Francesco Maria Veracini

Francesco Maria Veracini (1 February 1690 – 31 October 1768) was an Italian composer and violinist, perhaps best known for his sets of violin sonatas. As a composer, according to Manfred Bukofzer, "His individual, if not subjective, style has no precedent in baroque music and clearly heralds the end of the entire era" (Bukofzer 1947, 234), while Luigi Torchi maintained that "he rescued the imperiled music of the eighteenth century" (Torchi 1901, 180). His contemporary, Charles Burney, held that "he had certainly a great share of whim and caprice, but he built his freaks on a good foundation, being an excellent contrapuntist" (Burney 1789, 4:569). The asteroid 10875 Veracini was named after him.