Hardcover(New Edition)
-
PICK UP IN STORECheck Availability at Nearby Stores
Available within 2 business hours
Related collections and offers
Overview
Our inherited image of Nicolo Paganini as a 'demonic violinist' has never been analysed in depth. What really made him 'demonic'? This book investigates the legend of Paganini. Separating fact from fiction, it explains how the virtuoso violinist challenged the very notion of what it meant to be a musician.
Mai Kawabata considers Paganini's performance innovations, violin techniques and musical ethos in the light of contemporary attitudes towards musicand the supernatural, gender, sexuality, violence, heroism and masculinity as well as conceptions of power. The many perceptions of Paganini as demonic - Faust, magician, devil, rake/libertine, Napoleon - were inter-related but not equivalent. A swirl of cultural factors coalesced in the performer to create that phenomenon of Romanticism, a larger-than-life Gothic villain. Kawabata shows how the idea of virtuosity spiralled out of control, acquiring a potent, overwhelmingly negative aura in the process, as the mythology surrounding Paganini outlived and outgrew the man to monstrous proportions. An appendix brings together late nineteenth-century British press and literature coverage of Paganini that contributed to the developing myth surrounding the now famous composer and performer.
MAI KAWABATA is Lecturer in Music at the University of East Anglia and a professional violinist.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781843837565 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | BOYDELL & BREWER INC |
| Publication date: | 06/20/2013 |
| Edition description: | New Edition |
| Pages: | 303 |
| Product dimensions: | 6.10(w) x 9.30(h) x 0.90(d) |
Table of Contents
List of Illustrations, Musical Examples, and Tables ix
Acknowledgements xi
1 Introduction 1
Paganini's Historical Context as a Violinist 3
Demystifying Virtuosity 10
The 'Paganini Cult' 17
On Theorising Virtuosity and 'Performance Studies' 20
Demythologising Paganini 23
2 'Demonic' Violinist, Magical Virtuosity 26
Constructions of Paganini as 'Demonic' 27
Paganini on Paganini 38
Conditions for 'Demonisation' 43
3 Hypereroticism and Violence 50
Hypereroticism 51
Gendered Power Dynamics in Performance 57
Paganini as Rock Star 71
4 Sovereignty, Domination, and Conquest 76
Self-Advancing Entrepreneurialism 78
'Napoleonic' Conquests 86
Soloistic Domination 88
5 Paganini's Legacies 96
Paganini's Misconstrued Legacy of Technique Fetishisation 104
Werktreue and Virtuosity 109
Paganini's Legacy of Self-Expression 112
Coda 118
Epilogue: Paganinian Mythology 121
The Fate of Virtuosity Among Nineteenth-Century Italian Violinists 122
The 'Secret Red Book' 127
Paganini's 'Demonic' Mythology After 1840 132
Paganini in Film 138
Paganini Today 140
Appendix: Paganiniana in the British Press (1840-1900) 142
Leigh Hunt, 'Paganini', British Minstrel, and Musical and Literary Miscellany Vol. 1 No. 1 (January 1843) 142
Leigh Hunt, 'The Fancy Concert', Ainsworth's Magazine 7 (January 1845) 146
Anon., 'The Violin (Abridged from Blackwood's Magazine)', British Minstrel Vol. 1 No. 1 (January 1843) 149
Anon., 'The Devil's Frills: A Dutch Illustration of the Water Cure', Blackwoods Edinburgh Magazine Vol. 54 No. 334 (August 1843) 165
Anon., 'Paganini', Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction Vol. 2 No. 13 (23 September 1843) 179
Abraham Elder, 'The Wandering Fiddler', Bentley's Miscellany 22 (July 1847) 180
Anon., 'The Fiddler's Fate', Ainsworth's Magazine 23 (January 1853) 198
'Zeta', 'Paganini', Musical World Vol. 35 No. 25 (20 June 1857) 204
W. J. Prowse, 'The Mazed Fiddler', Once a Week Vol. 4 No. 85 (2 February 1861) 205
Anon., 'Paganini's False Teeth', The Orchestra Musical Review Vol. 1 No. 11 (12 December 1863) 215
Anon., 'Paganini', Argosy: a Magazine of Tales, Travels, Essays, and Poems 21 (January 1876) 216
Norman Oliphant, 'A Vision of Paganini', Magazine of Music Vol. 2 No. 21 (December 1885) 223
Elise Polko, 'Paganini's First Love', Merry England Vol. 7 No. 40 (August 1886) 228
Marian Millar, 'The Magician on the G String. A Musical Reminiscence of Weimar' (From the German of J.C. Lobe), Quarterly Musical Review Vol. 4 No. 13 (February 1888) 231
Walter Spinney, 'The Dead Violin. An Account of a Strange Occurrence. Related by Walter Spinney', Musical Standard Vol. 36 No. 1294 (18 May 1889) 244
Anon., 'New Story of Paganini', Violin Times Vol. 5 No. 51 (January 1898) 248
R. E. Andrews, 'The Violin of Human Strings', Idler: an Illustrated Monthly Magazine (June 1898) 250
Bibliography 258
Index 279