Niccolò Paganini

Niccolò Paganini is a Violoniste, Altiste and Compositeur Italy N (born with Genoa the October 27th 1782, died with Nice the May 27th 1840).

Biography

After having studied the violin near his father, he studied with Parma with Alessandro Rolla and started to carry out rounds in concerts as of the fifteen years age. He played of the compositions written to show the extent of his talents. He attempted to preserve a certain mystery on his techniques of play and was one of the first musicians to manage his career with an unquestionable direction of publicity.

Many professors followed one another during the schooling of Paganini. The young pupil a little too being endowed, much were not with the height (Giovanni Servetto, violin choirmaster; Giacomo Costa, first violin of the principal churches of Genoa). Others estimated not to have anything to learn to him in the technique violin, like Alessandro Rolla in Parma, which had advised with the family of the virtuoso the marquis di Negro, amazed by the musical services of Niccolò.

However, apart from the violin, Paganini accepted, of the share in particular of Gasparo Ghiretti and its own pupil, Ferdinando Paër, of the lessons of composition: harmonize, counterpoint and instrumentation to him was taught three times per week by Paër for approximately six months.

Its compositions and inter alia the Twenty-four Whims for solo violin contributed to develop the technique of this instrument with the use of the mixture of the techniques Pizzicato and arco (with this characteristic to make its pizzicato left hand), the doubles Harmonique S or the play on a cord enabling him to carry out all the Mose-Fantasia on the only cord of ground (the most serious cord of the violin).

In addition to its talents of violonist, it was a Guitariste of quality and wrote many parts for violin and guitar like for guitar alone; it was even able to present concerts in which it played alternatively of these two instruments.

It is possible that Paganini suffered from the Syndrome of Marfan, which consists of a hyperlaxity ligamentaire. At all events, it profited, in addition to innate talents and a developed technique, of a particular morphology: its hands, without being larger than the normal, were equipped with an extensibility except standards. “Thus, for example, it printed with the first phalanges of the fingers of the left hand which touched the cords, an extraordinary movement of inflection, which carried them, without its hand not getting out of order, in the side direction at their natural inflection, and that with facility, precision and speed. ” Its technique created sensation as of its more young age.

It is reported that its hearing was remarkably developed: “The delicacy of the hearing of Paganini exceeds all that one could imagine In the middle of the noisiest activity of the percussion instruments of the orchestra, it was enough for him to a light touch of the finger to grant its violin; he also judged, in the same circumstances, of the discordance of an instrument of the least noisy and that, at an incredible distance. ” (Bennati)

Two meetings will mark the musician appreciably:

Frederic Lasting (or Duranowski), violonist Polish of French origin, met about 1795.
Hector Berlioz, met in 1833 after a voyage of this last in Italy. Paganini ordered a concerto for viola to him which was in fact the symphonia concertante for viola Harold in Italy (1834). However, never the violonist did not play work.

Influence

Paganini is a type-setter of the extremely rich period consisted the end of the classicism and the beginning of the romanticism, at the beginning of the 19th century. It is thus contemporary of Beethoven, Schubert, Rossini, Chopin, Liszt, Berlioz, of which some will become friends of the type-setter (Berlioz will compose for him " Harold in Italie" , Liszt will be inspired as of its whims to write various works for piano alone, for example). But Paganini is not a simple contemporary of the birth of the romanticism, he is one of the major creators. Just like work of Chopin and Liszt will insert the piano in the romantic universe, just like those of Beethoven and Berlioz metamorphoses symphonic art, Paganini revolutionizes the technique and the use of the violin.

Although having composed relatively little, Paganini leaves major works which will influence the majority of the type-setters of works for violin, or violin and orchestra, succeeding to him. One can quote here Vieuxtemps, Spohr, Wienawski, Mendelssohn, Saint-Saëns, Sibelius, or Glière, inter alia. It is noted that this influence is not limited to the 19th century but continues until XXe, even if one sees gradually appearing different compositions, like those of Tchaïkovski and Rimski-Korsakov, then Kabalevski, Chostakovitch or Prokofiev. Just as for the first romantic ones caused, it is rather difficult to find antecedents with the style and the technique of Paganini, even if one can think of work of Locatelli (" arte LED violino"), or Vivaldi to a certain extent.

Concerning this influence, one thinks quite naturally of the 24 Whims, direct, virtuoso and impressive exposure of all the capacities of the violin, which remain today the references for any violonist in terms of technique. Paganini there condenses the technical difficulties of the instrument indeed, but also brings a new way of using it terribly expressive and alive. This will is found, perhaps amplified, in its six concertos for violin and orchestra. Even if nowadays, one looks at sometimes these works like pure glorifications of the soloist, simple technical demonstrations written to reveal the talents of amazing virtuosos of Paganini, it would be erroneous to reduce them to this single dimension. If the orchestration remains little developed compared to following type-setter, it is not therefore rudimentary. In addition to the violin itself, many effects accompanying it (use of wood, the pizzicati, and the triangle, in particular) struck the spirits by their originality and their perspicacity, and were included in other works. Certain passages of the orchestra sometimes too fixed will be regretted, but it is necessary to relativize this criticism compared to the context of the time. What perhaps strikes more at Paganini, it is the relevance and the precision of the effects and the topics which he proposes, which it is through the violin or via the orchestra. Good number of them will be recovered for other works, that it is completely (Rhapsody on a topic of Paganini de Rachmaninov, Campagnella de Liszt, etc) or only by bits (variegations of the violin of its 4th and 5th concertos for example). It is perhaps that, this " power magnetically communicatrice" as Balzac said it, which perhaps justifies best the expression devoted to describe the art of Paganini: the violin of the Devil.

Posément, Carl Guhr, Kapellmeister (director artistic) of the theater of Frankfurt, after many times having observed and having listened to Paganini, distinguished in an article devoted to in Paganini with the violon" , about 1829-30, 6 major differences, between Paganini and " all others violonistes" , 6 principal innovations: - method of adjustment of the instrument (shifting certain notes of a semitone, for example), " it is to be hoped that it will share this secrecy with the world entier" ,

- the way in which its body is inclined, while he plays, in connection with vitality and energy of its works,

- combination of the notes to the bow and pizzicati of the left hand. This technique seems to have existed in old Italian works, but was eclipsed by the French schools and Allemande.

- Its use of the harmonics. " One can say with certainty that the majority of the safety and the clearness of Paganini to the violin are related to its complete control of the harmoniques".

- Its compositions for the only cord of the Ground,

- its " feat of ingenuity. I cannot better describe this in question. Each person hearing it for the first time is at the same time excited and astonished Paganini can touch the deepest pits of the heart. What is without precedent. The effect is beyond all description"

Anecdotes and quotations

Rossini had cried three times in its life: during the fall of its first opera, during a walk in boat when a truffée turkey fell inopportunely to water, and finally when he heard for the first Paganini time.

In the prohibition, Balzac written " in its brush has what Paganini had in its bow, a power magnetically communicative".

Schubert known as of him: " In the adagio of Paganini, I heard the song of the Angels. One will never see nobody like lui".

Liszt: " What a man! What a violin! What a artist! What a suffering, what a distresses, what a torments these four cords can express! "

Following the first concert of Paganini to Paris in 1831 (what doubled the price of the tickets), Ludwig Boerne declared: " It was an enthusiasm divine, diabolic, I never did not see or heard something of similar of all my life. All people became fous."

François Castil-Blaze: " Sell all what you have, sell off all, but will hear it. It is most impressive, more surprising, most marvellous, most miraculous, most unexpected of the phenomena never survenus."

Thanks to its many concerts (several hundreds in a few years) in Europe (as from 1831 in Paris then London), Paganini gained several times its own gold weight. What did not have, of course, ever be carried out.

Works

Six concertos for violin :

Concerto n°1 for violin, opus 6 of 1816

Concerto n°2 for violin, of 1826
Concerto n°3 for violin, of 1826

Concerto n°4 for violin, of 1830
Concerto n°5 for violin, of 1830

Concerto n°6 for violin is an early work of before 1815, found in 1972 in a London antique dealer arrived in the shape of two booklets not autographs)

Twenty-four Whims for v '' iolon solo

Two sonatas and two sonatines for guitar

Fifteen quartets for cords and guitar

Five trios for cords and guitar

Three quartets for cords

Sonata for the large viol with orchestra.

Variations on a comic topic continued by the orchestra.

God Save The King , opus 9, varied for the violin, with orchestra.

Streghe , opus 8, variations on an air of ballet of S. Mayer and Vigano, with orchestra.

Variations on Not più mesta , opus 12, of Cenerentola .

Great sentimental sonata.

Sonata with variations.

Adagio into Semi major (1826).

Primavera , sonata without accompaniment.

Warsaw , sonata.

Ci darem the mano , variations according to an air of Mozart ( Don Juan ).

the Carnival of Venice .

Variations on Di tanti palpiti , opus 13 (Rossini).

Marie-Louise , sonata.

Lovesong for the song.

Cantabile for violin and piano.

Polonaise with variations.

the convent of the Holy Mount Bernard

Pezzo per corno, fagotto E orchestrated

Tarentella

vocal Fantaisie.

Sonata for violin alone.

Cantabile and waltz.

Three duets for violin and violoncello.

Movimento Perpetuo , opus 11.

Duet for a violin (combining bow and pizzicato left hand).

Oh! mamma! , opus 10

Sixty variations on the air Barucaba (1835).

As well as multiple works for violin and guitar:

Centone di Sonate

Cantabile in Re maggiore

Twelve Sonata di Lucca

Duetto Amoroso

Entrata d' Adone nella reggia di Venere

Twelve sonata for violin and guitar

Moto Perpetuo

Sonata concertata

Cantabile E Valtz

Variazioni sul Barucabà

Sei Duetti

Carmagnola idiot variazioni

Grande sonata concertata

External bonds

Biography of Paganini
Biography and comments
the six Concertos
free Partitions of the whims for violin 1 & 2 in Mutopia
| Documentary on the life of Paganini, English YouTube

See too

List of the Violonist romantic S.
Music

Simple: Niccolò Paganini Zh-min-nan: Niccolò Paganini

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