Books › The violin and its music, 1881 › scan 290
Scan 290
The violin and its music, 1881
4 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1even this splendid instrument was all but sacrificed. Paganini being deeply in want of money to pay his debts of honour, and remembering a certain Prince had long wished to possess his Guarnerius, he was on the point of gratifying his desire, when he received an invitation to a card party at a friend's house; hastening thence with but thirty francs at his disposal, he risked his all; resolving, if fortune proved fickle, to sell to the Prince his Violin and travel to St. Petersburg to begin anew. His venture, however, yielded him some few pounds, and his Guarnerius was saved to him. From that moment he renounced gambling.
3About this period Paganini is said to have composed his first studies, included in the twenty-four published as Op. 1, the character of which is similar to those of Locatelli in his "Arte di Nuova Modulazione," but far surpassing them in point of difficulty. These studies were taken to Paris by Andreozzi long before the extraordinary skill of the composer was known to French Violinists. Their appearance there created a deep impression; the difficulties they presented were so problematical, and under forms so peculiar, that many doubted the possibility of their execution, and looked upon the publication as a work of mystification. The famous French Violinist, Habeneck, endeavoured to solve these musical enigmas, but at length abandoned them, failing to discover their application to the pure music of the great composers;
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