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From: ekelly@acpub.duke.edu (Emily Kelly)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Paganini: The Man, the Myth (was Re: Music Legends)
Date: 2 Mar 1995 14:11:13 -0500

All right, I asked for music UL's and I got a bunch, mostly about that virtuoso of virtuosos, Nicolo Paganini. So I went to the library and hunted down some original (and not-so-original) sources, and here's the Truth As I Know It. (Cautionary note: I'm not a string player, so if I say anything egregious, let me know.)

About the whole playing on one string trick:

(T.) Paganini wowed the crowds with his seemingly impossible feats on the G-string.
(T.) P. often mounted his G-string where the A-string normally goes, for greater ease in playing one-string pieces.
(T.) P. often tuned his G-string up a minor third (to B-flat), and did other funky tuning arrangements to suit his fancy.

Early in his career, Paganini began to capitalize on the technique of playing on fewer than all four strings. In a letter describing this period at the court of Lucca, he discusses how it began: "Looking for variety in the programs I executed at court, one evening--after having removed two strings from my violin (the 2d and 3d), I improvised a sonata entitled 'Scena amorosa,' the 4th string representing the man (Adonis) and the treble string the woman (Venus). This was the beginning of my habit of playing on one string, as this sonata was much admired, and I was asked if I could play on a single string. I replied: 'Certainly,' and forthwith wrote a sonata with variations..." (1) Prod'homme comments that in 1810 Paganini performed, for the first time at a court concert, his variations for the 4th string, having extended its range to three octaves by means of harmonics.

The version dino (dino@euclid.colorado.edu) relates, of Paganini playing on frayed strings in the hopes that one or more might break, sounds a bit further fetched. From what I've read this week, Paganini seems too much of a showman and a perfectionist to have left open the possibility of one breaking at the wrong moment. According to Guhr, he hand-picked his strings before he had them drawn, to make sure they were of the exact thickness he wanted depending on how he was planning to tune them (1). Moreover, he was well enough renowned for his one-string compositions that they were expected of him in concerts, even without his using tricks. However, contemporary concert reviews and his own letters indicate that he would often remove extraneous strings before playing his one-string tours de force.

One similar story to dino's version is told in _Anecdotes of Great Musicians_ (2). Variations on this theme recur in Paganini's biographies, but no specific documented instance is ever cited.

"One evening a rich gentleman begged ... Paganini and [a guitarist named] Lea,
together with a cellist named Zeffrini, to serenade his lady-love ... Before
beginning to play Paganini quietly tied an open penknife to his right arm.
Then they commenced.  Soon the E string snapped.
  "'That is owing to the damp air,' said the violinist, and kept on playing on
the other three strings.
  "A few moments later the 'A' broke ... but he went on playing.  Finally the
'D' snapped, and the love-sick swain began to be fearful for the success of his
serenade.  For what could Paganini do with only one string on his violin.  But
Paganini simply smiled and went on with the music with the same facility and
strength of tone that he had previously used on all four cords." 

To answer H. Gilmer's question whether Paganini ever tuned his G-string higher to sound more impressive, Karl Guhr says yes. He was a contemporary and acquaintance of Paganini's, as well as himself a violinist, conductor, and manager of a theater in Frankfurt. He states that Paganini would select G-strings of different thicknesses, choosing one of medium thickness if it was to be tuned to G and finer if ihe intended to tune it to A-flat or B-flat. "It is easy to conceive that Paganini, when he plays in public, changes his G as desired, and thanks to the precaution above mentioned, the string remains absolutely in tune. His skill in tuning in the middle of a number seems really quite incredible."(1) To this point about Paganini's fine ear, Dr. Francesco Bennati adds, "On several occasions, he has shown the absolute perfection of his musical hearing by playing 'true' on a violin which was not in tune."(3)

About Paganini's inhuman ability and supposed pact with the Evil One:

(T.) Paganini had tremendous physical flexibility.
(Tb.) P. probably suffered from the then-unknown Marfan's Syndrome, a connective tissue disorder.
(T.) Many listeners believed Paganini had sold his soul to the Devil in return for his musical prowess.
(T.) P. was refused a Christian burial by the Archbishop of Nice, because he had refused the Last Rites.
(T.) An entrepreneur offered 30,000 francs for the rights to exhibit P.'s embalmed corpse.
(T.) P. was buried and disenterred several times during the nineteenth century.

Dr. Francesco Bennati, an eminant physician and contemporary of Paganini's, who observed him in an attempt to discover his secret, observed:

"His hand is no larger than normal, but thanks to the elasticity peculiar to
all its parts, his span is doubled.  By these means, for example, he can--
without altering the position of his hand--bend the upper joints of the
fingers of the left hand in a lateral direction, and with the greatest ease
and rapidity."

In an article from the AMA journal dated 2 January, 1978, Dr. Myron R. Shoenfeld advances the theory that Paganini was born with Marfan's Syndrome:

"The long, sinuous, hyperextensible fingers of his left hand gave his fingers
an extraordinary range of motion and freedom of independent movement on the
fingerboard, while the laxness of the wrist and shoulder joint of his right 
upper extremity gave him the pliancy required for masterful bowing.  The
evidence for this hypothesis necessarily is inferential, but, I believe,
convincing and even compelling.

  "...The picture clearly emerges, then, of the Marfan habitus; a tall, thin
man with long fingers and hyperextensible joints.  The second line of evidence
was his musical virtuosity itself.  This depended in good part on tours de
force, ...feats that make even master violinists blanch.  Despite this, P.
was never observed to practice...

  "The range and independence of motion of the fingers was so extraordinary
that it was widely suspected that he had undergone a surgical procedure to
cut the bands that connect the tendons...  However, it is unlikely that a 
talented musician at the dawn of his promising career would have so risked the
safety of his hands, particularly given the primitive state of the surgical art
at that time.  Much more probable was that the facility was inborn."

Schoenfeld goes on to note that "the clinical features of Marfan's Syndrome were not even described until 1896, more than a half century after P.'s death," and that those symptoms would most likely not have been detectible to early 19th century medicine, anyway. "We cannot expect, then, to find descriptions of these telltale complications of Marfan's Syndrome in P.'s life, even if indeed they had existed." However, Schoenfeld points to P.'s loss of his voice toward the end of his life, noting that it may have been "the hoarseness and aphonia caused by recurrent laryngeal nerve paralysis brought about by an expanding aneurysm of the aortic arch."(3)

Because of his seemingly inhuman abilities on the violin, as well as his cadaverous figure, some listeners believed he had sold his soul to the devil. Not only were his swift European ascent and the dizzying adulation he inspired almost Faustian in scope, but a recurring motif in European folk tales portrays the devil as a fiddler. Several caricatures drawn of Paganini consist of him playing his violin, tall and gaunt, with his hair unkempt and resembling horns. In a letter answering some of the legends told about him, Paganini shows his understanding of the nature of urban legends:

  "They have represented me in prison--but they are ignorant of the cause of
my incarceration... It is stated that, having found a rival in my mistress'
apartment, I stabbed him honorably in the back...  Others assert that, in the
madness of jealousy, I slew my mistress; but they do not state how I effected
my bloody purpose.  Some assert I used a dagger--others that, desirous of
witnessing her agony, I used poison.  Each has settled it in accordance with
his own fancy...
  
  "I had played a concert with great success.  The next day, seated at the 
table d'hote, ...my entrance into the room passed unobserved. ...[A 
concertgoer] added, 'There is nothing surprising in Paganini's performance--he
acquired his talent while confined in a dungeon during eight years, having only
his violin to soften the rigours of his confinement.  He was condemned for
having, coward like, stabbed one of my friends, who was his rival.'  I...
requested to know when and where this had taken place...  It was no longer his
friend who had been assassinated--he heard--it had been affirmed--he believed;
but it was not improbable that he had been deceived.

  "A still more ridiculous report...  I had played the variations, entitled 
'le Streghe' ('the Witches'), and they produced some effect.  One individual
...affirmed that he saw nothing surprising in my performance, for he had 
distinctly seen, while I was playing my variations, the devil at my elbow 
directing my arm and guiding my bow.  My resemblance to him was a proof of my 
origin.  He was clothed in red--had horns on his head--and carried his tail 
between his legs.  After so minute a description, you will understand, sir, 
it was impossible to doubt the fact--hence, many concluded they had 
discovered the secret of what they termed wonderful feats."

(Paganini goes on to claim that a violinist named Duranowski was the origin of the prison story told of him. Duranowski was arrested in an Italian village in 1798, and condemned to twenty years in the galleys for attempted murder of a priest and attempted robbery. Duranowsky was pardoned after serving two years.)

In 1840, while on his deathbed in Nice, Paganini refused the last rites, believing he had longer to live. The priest went home, and Paganini died later that night before the priest could be resummoned. Based on this, the Archbishop of Nice issued an edict refusing Paganini Christian burial, and contacted the Governor of Genoa, Paganini's home, to that effect. When Paganini's son arrived in Genoa with his father's body, they were denied entrance to the city, and the corpse languished for months in a pesthouse before it was finally buried. While waiting for the court's decision, the embalmed body was on display to the public. Eventually, they placed the body under glass to assuage the problem of decay. According to Paganini's son, an entrepreneur offered 30,000 francs for the right to exhibit Paganini's body. The body was not laid in hallowed ground until 1845, and it was disinterred more than once after that.(1) and (4)

Sources:

(1)  Prod'homme, Jacques Gabriel.  _Nicolo Paganini: A Biography._  Reprinted
        1976, American Musicological Society Press.  c1911.  Includes a letter
        by Paganini published by the Musical Gazette of Milan, Oct. 18, 1846;
        and an article by Karl Guhr on "L'art de jouer du violon", published in
        _la Caecilia_ (No. 14 or 41, analyzed by Fetis, _Revue Musicale_, 
        Dec., 1829.

(2)  _Anecdotes of Great Musicians_.  W. Francis Gates, ed.  Philadelphia: 
        Presser, 1895.   Contains 300 anecdotes and not a single source--take 
        your chances. 

(3)  Sheppard, Leslie and Axelrod, R. Herbert R.  _Paganini_.  ISBN 0876666187.
        Paganiniana Pub., 1978.  Quotes an article, "Notice physiologique sur
        Paganini", written by Dr. Francesco Bennati based on his professional 
        observation of Paganini; and an article by Dr. Myron R. Schoenfeld 
        published in the Jan. 2, 1978 issue of the Journal of the American 
        Medical Association.

(4)  Fetis, Francois-Joseph.  _Biographical Notice of Nicolo Paganini, 
        followed by an analysis of his compositions, and preceded by a sketch 
        of the history of the violin._ Schott, <n.d.>.  (Originally 
        published in French in 1851.)  Includes a letter co-authored by Fetis 
        and Paganini (signed by the latter), published in the _Revue Musicale_ 
        and other Paris journals in the 1830's.