1829.J [ G31 ] 



PAGAKINI, AND THE HISTORY OF THE VIOLIN. 



Paganini, the wonder of the continent for his performance on the 

 violin, has been so long solicited to come to this country, that it is not 

 improbable the amateurs will be indulged with this piince of fiddlers 

 before the next concert season is over. Nothing but his fantastic spirit has 

 hitherto kept him away ; for this grandissimo maestro is as fantastic as 

 any of the grandissimo signoras that condescend to carry off ten thousand 

 pounds a season from our land of Gothicism and guineas. He has his 

 fantasies of all kinds in the most prodigal abundance; and he too well 

 knows the foolery of mankind, and the food on which it feeds, to deprive 

 himself of a particle of its wonder, by doing any thing like a reasonable 

 being. However, he is the first artiste on his instrument alive ; he has 

 thrown to an immeasurable distance the whole fiddling world of Ger- 

 many. His native Italy lays all its bows and strings with adoring 

 homage at his feet ; the French violinists tremble for their fame as he 

 approaches to their confines ; and the first flourish of his bow is dreaded 

 as the earthquake which is to shake the conservatoire over the heads of 

 its whole crotchet and quaver conclave. The early career of this per- 

 former is wrapt in the mystery essential to greatness. Where he was 

 born is not discoverable, how he was educated is equally obscure, and 

 both are equally xmimportant to all but the collectors of autographs and 

 baptismal registers. Even his cultivation of the violin is said to have 

 been chiefly due to his having spent ten or twelve years in an Italian 

 gaol. In this singular site for " Lydian measures," caprice or poverty 

 is said to have often condemned him to the use of but one string to his 

 violin; and it is out of his exploits on this one string, which he makes 

 equivalent to the four, that his chief celebrity has been made. This is 

 charlatanism, of course; but it is then only the more suitable to the 

 character. But his tone is said to be pre-eminently bold, his execution 

 complete, and his conception brilliant, original, and superb. 



If he be the musical genius that he is described, Paganini has well 

 chosen the violin ; for no instrument of all the inventions of musical 

 ingenuity is equal to the violin for the direct transmission of the finest 

 impulses of the musical mind. 



The violin holds in the orchestra the highest rank: it always, and of 

 right, is in the hands of the leader ; for the grand point of instru- 

 mental imitation is the human voice, and no instrument approaches 

 by its tone, its delicacy of execution, and its brilliancy, so close to the 

 human voice as the violin. Its origin is in the remotest antiquity. 

 Bernardin INIaffei, the cardinal, born in 1.514, in his treatise on inscrip- 

 tions and medals, gives an antique of Orpheus playing with a bow on an 

 instrument resembling the violin, but which was called the lyre. The 

 Nublium and the Psalterium of the ancient Jews, are said to have 

 strongly resembled the violin, as the Psalterium of the present day 

 obviously does. 



Euphorion, in his book De Isthmiis, describes an ancient instrument 

 called Magadis, which was surrounded by strings, and which, placed 

 on a pivot, turned round, while the performer drew his bow across it. 

 This machine was also called the Sambuce. 



The hieroglyphics''of Peter Valerian, p. 028, c. 4, have a figure of a 

 muse holding a bass viol in her hand. Philostratus, who taught at Athens 



