Niccolò Paganini
Italian violinist, violist, guitarist, and composer
1782 CE to 1840 CE
Niccolò (or Nicolò) Paganini (27 October 1782 – 27 May 1840) is an Italian violinist, violist, guitarist, and composer.
He is one of the most celebrated violin virtuosi of his time, and leaves his mark as one of the pillars of modern violin technique.
His Caprice No.
24 in A minor, Op.
1, is among the best known of his compositions, and has served as an inspiration for many prominent composers.
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Niccolò, who had started learning the mandolin from his father at the age of five, had moved to the violin by the age of seven.
His musical talents had been quickly recognized, earning him numerous scholarships for violin lessons.
The young Paganini studied under various local violinists, including Giovanni Servetto and Giacomo Costa, but his progress had quickly outpaced their abilities.
Paganini and his father then traveled to Parma to seek further guidance from Alessandro Rolla, but upon listening to Paganini's playing, Rolla immediately referred him to his own teacher, Ferdinando Paer and, later, Paer's own teacher, Gasparo Ghiretti.
Though Paganini did not stay long with Paer or Ghiretti, the two had considerable influence on his composition style.
The French had invaded northern Italy in March 1796, and Genoa was not spared.
The Paganinis sought refuge in their country property in Romairone, near Bolzaneto.
It was in this period that Paganini is thought to have developed his relationship with the guitar.
He has become rather adept on this instrument, but prefers to play it in exclusively intimate, rather than public concerts.
He will later describe the guitar as his "constant companion" on his concert tours.
By 1800, Paganini and his father had traveled to Livorno, where Paganini played in concerts and his father resumed his maritime work.
In 1801, the eighteen-year-old Paganini is appointed first violin of the Republic of Lucca, but a substantial portion of his income comes from freelancing.
His fame as a violinist is matched only by his reputation as a gambler and womanizer.
Niccolò Paganini's first break comes from an 1813 concert that takes place at La Scala in Milan.
The concert is a great success, and as a result, Paganini begins to attract the attention of other prominent, albeit more conservative, musicians across Europe.
His early encounters with Charles Philippe Lafont and Louis Spohr create intense rivalry.
His concert activities, however, will still be limited to Italy for the next few years.
Paganini was born in 1782 Genoa, Italy, the third of the six children of Antonio and Teresa (née Bocciardo) Paganini.
Paganini's father is an unsuccessful trader, but he has managed to supplement his income through playing music on the mandolin.
At the age of five, Paganini had started learning the mandolin from his father, and moved to the violin by the age of seven.
His musical talents were quickly recognized, earning him numerous scholarships for violin lessons.
The young Paganini had studied under various local violinists, including Giovanni Servetto and Giacomo Costa, but his progress had quickly outpaced their abilities.
Paganini and his father had then traveled to Parma to seek further guidance from Alessandro Rolla.
But upon listening to Paganini's playing, Rolla immediately referred him to his own teacher, Ferdinando Paer and, later, Paer's own teacher, Gasparo Ghiretti.
Though Paganini did not stay long with Paer or Ghiretti, the two had considerable influence on his composition style.
The French had invaded northern Italy in March 1796, and Genoa was not spared.
The Paganinis sought refuge in their country property in Romairone, near Bolzaneto.
By 1800, Paganini and his father had traveled to Livorno, where Paganini had played in concerts and his father had resumed his maritime work.
In 1801, Paganini, aged 18 at the time, had won an appointment as first violin of the Republic of Lucca, but a substantial portion of his income came from freelancing.
His fame as a violinist is matched only by his reputation as a gambler and womanizer.
In 1805, Lucca had been annexed by Napoleonic France, and the region was ceded to Napoleon's sister, Elisa Baciocchi.
Paganini had then become a violinist for the Baciocchi court, while giving private lessons to her husband, Felice.
In 1807, Baciocchi had become the Grand Duchess of Tuscany and her court was transferred to Florence.
Paganini was part of the entourage, but, towards the end of 1809, he had left Baciocchi to resume his freelance career.
Paganini had returned to touring in the areas surrounding Parma and Genoa for the past few years,
He is very popular with the local audience, but he is still not very well known in Europe.
Hector Berlioz promotes a concert in which his Symphonie fantastique (which he had extensively revised in Italy) and Le retour à la vie are performed.
Attending, among others, were Victor Hugo, Alexandre Dumas, père, Heinrich Heine, Niccolò Paganini, Franz Liszt, Frédéric Chopin, George Sand, Alfred de Vigny, Théophile Gautier, Jules Janin and Harriet Smithson.
At this time, Berlioz also had met playwright Ernest Legouvé who becomes a lifelong friend.
This followed fifteen months spent in Italy, nearly killing his former fiancée’s family: after discovering a deeper romantic side of himself that will continue to affect his music forever, he had returned to Paris in November 1832 to promote his music.
A few days after the performance, Berlioz and the Irish actress Harriet Smithson, the inspiration for his Symphonie Fantastique, are finally introduced and immediately formed a relationship.
Despite Berlioz not understanding spoken English and Harriet not knowing any French, they marry in a civil ceremony at the British Embassy on October 3, 1833, with Liszt as one of the witnesses.
Robert Schumann founds Die Neue Zeitschrift für Musik ("New Journal in Music"), first published on April 3, 1834.
An arch-Romantic composer, he publishes most of his critical writings in the Journal, and often lambastes the popular taste for flashy technical displays from figures Schumann perceives as inferior composers.
Schumann campaigns to revive interest in major composers of the past, including Mozart, Beethoven, and Weber, while he also promotes the work of some contemporary composers, including Chopin (who does not like Schumann's work) and Berlioz, whom he praises for creating music of substance.
On the other hand, Schumann will disparage the school of Liszt and Wagner.
He had at the age of fourteen written an essay on the aesthetics of music and contributed to a volume, edited by his bookseller father, titled Portraits of Famous Men.
While still at school in his birthplace of Zwickau, Saxony, he had read the works of the German poet-philosophers Friedrich Schiller and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, as well as Byron and the Greek tragedians.
His most powerful and permanent literary inspiration is Jean Paul, whose influence is seen in Schumann's youthful novels Juniusabende, completed in 1826, and Selene.
Schumann's interest in music had been piqued as a child by the performance of Ignaz Moscheles playing at Carlsbad, and he had developed an interest in the works of Beethoven, Schubert, and Mendelssohn later.
His father, however, who had encouraged the boy's musical aspirations, had died in 1826, and neither his mother nor his guardian would encourage a career for him in music.
In 1828, he left school, and after a tour, during which he met Heinrich Heine in Munich, he had gone to Leipzig to study law.
In 1829, his law studies continued in Heidelberg.
During Easter 1830, he had heard Paganini play in Frankfurt.
In July, he wrote to his mother, "My whole life has been a struggle between Poetry and Prose, or call it Music and Law."
By Christmas he was back in Leipzig, taking piano lessons from his old master, Friedrich Wieck, who assured him that he would be a successful concert pianist.
During his studies with Wieck, Schumann had permanently injured his right hand.
One suggested cause of this injury is that he damaged his finger by the use of a mechanical device designed to strengthen the weakest fingers, which held back one finger while he exercised the others.
Others have suggested that the injury was a side-effect of syphilis medication.
A more dramatic idea is that in an attempt to increase the independence of his fourth finger, he may have carried out a surgical procedure to separate the tendons of the fourth finger from those of the third.
Whatever the cause of the injury, Schumann had abandoned ideas of a concert career and devoted himself instead to composition.
To this end, he had begun a course of theory under Heinrich Dorn, the conductor of the Leipzig opera.
About this time, he had considered composing an opera on the subject of Hamlet.
Niccolò Paganini commissions Hector Berlioz to compose a viola concerto, intending to premiere it as soloist.
This becomes the symphony for viola and orchestra, Harold en Italie, based on Byron’s “Childe Harold.”
The premiere of the piece is held later in 1834.
After initially rejecting the piece, Paganini, as Berlioz's Mémoires recount, kneels before Berlioz in front of the orchestra after hearing it for the first time and proclaims him a genius and heir to Beethoven.
The next day he sends Berlioz a gift of twenty thousand francs, the generosity of which leaves Berlioz uncharacteristically lost for words.
Around this time, Berlioz decides to conduct most of his own concerts, tired as he is of conductors who do not understand his music.
This decision launches what is to become a lucrative and creatively fruitful career in conducting music, both his and that of other leading composers.