Books › Biographical notice of Nicolo Paganini, with an analysis of his compositions, and a sketch of the history of the violin, 1876 › scan 29
Scan 29
Biographical notice of Nicolo Paganini, with an analysis of his compositions, and a sketch of the history of the violin, 1876
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1Overcome with surprise and pleasure, I lost my breath, which violent sensation awoke me. I instantly seized my Violin in the hope of remembering some portion of what I had heard, but in vain. The piece which this dream suggested, and which I wrote at the time, is doubtless the best of all my compositions, and I still call it "Sonata del Diavolo," but it sinks so much into insignificance compared with what I heard, that I would have broken my instrument and abandoned music for ever, had my means permitted me to do so."
3Among the pupils of Corelli, one of the most distinguished was Geminiani, who was born at Lucca, about 1680. Having terminated his studies under this celebrated master, he went to England in 1714, made some good pupils there, and died in Dublin, the 17th of September, 1762, in his eighty-third year. His execution was brilliant and solid, but his compositions were wanting in imagination, being only a weak imitation of Vivaldi's style. Somis, another pupil of Corelli, was born in Piedmont, towards the close of the seventeenth century, and had visited Rome and Venice in his youth, for the purpose of learning under the virtuosi of that period. Corelli made him study his sonatas, and Somis at first became attached to his style, but when he heard Vivaldi, he modified his style, and copied him in his compositions. Somis was the founder of the Piedmontese Violin school, which, after the death of Tartini, greatly influenced the art of playing upon this instrument. Baptiste Anet, better known as Baptiste, who received lessons from Corelli, came to Paris about 1700, and was considered a prodigy, not at all surprising at a period when, according to Lully, "the best violinists of the opera, and of the king's band, were incapable of playing their parts without previous study." Rather a mediocre musician, Baptiste made but one pupil, Senaillé, so that he effected no improvement in the formation of a French school of violinists. Besides, he resided only five years in Paris, having accepted a position in Poland which was offered to him.
5The glory of laying the foundation of a Violin school in France was reserved for Jean Marie Leclair, pupil of Somis, and a cele-
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