Paganini
“This man with the long black hair and the pale countenance, opens to us with his violin a world which we had never imagined, except perhaps in dreams. There is in his appearance something so supernatural that one looks for a glimpse of a cloven hoof or an angel’s wing”
Paganini remains one of the most famous virtuosos in the history of music. His concerts were not only astonishing, but controversial. People could not believe what Paganini was able to do; consequently, they explained such virtuosity with diabolic myths, finding in the musician the protagonist of a bizarre tale. However, Paganini was far from being just a myth. He was one of the most famous virtuosos of the fist half of nineteenth century. His name appeared on the cover of several journals, and even books were written about him. His technique represented a “new approach” to the interpretation and exploration of the violin at the time. Moreover, Paganini was the first great virtuoso able to make his audience feel the music inside of them like a spark of emotions exploding from the inside. The intention of this paper is to get a closer look to the phenomenon called Paganini. I will analyze his image from a historical perspective, in order to get a better understanding of the socio-cultural factors that played an important role in the popularity of the musician.
Some Annotations for the G String
Although Paganini was not the first one employing only one violin string in an entire work[1] (Pulver 56), he is perhaps the first violinist famous for doing so. Thus, Paganini is remembered for his concerts with only the G string attached to his violin. Myths were created by the audience who could not believe in the ...
... middle of paper ...
...Violin Concerto. Ann Arbor: UMI Microform, 2001. 86-116.
Pulver, Jefrey. Paganini The Romantic Virtuoso. New York: Da Capo Press, 1970.
Saussine, Renee. Paganini. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc, 1954.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[1] “Mozart’s father tells us of Michael von Esser (born 1736) who played with astonishing ease upon the fourth string, while Friedrich Wilhelm Rust wrote a Sonata (dated 1796) for a single string. The latter composition remained hidden in manuscript-form until after Paganini’s death, and he certainly did not derive his inspiration from that source (Pulver 56).
[2] These are the most popular premises of Romanticism. For an interesting discussion about this topic, read “Romanticism Today”, written by Edward Kravitt. The Musical Quarterly. Vol. 76, 1992 No.1 93-109.
To this day, many of Stradivarius violins remain in the human world, but only one can resound with the beauty of Stradivari's soul; this one Hermes keeps for himself. But to honor Stradivari's life and to share his gift with the world, Hermes joins with Apollo every night and plays the symphonies of nature; these can be heard in the winds, in the oceans, indeed, in the fabric of everyday life.
It was not only until the spring of that year that he for first time left Hamburg professionally. He undertook a tour with the Hungarian violinist Eduard Remenyi for the purpose of introducing himself and his works. At Gottingen they gave a concert in which the young pianist made a deep impression upon the musicians present. He and Remenyi were to play Beethoven?s Kreutzer sonata, but at the last moment it was discovered that the piano was half a tone too low.
John Dowland (1563-1626) was a composer of Renaissance England and considered one of the most prolific and well-known composers of English lute song. A composer and accomplished lutenist, he is probably the most well traveled English composer of his time. Through his travels he was exposed to the musical elements of his Italian, French and German contemporaries. He developed his own musical language, in which he created a unique style for the lute song. As a composer, he focused on the development of melodic material and was able to elegantly blend words and music with a wide range of emotion and technique. For the purpose of this document we will focus on the influence of his Italian travels. John Dowland’s use of chromaticism in his lute songs as can be directly associated with such as “All ye whom love or fortune.” In these pieces, we can see the influence on this genre through his travels to Italy and encounters with such composers as Marenzio.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was undoubtedly one of the greatest composers of not only the classical era, but of all time. On January 27, 1756 in Salzburg, Austria, Mozart was born into an already musically talented family. His father Leopold, a composer and musician, and sister Nannerl toured parts of Europe giving many successful performances, including some before royalty. At the young age of 17, Mozart was appointed Konzertmeister at the Salzburg Court. It was there that young Mozart composed two successful operas: “Mitridate” and “Lucio Silla”. In 1981 he was dismissed from his position at the Salzburg Court. He went on to compose over 600 works including 27 piano Concertos, 18 Masses (including his most famous, the Requiem), and 17 piano sonatas. Mozart was not often known for having radical form or harmonic innovation but rather, most of his music had a natural flow, repetition and simple harmonic structure.
Turner, Jane. "Bellini, Giovanni." The Dictionary of Art. Vol. 3. New York: Grove, 1996. 657-68. Print. This book provided a wealth of knowledge and information regarding everything involving the artist Giovanni Bellini. The information was extremely detailed and was used in writing both the biography and analyses.
Though he did not walk until he was three years old, Mozart displayed musical gifts at an extremely early age. At the age of four, he could reproduce on the piano a melody played to him; at five, he could play the violin with perfect intonation. In fact, with more recent evidence, Mozart is believed to have written his first composition just a few short days before his fourth birthday! These compositions, an Andante and Allegro K1a and K1b, were written, Leopold noted, early in 1760, as he approached his fourth birthday. They are very brief, and modelled on the little pieces that his sister had been given to play (and which he also learnt; the "Wolfgang Notenbuch" is a forgery). As they survive only in his father's handwriting, it is impossible to determine how much of them are Mozart's own work.
Romanticism has been described as a “‘Protestantism in the arts and letters’, an ideological shift on the grand scale from conservative to liberal ideas”. (Keenan, 2005) It was a movement into the era of imagination and feelings instead of objective reasoning.
TitleAuthor/ EditorPublisherDate James Galways’ Music in TimeWilliam MannMichael Beazley Publishers1982 The Concise Oxford History of MusicGerald AbrahamOxford University Press1979 Music in Western CivilizationPaul Henry LangW. W. Norton and Company1941 The Ultimate Encyclopaedia of Classical MusicRobert AinsleyCarlton Books Limited1995 The Cambridge Music GuideStanley SadieCambridge University Press1985 School text: Western European Orchestral MusicMary AllenHamilton Girls’ High School1999 History of MusicRoy BennettCambridge University Press1982 Classical Music for DummiesDavid PogueIDG Books Worldwide,Inc1997
From the Early Renaissance to the High Renaissance, there was a movement from vocal music to a combination of vocal and instrumental music (Brown, 1976). There are seven categories of instrumental music: 1) vocal music played by instruments, 2) settings of pre-existing melodies, 3) variation sets, 4) ricercars, fantasias, and canzonas, 5) preludes, preambles, and toccatas for solo instruments, 6) dance music, and 7) songs composed specifically for lute and solo voice (Brown, 1976). Italy dominated the stage for instrumental music at this time, and it was not until the last decades of the sixteenth century that English instrumental music became popular (Brow...
Again, by reflecting on Mozart’s arrangements and the everyday sounds of nature, for example, the simile “dry crickets call like birds” (24), it brings the persona back to her first encounter of love, and the love of music that has been lost due to time. Therefore, as Harwood yearns to become one with her own self through the journey of music, she aims to restore this longing sensation with her spirit and bodily mind with music, but this can only be achieved through time and the journey to understand herself (Beston 1975, p.
Baroque music is characterized by its development of tonality, elaborate use of ornamentation, application of figured bass, and the expression of single affections. A considerable philosophical current that shaped baroque music is the interest in Renaissance ideas that spawn from ancient Greece and Rome. Ancient Greeks and Romans considered music to be an instrument of communication that could easily stimulate any emotion in its listeners. Therefore, musicians became progressively knowledgeable of the power one’s composition could have on its audiences’ emotions. Because of this, one of the primary goals of baroque art and music was to provoke emotion in the listener, which is closely connected to the “doctrine of affections”. This doctrine, derived from ancient theories of rhetoric and oratory, was the theory that a single piece of art or a single movement of music should express one single emotion. Intrinsically, instead of music reflecting the emotions, composers aspired to cause emotions in the listener. Ma...
John Warrack, author of 6 Great Composers, stated, “Any study of a composer, however brief, must have as its only purpose encouragement of the reader to greater enjoyment of the music” (Warrack, p.2). The composers and musicians of the Renaissance period need to be discussed and studied so that listeners, performers, and readers can appreciate and understand the beginnings of music theory and form. The reader can also understand the driving force of the composer, whether sacred or secular, popularity or religious growth. To begin understanding music composition one must begin at the birth, or rebirth of music and the composers who created the great change.
Mozart was a successful composer and violinist. He used the form of concerto (like the
Roughly from 1815 to 1910, this period of time is called the romantic period. At this period, all arts are transforming from classic arts by having greater emphasis on the qualities of remoteness and strangeness in essence. The influence of romanticism in music particularly, has shown that romantic composers value the freedom of expression, movement, passion, and endless pursuit of the unattainable fantasy and imagination. The composers of the romantic period are in search of new subject matters, more emotional and are more expressive of their feelings as they are not bounded by structural rules in classical music where order, equilibrium, control and perfection are deemed important (Dorak, 2000).
Franz Liszt is said to be the most astounding piano virtuosos that existed during the Romantic era. This essay will discuss his achievements as a pianist as well as a composer. This essay will examine his life and will examine what influenced him at an early age. It will also look at his accomplishments as a pianist as well as a composer and examine how he became as well known as he is today. It will use his background to show what exactly influenced him to become a successful pianist and composer and it will discuss how essential he was during the Romantic era.