Paganini
Subtitle: the 'demonic' virtuoso
By: Mai Kawabata
Publisher: Boydell Press
Published: 2013
Language: eng
Number of pages: 291
ISBN-13: 9781843837565
Subjects: Violinists; Influence; Biography
Description: "Our inherited image of Nicolo Paganini as a 'demonic violinist' has never been analysed in depth. What really made him 'demonic'? In fact, the many perceptions of Paganini as demonic - Faust, magician, devil, rake/libertine, Napoleon - were inter-related but not equivalent. This book investigates the legend of Paganini: separating fact from fiction, it explains how the legendary violinist challenged the very notion of what it meant to be a musician. An understanding of his violin techniques and musical ethos goes some way towards meeting this aim, beyond which an exploration of the wider cultural context is also presented. This book considers Paganini's performance innovations in the light of contemporary attitudes towards music and the supernatural, gender, sexuality, violence, heroism, masculinity, as well conceptions of power. A swirl of cultural factors coalesced in the performer to create that phenomenon of Romanticism, a larger-than- life Gothic villain. Because the mythology surrounding the violinist outlived and outgrew the man to monstrous proportions, so too did the idea of virtuosity inflate out of control, acquiring a potent, overwhelmingly negative aura in the process. An appendix brings together late nineteenth-century British press and literature coverage of Paganini that contributed to the developing myth surrounding the now famous composer and performer."--Publisher's description.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (pages 258-278), discography (page 278), filmography (page 278), web resources, and index.
Table of contents: title: Introduction. Paganini's historical context as a violinist ; Demystifying virtuosity ; The 'Paganini cult' ; On theorising virtuosity and 'performance studies' ; Demythologising Paganini; title: 'Demonic' violinist, magical virtuosity. Constructions of Paganini as 'demonic' ; Paganini on Paganini ; Conditions for 'demonisation'; title: Hypereroticism and violence. Hypereroticism ; Gendered power dynamics in performance ; Paganini as rock star; title: Sovereignty, domination, and conquest. Self-advancing entrepreneurialism ; 'Napoleonic' conquests ; Soloistic domination; title: Paganini's legacies. Paganini's misconstrued legacy of technique fetishisation ; Werktreue and virtuosity ; Paganini's legacy of self-expression ; Coda; title: Epilogue. Paganinian mythology : The fate of virtuosity among nineteenth-century Italian violinists ; The 'secret red book' ; Paganini's 'demonic' mythology after 1840 ; Paganini in film ; Paganini today; title: Appendix : Paganiniana in the British press (1840-1900). Paganini / Leigh Hunt ; The fancy concert / Leigh Hunt ; The violin (abridged from Blackwood's magazine) / Anonymous ; The devil's frills : a Dutch illustration of the water cure / Anonymous ; Paganini / Anonymous ; The wandering fiddler / Abraham Elder ; The fiddler's fate / Anonymous ; The mazed fiddler / W.J. Prowse ; Paganini's false teeth / Anonymous ; Paganini / Anonymous ; A vision of Paganini / Norman Oliphant ; Paganini's first love / Elise Polko ; The magician on the G string. A musical reminiscence of Weimar / Marian Millar ; The dead violin. An account of a strange occurrence / Walter Spinney ; New story of Paganini / Anonymous ; The violin of human strings / R.E. Andrews.