Books › Famous violinists and fine violins : historical notes, anecdotes, and reminiscences, 1896 › scan 74
Scan 74
Famous violinists and fine violins : historical notes, anecdotes, and reminiscences, 1896
6 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 54. See the scan on archive.org.
1teaching of the boy Paganini. Instruction ceased when he was only thirteen; all the rest is due to his own initiative, to his natural gift for music, and his indomitable determination to shine as a brilliant virtuoso. Nevertheless, short as his career of instruction was, it laid down a good, healthy foundation; we can feel the influence of these invaluable lessons of Ghiretti and Paër on almost every page of music that Paganini wrote.
3There have been so many errors, and downright falsehoods, published about Paganini, many of which he quietly allowed to circulate without any contradiction—because the "wily Italian" knew perfectly well that they would only serve to advertise his name, and to draw crowds of people to his concerts—that it is no easy task to get at the real man as nature made him and art perfected him.
5The great difficulty of Paganini's music is generally uppermost in men's minds when this genius of the violin happens to come forward in conversation; but though it was, doubtless, extremely difficult, and quite incomprehensible for the period in which he lived, when most violinists, like the immortal Corelli, rarely ventured beyond the third position, it loses much of this quality when compared with the music performed by many modern violinists. I could point to pieces by Prume, Wieniawski, and my old friend, the late Henri
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