| Today in Music History A Daily Look at Music History For Violin Students A Look at What Happened on Today's Date Long, Long Ago . . . Or Maybe Just Last Year |
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| TODAY IS May 31 |
| Did You Guess? You can rearrange the letters to get "The Paganini Caprices!" |
| Can You Guess? The phrase, "Pain. Gain. He practices." is especially interesting today. Can You Guess what is special about it? Arrange things right and I'll bet you can do it easily. Go to the Bottom of the Page for the Answer. |
| What Else Happened Today? |
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| May 31, 1794 Nicolo Paganini made his public debut in Genoa at the age of 11. Paganini was born in Genoa in 1782. Nicolo was sickly as a child. His father, a mandolin player, gave him violin lessons starting at age 6 or 7 and forced him to study and practice long hours. In 1795 Paganini moved to Parma to study under the famous violin teacher Alessandro Rolla. Rolla said that there was nothing more that he could teach the boy. |
| 1656 - French composer and viola da gamba virtuoso, Marin Marais was born. 1809 - Death of Austrian composer Franz Joseph Haydn 1916 - Birth of Mexican-American composer and guitarist Lydia Mendoza The Queen of Tejano, The Lark of the Border. (A good page about her from NPR including songs.) 1938 - Peter Yarrow of Peter, Paul and Mary was born. 1956 - Buddy Holly was inspired to write That'll Be the Day after he saw the John Wayne movie The Searchers. 1961 - Premiere of Penderecki's Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima for strings, in Warsaw 1969 - The first Gospel crossover hit, Oh Happy Day by Edwin Hawkins' Singers peaked at #4 on the pop singles chart. 2000 - Latin jazz legend Tito Puente died. |
| Paganini began a period of self-study, often practicing 15 hours a day. In 1797 he began to make solo tours, which he stopped in 1805 to be court violinist for Napoleon's sister. In 1808 Paganini reverted to solo work. A Paganini performance was stunning. Until this then, violinists had used music even during performances. Paganini memorized pieces. He would stride onto the stage, toss back his black hair and play. His technique was stunning. It is said that when he played tender passages the music was so beautiful that his audiences often burst into tears, and yet, he could perform with such force and velocity that at Vienna one listener became half crazed and declared that for some days that he had seen the Devil helping the violinist play. And thus started the legend. Paganini would wear black clothing. He would arrive at concerts in a black coach drawn by black horses. Besides performing, Paganini wrote many of the pieces for his concerts. It was said that Paganini had been imprisoned for a love affair with only his violin for company. During the alleged prison term all three upper strings had broken, and so Paganini had continued to play on only his G-string. Paganini became wealthy due to his skill on the violin. He rarely practiced after his 30th birthday, but regularly astonished his audiences with his skill. Paganini died May 27, 1840. The music in the background is from Paganini's Caprice No. 1. |
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| Nicolo Paganini 1782-1840 |
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