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Niccolo Paganini • You do not need to write down everything on this powerpoint. Read each section and then summarize it in your notes. You don’t have a lot of room on your notes page so write smaller (not you, Joshua Washer ) and be selective about what is important. Being able to read and summarize is a good skill to develop as you get ready for high school!
Niccolo Paganini • When he was a child, Paganini had a severe case of measles. He was so sick, that it was thought that he was dead and family and friends began to wrap his body for burial. This illness weakened his body permanently and he was sickly for the rest of his life. • His father was aware of the wealth that Mozart’s great talent had brought to his family. (Mozart was in his twenties when Paganini was born.) Antonio, Niccolo’s father, dreamed of the wealth that a prodigy of his own would bring.
Niccolo Paganini • He forced Niccolo to practice long hours and punished him severely for making a mistake. He allowed him very little opportunity for play or relaxation. • At age 8, Paganini composed his first violin sonata. • At age 9 he began playing for church functions. • At 13, he was referred to as the “wonder-child.” His father began searching for a greater teacher to continue his musical education.
Niccolo Paganini • He auditioned for Alessandro Rolla, a famous violin teacher, after which Rollo refused to take him as a student, stating that he could teach him nothing. • Upon returning home, Paganini set up his own regimen of practicing 15 hours a day. He began traveling around Italy and surprising audiences with his amazing technique. • Soon his father’s rule over him began to prove unbearable. In 1798 his brother traveled with him to a performances in several cities. He earned enough money to support himself and finally decided to never return to his father’s house again.
Niccolo Paganini • As a sixteen-year-old he was now free but did not have control over his impulses. He began to gamble and soon gambling had a strong hold on him. He would frequently lose more in one sitting than he could earn in several weeks. Many times he was forced to pawn his violin to pay off a debt. • On one occasion his was scheduled to give a concert, but his violin was in the pawn shop. A friend offered to lend him his own personal (very valuable) Guaneri violin. (Remember Amati, Stradivari and Guaneri were famous violin makers.)
Niccolo Paganini • At Paganini’s concert, he played the violin so beautifully and his friend was so enchanted with his playing, that he gave the precious violin to Paganini as a gift. • Not long after, Paganini almost lost the famous violin in gambling. The next morning when he realized how close he had come to gambling away his most precious possession, he vowed to never gamble again -------- and he kept his promise. • When he died he owned eleven Stradivari, two Amati, four Guarneri, a Stradivari viola and double bass.
Niccolo Paganini • For many years Paganini performed in Italy alone. His poor health made it difficult for him to travel. Finally, in 1828 (He would have been 46), he traveled to Vienna. People LOVED him! There were clothes and food and delicacies named after him. His picture was on everything. Franz Liszt said of him, What a man! What a violin! What an artist! What sufferings, what misery, what torture in those four strings!”
Niccolo Paganini • Everywhere he went, his reputation arrived ahead of him. He concerts were filled to capacity. He did things no other violinist could do. His extraordinary displays of talent because to spark stories about the source of his talent. Rumors began to fly. One listener claimed to have seen the devil at his elbow guiding his bow. He was called the “Hexensohn “ or “witch’s brat.” People began to believe that he got his amazing talent with help from the devil.
The Faust Legend • Most people of Paganini’s day were familiar with the Faust legend. It had been a book, a story, a play, an opera --- all forms of the same story. A man makes a deal with the devil -- The devil promises to give him all he wishes in his life but when it comes time for him to die, the devil gets to take his soul to hell. When someone had extraordinary wealth, beauty, talent, skill, etc., the common thought was that he must have “sold his soul to the devil.”
Niccolo Paganini • So --- along comes Paganini who could do things no one else had ever done --- and people began to say he had sold his soul to the devil. People would cross themselves if they happened to touch him. He had to produce a birth certificate to prove he had human parents. People would poke him with objects just to see if he was really made of flesh and blood. • Now, Paganini could have gotten extremely annoyed with this but he decided to use it to his advantage. If people thought he was the devil, then -------------
Niccolo Paganini • --------- he would just give them what they wanted. He would arrive at concerts in an all black carriage drawn by all black horses. He wore his black hair down to his shoulders and would enter the stage wearing a long black cape and proceed to play the entire concert by memory. No one had ever performed a concert from memory before. • Audiences were in awe of this talent and assumed it was because of the help he received from the devil.
Niccolo Paganini • Paganini innovations included: • left-hand pizzicato • scordatura (mis-tuning of srings to enable the violinist to play in another key without shifting) • unorthodox bowing such as bouncing the bow on the strings • playing an entire song on one string (Sometimes he would intentionally break strings during a concert to enhance the effect of playing on one string.) • memorizing an entire concert
Niccolo Paganini • One article says, • “Pretty soon, newspapers gave up trying to describe his concerts which left everyone speechless. Nobody could add to the list of exhausted adjectives used to praise his perfomances. Violinists attended his concert to hear the many who dared to compose the impossible 24 Caprices, and who had the nerve to claim that he could play them too. “
Niccolo Paganini • Amazing things Paganini could do ------ • Stretch his fingers to twice their length • Reach third position on the violin with his hand still in first position • Turn his wrist completely around • Play 22 notes in a second
Niccolo Paganini Composition: 24 Caprices for Solo Violin
Published on Oct 23, 2012 • First performance in the world played live in one concert (without interval)! • Paganini's 24 Caprices performed by Nikolay Madoyan.
Key Words for Paganini • Italy • “The Devil Himself” • 24 Caprices • Broken violin strings • Gambling
