Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1873-04-12

his difficult charge over to Ghiretti, an
this master gave him three lessons
week in harmony and counterpoint. !
is not clear that this extraordinary &c
Mus owed much more to any one bu
himself-his indomitable perseverance
and his incessant study. His metho,
is to be noted. For 10 or u hours h
would try passages over and over agail
in different ways with such absorption
and intensity, that at nightfall he woulC
sink in utter prostration through exces
sive exhaustion and fatigue. Thougl
delicate like Mendelssohn, he ate at time
ravenously, and slept soundly. Whel
about 10 he wrote "A fugues, and sool
afterward composed some violin music
of such difficulty, that he was unable a
first to play it, until incessant practic,
gave him the mastery
In l797 Paganini, being then 13 years
old, made his first professional tour
but not as free agent. His father tool
him through the chief towns of LON
hardy, and not unpeturally prescribed
the task and pocketed the proceeds
But the young neck was already begin
ming to chafe against the yoke. In 1876
he escaped, with his fathers tardy con.
sent, to Lucca, where musical festival
in honor of St. Martin was going on.
Here he gave frequent concerts, and
was everywhere met with applause, and,
what was more to the purpose, with
money. Surrounded by men of inferior
talents, mere inexperienced youth,
without education, without knowledge
of the world, with nothing but ambi-
ton and his supreme musical genius,
he now broke wildly away from all wise
restraints, and avenged himself upon
his fathers severity by many youthful
excesses. He gambled-he lost-he
was duped by his companions; but he
made money so fast, that he soon owned
about 81, 900. 1t is pleasant to think
that he at once thought of giving some
of this to his father and mother; it is
unpleasant to record that his father
claimed, and eventually got, almost the
whole sum from fIm. But it did not
much matter now, for everything seem
ed literally to turn into gold beneath
those marvellous fingers, and bad luck
proved nearly as profitable to him as
good
BY the time he had reached II Paga-
mini was a confirmed gambler. He had
little left but his Stradiuarius violin,
and this he was on the point of selling
to a certain prince, who had offered him
$50, a large sum at the beginning of
this century even for a Stradiuarius.
Times have changed, and in those latter
days we think nothing of giving G300
for a genuine instrument of the first
class. But the reckless youth deter
mined to make a last stand for his vio-
lin, "Jewels, watch, rings, brooches,
to use his own words, g. had disposed
Of all-my 80 francs were reduced to 3.
With this small remains of my capital
| played, and won 100 francs! This
amount saved my violin, and restored
my affairs. From that time" he adds,
81 abiured gaming, to whiSh l had sac
nhced part of my youth, convinced
that gamester is an object of contempt
to all well-regulated minds" The
violin he narrowly missed losing was
given him by Pasini the painter, who,
on one occasion, brought him concer-
to Of extraordinary difficulty to read at
sight, and placing fine Stradiuarius in
his hands, said, "This instrument shall
be yours if you can play that concerto
at first sight in mastery manner.
eff that is the case, replied Paganini,
"you may bid adicu to it," and play
ing it off at once, he retained the violin.
Some years later, at Legborn, being
again in great straits, he was obliged to
part, for time at least, with this same
Stradiuarius but this disaster was only
the means of procuring him the favorite
Guarnerius, upon which he ever after
ward played. In his need, Monsieur
Livron, distinguished amateur, lent
him this splendid instrument, and was
so enraptured by his playing that he
exclaimed, "Never will profane the
strings that your fingers have touched.
1t is to you that my violin belongs"
This violin is still shown at Genoa I'M
der a glass case.
At the age of II Paganini appears to
have been entirely his own master
weak in health, nervous, irritable and
excitable; his wild anG irregular habits
and pursuits were, at this critical age,
threatening gtohurry him to an early grave
when an event occurred which, although
but too characteristic of the looseness
of italian manners, probably saved his
life. Suddenly, in the midst of new
discoveries and unexampled successes,
Paganini ceased to play the violin. He
retired into the depths of the country,
and devoted himself for three years to
agricultural pursuits, and to the society
of lady of rank who had carried him
off to her Tuscan estate, and to the gui.
tar. With the sole exception of the
late Regondi, no such genius has ever
been concentrated upon this limited and
effeminate instrument. But the lady's
taste ran that way, and the great violin
let lavished for time the whole force of
his originality and skill upon the light
guitar. He wrote music for it, and imi-
tated it on the violin, but seldom touch
ad n in after life until uuita the close.