On This Day!

[Joy]

In 1782 -- Italian violin virtuoso and composer Niccolo Paganini is born in Genoa.

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'Truth and beauty joined'

[Nightklavier]

Ah, the black-cloaked demon of the violin, the dark wraith who cut out his wife's intestines to fashion his diabolical violin strings.

I like Paganini >=) I almost wish those stories were true for some perverted reason. But he was actually a good man and quite a character. Anyone hear the anecdote of helping his servant win a bet by playing his concert repertoire on a fiddle he custom made out of a shoe?

So many elitists scoff at this type of thing, grunting at themselves that Paganini and subsequently Liszt started the "circus performer" age of music, most specifically characterized by the pianism, but I never understood the problem with that. I would have loved to see Liszt take turns at different piano's, playing and smashing the keys until the strings broke.

And regarding Paganini, it must have been something to witness his playing, especially after he purposefully sawed all strings but one on his violin, just so he could play a caprice on one string when the others broke. I would have loved to see him, all in black, walk on to the stage and start his lightning fast playing, making women feint and the men gasp at the supernatural speed and music.