Paganini was the first to develop the full resources of the violin as
a solo instrument. He departed entirely from the traditions of
violin-playing as practiced by earlier masters, as he believed that
great fame could never be acquired in pursuing their methods. A work of
Locatelli, one of the cleverest pupils of Corelli, and a great master
of technique, first seems to have inspired him with a conception of
the more brilliant possibilities of the violin. What further favored
Paganini's new departure was that he lived in an age when the artistic
mind, as well as thought in other directions, felt the desire of
innovation. The French Revolution stirred Europe to its deepest roots,
intellectually as well as politically. At a very early date in his
career Paganini seems to have begun experimenting with the new effects
for which he became famous, though these did not reach their full
fruitage until just before he left Italy on his first general tour.
Fetis says: "In adopting the ideas of his predecessors, in resuscitating
forgotten effects, in superadding what his genius and perseverance gave
birth to, he arrived at that distinctive character of performance which
contributed to his ultimate greatness. The diversity of sounds, the
different methods of tuning his instrument, the frequent employment
of harmonics, single and double, the simultaneous pizzicato and bow
passages, the various staccato effects, the use of double and even
triple notes, a prodigious facility in executing wide intervals with
unerring precision, together with an extraordinary knowledge of all
styles of bowing--such were the principal features of Paganini's talent,
rendered all the more perfect by his great execution, exquisitely
nervous sensibility, and his deep musical feeling." In a word, Paganini
possessed the most remarkable creative power in the technical treatment
of an instrument ever given to a player. Franz Liszt as a pianist
approaches him more nearly in this respect than any other virtuoso,
but the field open to the violinist was far greater and wider than
that offered to the great Hungarian pianist. It was not, however, mere
perfection of technical power that threw Europe into such paroxysms of
admiration; it was the irresistible power of a genius which has never
been matched, and which almost justified the vulgar conclusion that none
but one possessed with a demon could do such things. Paganini possessed
the oft-quoted attribute of genius, "the power of taking infinite
pains," but behind this there lay superlative gifts of mind, physique,
and temperament. He completely dazzled the greatest musical artists as
well as the masses. "His constant and daring flights," writes
Moscheles, "his newly discovered flageolet tones, his gift of fusing
and beautifying objects of the most diverse kinds--all these phases
of genius so completely bewilder my musical perceptions that for days
afterward my head is on fire and my brain reels." His tone lacked
roundness and volume. His use of very thin strings, made necessary by
his double harmonics and other specialties, necessarily prevented a
broad, rich tone. But he more than compensated for this defect by the
intense expression, "soft and melting as that of an Italian singer," to
use the language of Moscheles again, which characterized the quality of
sound he drew from his instrument. Spohr, a very great player, but,
with all his polish, precision, and classical beauty of style, somewhat
phlegmatic and conventional withal, critcised Paganini as lacking
in good taste. He could never get in sympathy with the bent of
individuality, the Southern passion and fire, and the exceptional gifts
of temperament which made Paganini's idiosyncrasies of style as a player
consummate beauties, where imitations of these effects on the part of
others would be gross exaggeration. Spohr developed the school of Viotti
and Rode, and in his attachment to that school could see no artistic
beauty in any deviation. Paganini's peculiar method of treating the
violin has never been regarded as a safe school for any other violinist
to follow. Without Paganini's genius to give it vitality, his technique
would justly be charged with exaggeration and charlatanism. Some of the
modern French players, who have been strongly influenced by the great
Italian, have failed to satisfy serious musical taste from this cause.
On the German violinists he has had but little influence, owing to the
powerful example of Spohr and the musical spirit of the great composers,
which have tended to keep players within the strictly legitimate lines
of art. Some of the principal compositions of Paganini are marked by
great originality and beauty, and are violin classics. Schumann and
Liszt have transcribed several of them for the piano, and Brahms for the
orchestra. But the great glory of Paganini was as a virtuoso, not as a
composer, and it has been generally agreed to place him on the highest
pedestal which has yet been reached in the executive art of the violin.