Paganini

Author(s): Sabilla Novello

Source: The Musical Times and Singing Class Circular , Dec. 1, 1855, Vol. 7, No. 154 (Dec.
1, 1855), pp. 147-149
Published by: Musical Times Publications Ltd.

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/3370151

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 THE MUSICAL TIMES.- December 1, 1855. 147

THE MUSICAL TIMES, only by hearsay of Paganinťs im

musical powers ; a succession of adv
&ntr Singing orlassi stances willed
Circulât. that he should nev
formed in France when I was in th
DECEMBER 1st, 1855.
and I have the sorrow to avow that
standing the constant intimacy I had
of enjoying with him during the la
PAGANINI. his life, I have never heard him
after de
Translated from Sector Berlioz's Soirées my return from
V Orchestre, Italy, did h
By Sabilla Novello. Opera, and, confined to bed by vio
I was unable to attend this concert
A very talented man, Choron, in speaking
I mistake not, of of
all those he gave.
Weber, said, " He is a meteor!" With
occasion, the equal
larynx disease of whi
mately
justice we may say of Paganini, " He died, joined" to a nervous ill
is a comet!
for never did a lustrous starleft
appear
himmore
no unex-
repose, became mor
pectedly in the sphere of art, and, in
serious, thehe
and course
was obliged to renou
cise of tinged
of its immense ellipse, excite wonder his art. But as he passion
with
a sort of terror, before disappearing for to
music, which ever.
him was a real want
The comets of the physicalduring
world, if intervals
rare we may of respite from
believe poets and popular fancies, appear
resumed his only inand played Beet
violin
times precursory of terrible or scourges
quartetts, which agi-
organised on the spur of
tate the ocean of humanity.in Certainly,
private committee, neither the executan
the present epoch nor Paganinis only apparition
auditors. would At other times, whe
contradict tradition to this effect. This extraor-
fatigued him too much, he drew fo
dinary genius, unique in hisportfolio
peculiar a art, was
collection of duetts comp
developed in Italy at the commencement
for violin and of guitar
the (a collection u
grandest occurrences recorded all),in and history
taking ; he
as coadjutor a wort
began his career at the Court violinist,
of one of Napoleon's Mr. Sina, who is still a p
sisters, at the culminating point
Paris, of hethe Empire ;the guitar part, a
undertook
he triumphantly progressed wonderful
through effects on this instrument.
Germany at The two
the time the giant Bonaparte players,
was sinking intoviolinist,
Sina, the modest his and Paganini,
tomb; he appeared in France to theguitarist,
the incomparable crashing thus tète-à-tète passed
sound of a falling dynasty, longand entered
evenings, Paris
to which none, even the most
simultaneously with the cholera. The admittance.
worthy, ever gained terror
inspired by this pestilence was insufficient
At length, to
his larynx consumption made such
restrain the impulse of curiosity and
progress that he of enthu-
entirely lost his voice, and from
siasm which attracted crowds wherever
thenceforth he wasPaganini
obliged to renounce nearly
performed. We can scarcely all credit such emotion
social intercourse. It was difficult, even by
produced by an artist at such a moment,
placing the ear close to but the to distinguish
his mouth,
fact is undeniable. Paganini,somebylew impressing
of his words ; andthe when I occasionally
hearts and imaginations of tookthea Parisians
walk with him in thus
Paris on the days when
the sun
violently and singularly, caused invited to
them himforget
out, I had an album and
even the death which hovered over them. All
pencil ; Paganini wrote in a few words the subject
concurred to increase his fascination
on which he :willed
his the strange
conversation should turn;
and fantastic exterior, the mystery
I developed it which
to the bestenve-
of my powers, and
loped his life, the stories related
from time about
to time, him,
resumingeven
the pencil, he would
the crimes of which he was accused
interrupt me by bythe stupid
reflections often extremely ori-
audacity of his enemies, and the
ginal miracles
in their laconicism.of a
Beethoven, when deaf,
talent which uprooted all received
used an ideas,
album todisdained
receive the thoughts of his
all known methods- undertook friendsand performed
; Paganini, when dumb, employed one in
impossibilities. order to transmit his own thoughts to friends.
Paganinťs irresistible influence
Some one was of thosefelt
personsnot
who collect autographs
only by the generality of amateurs
by all meansand artistes
, and who haunt the; drawing-rooms
even the princes of art themselves submitted
of artistes, has, without doubt,to borrowed without
it. It is said that Rossini, informing
the arch me therailer
book which atserved my illus-
enthusiasm, felt for him a sorttrious of passion
companion : it ismixed
certain that I could not
with fear ; Meyerbeer, during Paganinťs
find it when Spontini travels
one day desired to see it ;
through the North of Europe, and followed
even since, myhim step
researches have been equally
by step, ever desirons of hearing
fruitless. him again, and
uselessly endeavouring to penetrate
I have often thebeenmystery
solicited to relate, in all its
of his phenomenal talent. Unfortunately,
details, the episode ofIPaganinťs
know life, in which

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148 THE MUSICAL TIMES.- December 1, 1855.

he acted so cordially magnificent a violin, playing

a part Paganinis variations on the
with
regard to myself. The variousCarnival of Venice
incidents (so, reached up my retreat,
appearingpreceded
unusual in the life of an artist) which to issue from the waves. I was just
dreaming
and followed the principal fact, known atofpresent
him whose villa-mausoleum had
been pointed
by all, would really, I believe, be highly out to me by the fisher-boy : I
interest-
woke
ing ; but it will easily be conceived suddenly
that - I listened some time with a
I should
palpitating
feel much embarrassment in narrating the heart - my ideas became more con-
events,
fused,
and therefore I must be excused for instead
being of clearer. The Carnival of
silent.
I do not even consider it necessary Venice
to/ mention
- who, excepting himself, could know
the foolish insinuations, the madthese variations? Is it an adieu he sends me
contradictions
and erroneous assertions, to which from another world ? - Suppose Theodor Hoff-
Paganini's
noble conduct, in the circumstances I have mann in my situation ; what a touching and
alluded to, gave rise. As a compensation, cer- fantastic elegy would he have written on this odd
incident ! It was Count Cessole, who, alone at
tain other critics took the opportunity of offering
the foot of the rock, gave me this charming
highest praise : never did the prose of Jules
serenade. These famous variations on a Venetian
Janin rise to such magnificent forms as on this
air are among those works by Paganini which
occasion. The Italian poet Romani also wrote,
Schönenberger has lately published: I think I
at a later period, some eloquent pages in the
Gazette Piêmontaise , which much affected ought here to mention that those of Ernst on
Paganini when he read them in Marseilles. the
He same theme, which he has been accused of
had been obliged to quit Paris, on account of itsimitating from Paganini's, do not in the least
resemble them. Among other works of this
climate ; soon after his arrival in Marseilles, that
of Provence appearing to him also too ungenial, master which the French publisher has just given
he determined to winter in Niče, where he was to the craving curiosity of artistes, it is to be
received in a becoming manner, and surrounded regretted that we do not find the fantasia of the
with the most cordial care by a rich musical Prayer in Mose , one of the pieces, it is said, in
amateur, a violin -player himself, Count Cessole.which Paganini produced the profoundest im-
His sufferings, however, continued to increase, pression. Doubtless, M. Achille Paganini intends
and, although not fancying himself in dangeritof to appear soon in a complete edition of his
death, his letters betray profound dejection. "father's
If works - an edition which he was right, in
God permits it," he wrote to me, " I shall some see respects, not to publish prematurely, for,
you again next Spring. I hope my health may notwithstanding the rapid progress made (thanks
improve here: hope is the last blessing which to Paganini) at the present time in mechanical
remains to us. Adieu ! love me as I love you." proficiency on the violin, such compositions are
I never saw him again ! . . . . still inaccessible to most violinists, and it is diffi-
Some years after, I was myself obliged to seekcult, in reading them, to comprehend how their
author could ever execute them.
the refreshment of soft breezes from the Sardinian
sea, after the heavy labours of a fatiguing musicalA volume might be written in telling all that
Paganini
season in Paris. One day, I was returning in a has created in his works of novel
effects, ingenious contrivances, noble and gran-
boat from Villafranca to Nice, when the young
diose forms, orchestral combinations unknown
fisherman who rowed me, suddenly letting his
before his time.* His melodies are broad Italian
oars drop, showed me on the shore a little isolated
villa, of rather a singular appearance. " Have melodies, but full of a passionate ardour seldom
you heard speak of a gentleman," said he, " who found in the best pages of dramatic composers of
was called Paganini, and who sounded the violin his country. His harmonies are always clear,
so well?" "Yes, my lad, I have heard him simple, and of an extraordinary sonorousness.
mentioned." " Well, sir, there it is that he staidHe has known how to render distinct and domi-
during three weeks after his death." It appears,nating the tones of a solo violin by tuning its four
in fact, that his body was placed in this pavilionchords a semitone above those of the orchestra ;
during the long dispute which occurred between which enabled him to play in the brilliant keys
his son and the Bishop of Genoa - a disputeof D and A, while the orchestra accompanied
which, for the honor of the Genoese and Pied-him in the less sonorous keys of E b and Bb.
montese clergy, ought not to have been thus What he has discovered in the employment of
prolonged, and the causes of which, even whensimple and double harmonic tones, left-hand
viewed by the severest orthodox light, were not pizzicato notes, arpeggios, use of the bow, triple-
so important as was endeavoured to be proved, * This has been done by Carl Guhr, a German violinist. His
work has been translated into English, and forms one of " Novello's
for Paganini died almost suddenly. Library for the Diffusion of Musical Knowledge," Practical Series,
The night following this excursion to Villa- No. II., under the title of " On Paganini's Art of Playing the Violin
(an appendix to all other violin schools which have as yet appeared),
franca, I was asleep in the tower of the Ponchettes,
with a treatise on single and double harmonic tones. Dedicated to
fastened, like the nest of a swallow, against the
a heroes of violin-pJaying, Rode, Kreutzer, Baillot, and Spohr, by
Carl Guhr, Chapel Master and Director of the Theatre in Frankfort-
rock 200 feet above the sea, when the tones ofon-the-Maine." Novello, London.

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 THE MUSICAL TIMES.- December 1, 1855. 149

" Silent, and

string passages, passes all belief; the more so,steadfast as the vaulted sky,
The boundless plain of waters seems to lie : -
because his predecessors had not even prepared
Comes that low sound from breezes rustling o'er
the way. The grass-crowned headland that conceals the shore?
Paganini is one of those artistes of whom we No; 'tis the earth-voice of the mighty sea,
must say, they exist because they exist, and not Whispering how meek and gentle he can be ! "
because others existed before them. Unfortu- Wordsworth.

nately, that which he has not been able to transmit

to his successors, is the spark which animated
and rendered sympathetic these astounding pro-
digies of mechanism. An idea is written, a form
is designed, but the sentiment of execution cannot
be fixed : it is unseizable ; it is genius, soul, the
flame of life, which in dying out leaves behind it
darkness, profound in proportion to its brilliancy.
For this reason it is, that not only the works of
great inventive performers lose more or less by
not being executed by the authors, but that also
the productions of great original and expressive
composers retain but a part of their power when
the author does not preside at their performance.
Paganini's orchestration is brilliant and ener-
getic, without being noisy. He often introduces
the large drum into his tutti with unusual intel-
ligence ; in the Prayer of Mose, Rossini has em-
ployed it throughout to beat simply on accented
divisions of the measure : Paganini, in composing
his fantasia on the same theme, has taken care
not to imitate him in this point. At the com-
mencement of the melody
" Dal tuo stellato soglio"
Rossini has a beat on the penultimate syllable
which is on an accented division ; but Paganini,
considering the accentuation of the melody (fall-
ing on the last syllable) to be incomparably more
important, introduces the drum on the weak
division in which it occurs ; and the effect pro-
duced by this alteration is, in my opinion, much
better and more original. One day, after com-
plimenting Paganini upon this composition, some
one added, " It must be owned that Rossini fur-
nished you a very beautiful theme.,, " That's
all very true," replied Paganini; " but he didn't
invent my bang of the great drum."
It would be very difficult for me to continue
the analysis of this phenomenon-artist's works -
works of inspiration, in which principally we may
trace the written manifestation of his miracu-
" All noises by degrees
Were hush'd, - the fisher's call, the birds, the trees,
All but the washing of the eternal seas."
Leigh Hunt.
" He scarce had finish'd, when such murmur fill'd
The assembly, as when hollow rocks retain
The sound of blustering winds, which all night long
Had roused the sea, now with hoarse cadence lull
Seafaring men o'er-watch'd, whose bark by chance
Or pinnace anchors in a craggy bay
After the tempest." - Milton .
" The strange music of the waves,
Beating on these hollow caves." - Wither.
" The murmuring surge,
That on the unnumbered idle pebbles chafes."
Shakespeare .
" The moanings of the homeless sea." - Tennyson .
" The ocean with its vastness, its blue green,
Its ships, its rocks, its caves, its hopes, its fears, -
Its voice mysterious, which whoso hears
Must think on what will be, and what has been."
Keats .
" There is a pleasure in the pathless woods,
There is a rapture on the lonely shore,
There is society, when none intrudes,
By the deep sea, and music in its roar." - Byron .
" Loud from its rocky caverns, the deep-voiced neighbour-
ing ocean
Speaks, and in accents disconsolate answers the wail of the
forest." - Longfellow .
u Thou art sounding on, thou mighty sea, for ever and the
same!

lous abilities as a performer. Besides which,
the recollections I have awakened .... " And
you have never heard him?" asked Corsino.still;
" Never." - Adieu, my friends.
MUSIC
AMONG THE POETS AND POETICAL WRITERS.
By Mary Cowden Clarke.
(Continued from page 126 J
And the hymn the learned Crusaders sang hath died in
Great things have been said of the Sea's music.
« i>W0 Voices are there ; one is of the sea,
One of the mountains ; each a mighty Voice
In both from age to age thou didst rejoice,
They were thy chosen music, Liberty !"
Wordsworth.
The ancient rocks yet ring to thee, whose thunders nought
can tame.
The Dorian flute, that sighed of yore along thy wave, is
The harp of Judah peals no more on Zion's awful hill.
And Memnon's, too, hath lost the chord that breath'd the
mystic tone ;
And the songs at Rome's high triumphs poured are with
her eagles flown ;
And mute the Moorish horn, that rang o'er stream and
mountain free,
Galilee.
: thou art swelling on, thou deep, through many an
But
olden clime,
Thy billowy anthem ne'er to sleep until the close of Time !"
Mrs. Hemans .

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