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Why was paganini called the devil's violinist

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NICOLO PAGANINI:
HIS LIFE AND WORK.

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Nicolo Paganini: His Life and Work, by Stephen Samuel Stratton This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org Title: Nicolo Paganini: His Life and Work Author: Stephen Samuel Stratton Release Date: April 29, 2012 [EBook #39571] Language: English Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NICOLO PAGANINI: HIS LIFE AND WORK *** Produced by Bryan Ness, Henry Flower and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This book was produced from scanned images of public domain material from the Google Print project.)

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PRINTED BY E. SHORE AND CO.,
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"THE STRAD" LIBRARY, No. XVII.

BY
STEPHEN S. STRATTON.

"Natura il fece, e poi ruppe la stampa."
Ariosto.

WITH TWENTY-SEVEN ILLUSTRA

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Niccolò Paganini

(1782-1840)

Who Was Niccolò Paganini?

Italian virtuoso violinist Niccolò Paganini may be the perfect example of nature meets nurture. Taught the violin by his father as a child and tutored by the best teachers, Paganini was considered a prodigy. The ferocity with which he played, coupled with his elongated fingers and extraordinary flexibility, gave him a mysterious, almost mythical reputation. Mobbed in the street and rumored to have a deal with the devil to achieve the heights of his virtuoso performances, he ultimately became considered the greatest violinist of all time.

Early Life

Niccolò Paganini was born in Genoa, Italy, on October 27, 1782, the third of six children born to Teresa and Antonio Paganini. Paganini's father was in the shipping business, but he also played the mandolin and began teaching his son the violin at an early age. Paganini's mother had high hopes of her son becoming a famous violist.

When Paganini had exhausted his father's abilities, he was sent to the best tutors in Genoa, primarily in the theater, where he learned harmony

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Niccolò Paganini was born on October 27, 1782 in Genoa, in a building that no longer exists at 38 Via Gatta Mora, to Antonio Paganini and Teresa Bocciardo. At the age of seven he was initiated by his father, an amateur musician and packer of goods at the port, into the study of the mandolin, a very popular instrument in Genoa, followed later by that of the violin and guitar: the study regimen imposed by his father, who hoped to make his son a musical phenomenon, was harsh and forced Paganini into hardships and days of intense study. The father's study of the mandolin was not easy.

From 1792 Paganini was tutored by violinist Giovanni Cervetto, composer Francesco Gnecco, and later Giacomo Costa; on May 31, 1794, 11-year-old Niccolò performed for the first time as a soloist at the San Filippo Oratorio. In 1796 he attended Alessandro Rolla's lessons in Parma. After holding two academies in Modena in December 1800, he returned to Genoa in 1801 and deepened his study of the guitar; with this instrument, of which he would acquire absolute mastery, Paganini

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