The Devil’s Violinist
Have you ever heard of La Campanella? Yes, La Campanella, one of the most beautiful pieces and the hardest pieces to learn. La Campanella is a masterpiece created by Niccolo Paganini (a violinist) and Franz Liszt (a pianist). These two musical gods aren’t odd for classical musicians, but for you who read it now maybe you don’t know who they are. In this article, let me tell you the famous story of one of these two musical gods who people know him as The Devil’s Violinist, Niccolo Paganini.
The greatest violinist of all time was born on 27 October 1782 in Genoa, Italy. He started playing music at age 5, even at age 15, this incredibly gifted human set up solo tours! Paganini began his public concert career in 1809, presenting in towns in Northern, Italy. He would sometimes imitate the sounds of animals, the sighs and groans of lovers, and the weeping of old women. It aimed to ingratiate himself with provincial taste (Sugden 37–38, 50).
Paganini was performing mostly his composition which represented his prodigious, revolutionary technique. Of all violinists, Paganini chose to perform various compositions without sheet music, memorizing every composition. Paganini also could play 12 notes per second straightaway and his long fingers were able to do three octaves in a hand span! His virtuosity was so beyond that of other violinists that contamporaries rumored he had owed his extraordinary gifts to the Devil. In addition, people also believed that his mother had made a pact with the Devil, sold his son’s soul for the chance to be the greatest in history. Paganini was very much aware of it, reacted privately disapproving of the rumor to his friends, yet he used the public image of demonic violinist as an opportunity to establish commercial gains.
One day, Matthäus Nikolas de Ghetaldi, chief magistrate of Ragusa (now Dubrovnik, Croatia) met Paganini in Venice in 1824 and heard him play. He wrote letters about linking Paganini with the Devil. One of the letter, dated 2 october 1824, contains:
[18 October 1824]
Yesterday evening Messer Sorgo told us that Paganini was now playing every evening in the cemetery on the Lido. So we went over and found a big crowd sitting and standing round listening to Paganini play. Some people were amused but most of them — with tears in their eyes — said that it was touching that this great artist played every evening free for the dead. On the way home there was a Dominican monk in the gondola who said that Paganini had sold his soul to the devil, and the Bishop had given orders not to allow him in the cemetery any more because he profaned the holy place. With that we threw him overboard. (Courcy I, 234–35)
The rumors got worse and haunted Paganini’s career. Two Viennese newspapers critics stated that he is the greatest instrumentalist music had ever known, yet they said that the extraordinary virtuosity was believed as a demonic force. Paganini himself didn’t take seriously what the letter-written after his sensational Paris debut in 1831-said about the association of him and Devil. He said:
“A still more ridiculous report in Vienna tested the credulity of some enthusiasts. I played the variations entitled Le Streghe, which made quite an impression. One individual, who was described to me as of a sallow complexion, melancholy air, and bright eye, stated that he saw nothing surprising in my performance since, while I was playing my variations, he had distinctly seen the devil at my elbow directing my arm and guiding my bow. My resemblance to him was proof of my origin. He was clothed in red, had horns on his head, and carried his tail between his legs. After a minute description, you will understand that it was impossible to doubt the fact; hence, many were persuaded that they had discovered the secret of what one calls my tours de force.”
In the association of Paganini and Devil, people started to integrate it with Paganini’s physical appearance. Paganini was tall and thin with long black hair, “flaming eyes” and “thin lips that held a sardonic smile” in his pale face. Paganini sent words to his close friend and personal lawyer, Luigi Germi, from Liverpool in 1832: “Now no one ever asks if one has heard Paganini, but if one has seen him. To tell you the truth, I regret that there is a general opinion among all classes that I’m in collusion with the devil. The papers talk too much about my outward appearance, which arouses incredible curiosity” (Courcy II, 89).
At age 54, Paganini had signed out from public performance and decided to be a teacher because of poor health issues. After 4 years suffering from ill, Paganini died in his rented room in Nice in 1840 without ever having his last rites. The Bishop of Nice and the churchmen refused to bury his body with Christian Burial. Rumors of him having a pact with the Devil still haunted him even after he died.
References:
Kawabata, M. (2013). Paganini: The demonic virtuoso. Boydell & Brewer.
