Nicolo Paganini

[MaestroX]

Nicolo Paganini's handspan was apparently 18 inches from his thumb to his pinky; people claimed he sold his soul to the devil for his sensational skills. At the age of thirty he suddenly stopped practicing. Why? He just plain... didn't have to anymore.

The rumors that he sold his soul for the ability to play the violin so well, that he had the devil as a teacher, that he was the devil himself... Those were possibly started by people amazed by his skills, but they were definitely encouraged by Paganini himself. He loved the publicity. In fact, that one time his string snapped and he continued on the remaining strings without any trouble? After that huge success with the audience (they went wild), he began arranging for thin strings that would snap easily, so that he could pull off the same effect in future performances.

[Thorolf]

Originally Posted by MaestroX

At the age of thirty he suddenly stopped practicing. Why? He just plain... didn't have to anymore.

Well, the story is actually a little more interresting: There was a guy who wanted to find Paganini’s “secret”, so he followed him on tour to see what he did. Disappointed he returned only to report that there was nothing to report: The master didn’t practice. The only unusual thing, was that he sat in a chair in his hotel room with the curtains closed and lights down for one or two hours before each concert.

Little did he know that this was being used as a demonstration of the powers of practicing mentally by 20th century musicologists…

Regards

[Will Kirk]

Originally Posted by MaestroX

His handspan was apparently 18 inches from his thumb to his pinky; people claimed he sold his soul to the devil for his sensational skills. At the age of thirty he suddenly stopped practicing. Why? He just plain... didn't have to anymore.

The rumors that he sold his soul for the ability to play the violin so well, that he had the devil as a teacher, that he was the devil himself... Those were possibly started by people amazed by his skills, but they were definitely encouraged by Paganini himself. He loved the publicity. In fact, that one time his string snapped and he continued on the remaining strings without any trouble? After that huge success with the audience (they went wild), he began arranging for thin strings that would snap easily, so that he could pull off the same effect in future performances.

Well actually a major contributer to his amazing talent was that he possessed Absolute pitch for the time period. (I love that you've started a thread about him, he's one of my favorite musicians of the Romantic period) And when Niccolo was a child, his father first taught him the mandolin, then guitar, and he eventually moved onto Violin. His father was a perfectionist and demanded his son to practice for hours on end. If he didn't he would be beaten and even starved until he would. When he was only 7 he was taken to one of the leading teachers of the violin at the time Allessandro Rolla, and Rolla proclaimed that he could teach him nothing. (And this is still when he was below 4 feet tall!) At age twenty or so, he managed to land a gig in which he was to be the last musician to play. But he was indiscreet enough to choose to play a 29 minute concerto The performance was described as "Unique" in the way that Paganini would mimic the other instruments of the orchestra with his violin. Later in life, he began to suffer from Syphillis, A result of his lavish and rampant social life, Cancer of the Larynx would be his death, and on the night that he died, his servants said that he could be heard improvising wildly on his violin, until he finally died.

Originally Posted by MaestroX

In fact, that one time his string snapped and he continued on the remaining strings without any trouble? After that huge success with the audience (they went wild), he began arranging for thin strings that would snap easily, so that he could pull off the same effect in future performances.

Well after that particular performance, he would intentionally nick the strings so that they would last until the very last minute where he would deliberately break the D A and E string and finish the recital on the G string alone (An incredible feat in and of itself)

that's all the random facts I can think of about him at the moment I may post more later

[Majesty]

This was all so interesting to read! I don't know much about Paganini and I think this info would be a nice addition to the encyclopedia.

[reith]

No matter what showmanship he applied, his technique must have been formidable. I know his first 2 concertos fairly well (still prefer the Menuhin recordings). Things like double-stop harmonics...even trying to play one is hard enough but moving around in two part harmony harmonics? That's before we get to the last movement of #2. Wha-a-at?
Well, there are gifted people who can carry this off technically but for most, a lifetime would hardly seem enough to acquire it.