
any one of his scholars.

With regard to the complaint made by
common readers, of obscurity in his
Treatise of Music, and the abuse of ma-
thematics, of which he is accused by men
of science, they are points which this is
not the place to discuss. Perhaps a more
exact character of this work cannot be
given than that of M. Rousseau, who says,
" If the System of the celebrated Tar-
" tini is not that of nature, it is at least
" that of which the principles are the most
" simple, and from which all the laws of
" harmony seem to arise in a less ar-
" bitrary manner, than in any other
" which has been hitherto published *."