The Devil S Violinist

Niccolo Paganini

Paganini

"Our inherited image of Nicolo Paganini as a 'demonic violinist' has never been analysed in depth. What really made him 'demonic'? In fact, the many perceptions of Paganini as demonic - Faust, magician, devil, rake/libertine, Napoleon - were inter-related but not equivalent. This book investigates the legend of Paganini: separating fact from fiction, it explains how the legendary violinist challenged the very notion of what it meant to be a musician. An understanding of his violin techniques and musical ethos goes some way towards meeting this aim, beyond which an exploration of the wider cultural context is also presented. This book considers Paganini's performance innovations in the light of contemporary attitudes towards music and the supernatural, gender, sexuality, violence, heroism, masculinity, as well conceptions of power. A swirl of cultural factors coalesced in the performer to create that phenomenon of Romanticism, a larger-than- life Gothic villain. Because the mythology surrounding the violinist outlived and outgrew the man to monstrous proportions, so too did the idea of virtuosity inflate out of control, acquiring a potent, overwhelmingly negative aura in the process. An appendix brings together late nineteenth-century British press and literature coverage of Paganini that contributed to the developing myth surrounding the now famous composer and performer."--Publisher's description.

The Violin

Provides new perspectives on the violin's beloved concert repertoire, its diverse roles in indigenous musical traditions on four continents, and its metaphorical presence in visual arts and literature. With a colorful history that spans 450 years, the violin has proven to be one of the world's most important and versatile instruments. Addressed to performing musicians, serious concertgoers, and collectors of recordings, The Violin offers insightful, up-to-date essays on a wide range of topics. Essays discuss beloved masterpieces from the violin's solo repertoire, with individual chapters on the Italian Baroque, Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, and the violin concerto in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, as well as the evolution of performance styles and interpretation as documented in recordings. The volume also illustrates the broad cultural and geographic reach of the instrument, offering readers a taste of the traditional music of Argentina, Mexico, Norway, and India, in which the violin's participation is an essential and characteristic element. Other chapters are devoted to American fiddling andto the violin and violinists as metaphors in literature and the visual arts. CONTRIBUTORS: Chris Goertzen, Eitan Ornoy, Robert Riggs, Peter Walls, Peter Wollny. Musicologist and violinist Robert Riggs (PhD, Harvard University) chairs the Department of Music at the University of Mississippi and is the author of articles on Mozart as well as the monograph Leon Kirchner: Composer, Performer, and Teacher (URP 2010).