What do you think?
Rate this book
Paganini
This series of biographies presents the great composers against the background of their times. Each draws on personal letters and recollections, engravings, paintings and, when they exist, photographs, to present a complete picture of the composer’s life.
168 pages, Paperback
First published December 20, 1980
2 people are currently reading
75 people want to read
About the author
John Sugden
48 books27 followersAn independent scholar and a former associate editor of Oxford University Press's American National Biography project, John Sugden holds degrees from the Universities of Leeds, Lancaster and Sheffield.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
November 28, 2021
I first picked up this book back in 1990 when I was enthralled with applying Paganini's virtuoso techniques to guitar. At that time I read the entire book and was much impressed with it. Recently my interest in Paganini has returned so I naturally decided to re-read this book to re-acquaint myself with this unique musical personality.
I became more acquainted with disappointment than with Paganini. In 1990 my ideas about writing style, historical comprehensiveness, and, well, just what an overall good book is, were not quite as refined as they are today. Back then I had read nothing about Paganini, save for the brief blurbs you get from recital program notes and prefatory editor's notes in sheet music. After having read the book then I certainly knew alot more about Paganini's life, and even a smidgen of his times.
These days, however, after reading the book, I can't say I really 're-acquainted' myself with Paganini or his times; a bit more detail was filled in on the information I recalled from my reading years ago, and that's about it. It's not all negative, though. I enjoyed the numerous prints, fascimilies, and photographs throughout the book; and I enjoyed the tales of Paganini's supernatural mystique, his legendary technique, and his flamboyant showmanship; his superstitions and 'magic elixer' guzzling, supposed diabolical dealings with the devil, and his gypsy associations. This all makes for entertaining reading.
But the entertainment ends quick enough when it's couched in the midst of poor type-set, disorganized and often redundant narrative, and the author's frequent insertion of boorish and trite opinions. The result is a choppy, amateurish, wearisome attempt at music history. Adding to this problem is the fact that the majority of the text is just collected from other sources, be they from 19th century correspondance and articles or other secondary sources. None of this is properly cited so you don't get a smoothly written piece of secondary literature which weaves in pertinent primary source material at the relevant juncture. Instead you get whole blocks of narrative, some of which is entirely out of chronological order, such as when we finally learn of pertinent details of the young Paganini when the maestro is at his deathbed! (I suppose this is, perhaps, the author's way of trying to ease the sometimes perceived tedium and perdictability of a strict chronology, and I can appreciate this. But if this is what the author was doing, he didn't do a good job, in my humble opinion.)
One final complaint: There is virtually nothing in here about Paganini's love affair with the guitar (an instrument for which he wrote a number of pieces). Paganini's guitar works, save for a couple of nice pieces, are nothing special, but he still considered the guitar an instrument worthy of serious composition.
This book is essentially the same book of a different title--by the same author--written a year or so before this one. That book is called, "Niccolo Paganini: Supreme Violinist or Devil's Fiddler?".
Look, this is not a scholarly work; Sugden is not a professional music historian. If you know nothing about Paganini, and you can take this sort of half-fast, sophmoric writing, then you'll certainly learn something. But there are better sources out there, I'm sorry to say.
I became more acquainted with disappointment than with Paganini. In 1990 my ideas about writing style, historical comprehensiveness, and, well, just what an overall good book is, were not quite as refined as they are today. Back then I had read nothing about Paganini, save for the brief blurbs you get from recital program notes and prefatory editor's notes in sheet music. After having read the book then I certainly knew alot more about Paganini's life, and even a smidgen of his times.
These days, however, after reading the book, I can't say I really 're-acquainted' myself with Paganini or his times; a bit more detail was filled in on the information I recalled from my reading years ago, and that's about it. It's not all negative, though. I enjoyed the numerous prints, fascimilies, and photographs throughout the book; and I enjoyed the tales of Paganini's supernatural mystique, his legendary technique, and his flamboyant showmanship; his superstitions and 'magic elixer' guzzling, supposed diabolical dealings with the devil, and his gypsy associations. This all makes for entertaining reading.
But the entertainment ends quick enough when it's couched in the midst of poor type-set, disorganized and often redundant narrative, and the author's frequent insertion of boorish and trite opinions. The result is a choppy, amateurish, wearisome attempt at music history. Adding to this problem is the fact that the majority of the text is just collected from other sources, be they from 19th century correspondance and articles or other secondary sources. None of this is properly cited so you don't get a smoothly written piece of secondary literature which weaves in pertinent primary source material at the relevant juncture. Instead you get whole blocks of narrative, some of which is entirely out of chronological order, such as when we finally learn of pertinent details of the young Paganini when the maestro is at his deathbed! (I suppose this is, perhaps, the author's way of trying to ease the sometimes perceived tedium and perdictability of a strict chronology, and I can appreciate this. But if this is what the author was doing, he didn't do a good job, in my humble opinion.)
One final complaint: There is virtually nothing in here about Paganini's love affair with the guitar (an instrument for which he wrote a number of pieces). Paganini's guitar works, save for a couple of nice pieces, are nothing special, but he still considered the guitar an instrument worthy of serious composition.
This book is essentially the same book of a different title--by the same author--written a year or so before this one. That book is called, "Niccolo Paganini: Supreme Violinist or Devil's Fiddler?".
Look, this is not a scholarly work; Sugden is not a professional music historian. If you know nothing about Paganini, and you can take this sort of half-fast, sophmoric writing, then you'll certainly learn something. But there are better sources out there, I'm sorry to say.
November 20, 2016
Oh, my, gosh. Paganini was, and is, a bit of an enigma, but oh, how much fun to read about his shenanigans!
Paganini did not have a great childhood, but his talent as a musician was obvious from an extremely young age. His father taught him to play the mandolin at the age of 4, and Niccolo soon moved on to other instruments. His virtuosity made him famous, and he quickly left home.
Paganini was also quite the ladies' man, and he did not hesitate to exploit women to further his career. He was exceedingly ambitious, and he was more than a bit of a monomaniac. His ability to play entire pieces of music on two and/or one string of his violin made his performances more than a little eccentric. Many contemporaries commented on his technique as being "out of this world" and unbelievable. Such a technique did not necessarily make his music the best, but the technique was superlative.
His hands had extremely long, dexterous fingers, which enabled him to have an unusual control of the fingerboard on his violin. Paganini was very thin and posed dramatically when he played. All of this contributed to his suspected deal with the Devil in order to play so well. Being a showman, he cultivated such rumors by dressing all in black and putting on airs. It was all about selling tickets and making money.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading Sugden's book. He has done a lot of research and includes numerous illustrations from the time of Paganini.
What a wonderful romp through another time period!
Paganini did not have a great childhood, but his talent as a musician was obvious from an extremely young age. His father taught him to play the mandolin at the age of 4, and Niccolo soon moved on to other instruments. His virtuosity made him famous, and he quickly left home.
Paganini was also quite the ladies' man, and he did not hesitate to exploit women to further his career. He was exceedingly ambitious, and he was more than a bit of a monomaniac. His ability to play entire pieces of music on two and/or one string of his violin made his performances more than a little eccentric. Many contemporaries commented on his technique as being "out of this world" and unbelievable. Such a technique did not necessarily make his music the best, but the technique was superlative.
His hands had extremely long, dexterous fingers, which enabled him to have an unusual control of the fingerboard on his violin. Paganini was very thin and posed dramatically when he played. All of this contributed to his suspected deal with the Devil in order to play so well. Being a showman, he cultivated such rumors by dressing all in black and putting on airs. It was all about selling tickets and making money.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading Sugden's book. He has done a lot of research and includes numerous illustrations from the time of Paganini.
What a wonderful romp through another time period!
December 29, 2012
The life and times of Paganini were interesting to read about. However, I was really looking forward to reading more about all his physical/health oddities which contributed to his unique abilities and there wasn't much about that in the book. A big oversight for what is considered to be one of the premiere biographies on the musician/composer.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews