Nicolo Paganini was born at Genoa on the night of February 18, 1784,
of parents in humbly prosperous circumstances, his father being a
ship-broker, and, though illiterate in a general way, a passionate lover
of music and an amateur of some skill. The father soon perceived the
child's talent, and caused him to study so severely that it not only
affected his constitution, but actually made him a tolerable player at
the age of six years. The elder Paganini's knowledge of music was not
sufficient to carry the lad far in mastering the instrument, but the
extraordinary precocity shown so interested Signor Corvetto, the leader
at the Genoese theatre, that he undertook to instruct the gifted child.
Two years later the young Paganini was transferred to the charge of
Signor Giacomo Costa, an excellent violinist, and director of church
music at one of the cathedrals, under whom he made rapid progress in
executive skill, while he studied harmony and counterpoint under the
composer Gnecco. It was at this time, Paganini not yet being nine years
of age, that he composed his first piece, a sonata now lost. In 1793 he
made his first appearance in public at Genoa, and played variations
on the air "La Carmagnole," then so popular, with immense effect. This
_début_ was followed by several subsequent appearances, in which he
created much enthusiasm. He also played a violin concerto every Sunday
in church, an attraction which drew great throngs. This practice was
of great use to Paganini, as it forced him continually to study fresh
music. About the year 1795 it was deemed best to place the boy under
the charge of an eminent professor, and Alessandro Rolla, of Parma, was
pitched on. When the Paganinis arrived, they found the learned professor
ill, and rather surly at the disturbance. Young Paganini, however,
speedily silenced the complaints of the querulous invalid. The great
player himself relates the anecdote: "His wife showed us into a room
adjoining the bedroom, till she had spoken to the sick man. Finding on
the table a violin and the music of Rolla's latest concerto, I took
up the instrument and played the piece at sight. Astonished at what
he heard, the composer asked for the name of the player, and could not
believe it was only a young boy till he had seen for himself. He then
told me that he had nothing to teach me, and advised me to go to Paër
for study in composition." But, as Paër was at this time in Germany,
Paganini studied under Ghiretti and Rolla himself while he remained in
Parma, according to the monograph of Fetis.
The youthful player had already begun to search out new effects on the
violin, and to create for himself characteristics of tone and treatment
hitherto unknown to players. After his return to Genoa he composed his
first "Études," which were of such unheard-of difficulty that he was
sometimes obliged to practice a single passage ten hours running. His
intense study resulted not only in his acquirement of an unlimited
execution, but in breaking down his health. His father was a harsh and
inexorable taskmaster, and up to this time Paganini (now being fourteen)
had remained quiescent under this tyrant's control. But the desire of
liberty was breeding projects in his breast, which opportunity soon
favored. He managed to get permission to travel alone for the first
time to Lucca, where he had engaged to play at the musical festival
in November, 1798. He was received with so much enthusiasm that he
determined not to return to the paternal roof, and at once set off
to fulfill engagements at Pisa and other towns. In vain the angry and
mortified father sought to reclaim the young rebel who had slipped
through his fingers. Nicolo found the sweets of freedom too precious
to go back again to bondage, though he continued to send his father a
portion of the proceeds of his playing.
The youth, intoxicated with the license of his life, plunged into all
kinds of dissipation, specially into gambling, at this time a universal
vice in Italy, as indeed it was throughout Europe. Alternate fits of
study and gaming, both of which he pursued with equal zeal, and the
exhaustion of the life he led, operated dangerously on his enfeebled
frame, and fits of illness frequently prevented his fulfillment of
concert engagements. More than once he wasted in one evening the
proceeds of several concerts, and was obliged to borrow money on his
violin, the source of his livelihood, in order to obtain funds wherewith
to pay his gambling debts. Anything more wild, debilitating, and ruinous
than the life led by this boy, who had barely emerged from childhood,
can hardly be imagined. On one occasion he was announced for a concert
at Leghorn, but he had gambled away his money and pawned his violin, so
that he was compelled to get the loan of an instrument in order to play
in the evening. In this emergency he applied to M. Livron, a French
gentleman, a merchant of Leghorn, and an excellent amateur performer,
who possessed a Guarneri del Gesù violin, reputed among connoisseurs one
of the finest instruments in the world. The generous Frenchman instantly
acceded to the boy's wish, and the precious violin was put in his hands.
After the concert, when Paganini returned the instrument to M. Livron,
the latter, who had been to hear him, exclaimed, "Never will I profane
the strings which your fingers have touched! That instrument is yours."
The astonishment and delight of the young artist may be more easily
imagined than described. It was upon this violin that Paganini afterward
performed in all his concerts, and the great virtuoso left it to the
town of Genoa, where it is now preserved in a glass case in the Museum.
An excellent engraving of it, from a photograph, was published in 1875
in George Hart's book on "The Violin."
At this period of his life, between the ages of seventeen and twenty,
Nicolo Paganini was surrounded by numerous admirers, and led into
all kinds of dissipation. He was naturally amiable and witty in
conversation, though he has been reproached with selfishness. There can
be no doubt that he was, at this period, constantly under the combined
influences of flattery and unbounded ambition; nevertheless, in spite
of all his successful performances at concerts, the style of life he was
leading kept him so poor that he frequently took in hand all kinds
of musical work to supply the wants of the moment. It is a curious
coincidence that the fine violin which was presented to him by M.
Livron, as we have just seen, was the cause of his abandoning, after a
while, the allurements of the gaming-tables. Paganini tells us himself
that a certain nobleman was anxious to possess this instrument, and had
offered for it a sum equivalent to about four hundred dollars; but the
artist would not sell it even if one thousand had been offered for it,
although he was, at this juncture, in great need of funds to pay off a
debt of honor, and sorely tempted to accept the proffered amount. Just
at this point Paganini received an invitation to a friend's house where
gambling was the order of the day. "All my capital," he says, "consisted
of thirty francs, as I had disposed of my jewels, watch, rings, etc.;
I nevertheless resolved on risking this last resource, and, if fortune
proved fickle, to sell my violin and proceed to St. Petersburg, without
instrument or baggage, with the view of reestablishing my affairs. My
thirty francs were soon reduced to three, and I already fancied myself
on the road to Russia, when luck took a sudden turn, and I won one
hundred and sixty francs. This saved my violin and completely set me up.
From that day forward I gradually gave up gaming, becoming more and more
convinced that a gambler is an object of contempt to all well-regulated
minds."