October 31, 2024 • 53 mins
There's no denying Niccolò Paganini was a virtuoso -- in his heyday, this violinist was an international rock star, wowing crowds across Europe with his rollicking, frenetic performances. He was, in fact, so good that people were at a loss to explain exactly how he got so talented. As the years went on, people started claiming his musical gifts were the result of an infernal pact, and that Paganini had made a deal with the Devil.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio. Welcome back to
(00:27):
the show Ridiculous Historians. Thank you, as always so much
for tuning in. Let's hear it for our super producer,
mister Max Williams. Hello, I have never worshiped Satan. Yeah,
to your knowledge? Right. Also, you're missing out. Yeah, that's
Doul Brown. I'm Ben Bollen. What's your position on Satan? Ben?
(00:49):
Which one? There's ha Satan? Uh, there's also the idea
of the light Bringer. I feel like the concept of
Satan from the comic has many aspects, the idea of
the anti q oh, the Antichrist is the son of Satan. Right. Yeah.
We did an episode years and years ago about the
(01:12):
nature and origins of Satan for stuff they don't want
you to know, and we got a lot We still
have the YouTube video out. We had a lot of
discourse on that one, because Noel, the devil is on
people's minds.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
Well, the devil is in the details, Ben, that's what
they say. Whatever happened to just good old American as
apple pie Satan? When did it have to get all complicated?
Speaker 1 (01:35):
Yeah? What happened to the guy who just went down
to Georgia? And lost a violin contest.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
You know, it is funny that you should say that, Ben,
we are talking about making a deal with the devil
for violin shop, but not the Charlie Daniels band version.
Turns out there's a historical president for that tune.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
Oh what a setup, nol. Yeah, we are if we
wanted to do something a little bit halloween ish, a
bit HALLOWEENI. You can Seweeni a couple of Weeni's little HALLOWEENI.
Here we have all become enamored with the story of
a celebrity violinist. A lot of people not in the
music world may not have heard of this guy, but
(02:19):
in his day, Nicolo Paganini was a real life bad
boy rock star, right like you have a past with
the violin I like phrasing it that way.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
Why yes, Ben, Back when I was a small German boy,
I too made a deal with the devil at a
crossroads at midnight to attain my violin prowess. Much like
Nicolo Paganini, though my deal was a little bit second rate.
I could not shred nearly as well as the man.
He's considered by many. By most who know of him
to be a musical genius. He was also like basically
(02:52):
a rock star guy, you know rock the long kind
of unkempt locks and the un button do you know,
silk shirt showing nip. You know, he was a virtuoso
and some people believe that all of these powers combined
could result from nothing less than a pact with Satan.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
Yeah, and we're going to get to how that rumor started.
But before we do, we've got to dive into his
origin story. You'll see why we consider this ridiculous history.
We're also gonna call our buddy Nikki the Devil's Violinist.
Occasionally no offense to violinist or devils. But this guy
is born. It's October twenty seventh, seventeen eighty two in Genoa, Italy,
(03:41):
not the most stable time for Italy in general. He's
part of a big family, that's right.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
He was the third of six children. Be isn't that
like the literal middle child. Maybe that's where he got
the chip on his shoulder to devil worship rie. We're kidding,
by the way, these are rumors we're gonna play into
a little bit.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
It's fun. We like to have fun here on Ridiculous History.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
Third of six children born to Antonio and Teresa nee
Bocardo Paganini. M.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
Yeah, and okay, so you know how today we call
people helicopter parents if they're always sort of living vicariously
through their kids and taking them to a million different
extra curriculars. You know, like, look, that can be really
difficult for the kids, but every so often, you know,
(04:32):
it results in a tiger woods And that's kind of
what happened with Paganeti because his mom had decided from
the jump that this one of her six children would
be a famous violtist. His father was also really gifted musician.
He was trying to be a salesman of boat supplies,
(04:54):
but wow, yeah he wasn't good as like ropes and
stuff and sales like voting pa finalia yeka. But he
he unfortunately was not successful with that. He was more
successful supporting his family and his six kids by playing
music on the mandolin and also sulling mandolin. So that's
a pretty good I think that's a pretty good way
(05:17):
to sell mandolins. Right, You show up somewhere, you get
paid to rock out on your little and someone's like,
I'm so inspired, and then you say, guess what buddy,
you can also buy a mandolin. I love the gentle
sound of a mandolin, and there's.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
Nothing more cliche le Italian in a music cue than
a fast picked mandolin, you know, perhaps by Captain Corelli himself.
You know it's funny though, Ben, I mean, you may
not know this. I bet you probably do, But anyone
out there who doesn't, it's for you. A mandolin is
tuned exactly the same as a violin. That's where the
olin park comes from, except it has dual strings. The
(05:54):
high strings are tuned in unisons and the low strings
are tuned in octave. So that's what gives you that
really nice, full sound. And while I did not have
the same level of shred in common with Paganini, I
too had a bit of a helicopter.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
Parent situation growing up.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
Though it was my father who stood over me assiduously
as I practiced violin and would give me a good
swat with a bow if I messed up. Yeah, that
part true, It is very true. It was not the
best relationship. Made me resent the violin, but I eventually
moved on to you know, taking that parleying that into
(06:30):
other things that I enjoyed very much.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
Like guitar, playing in bands and all of that.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
So I've forgiven my papa for this transgression, and not
to be apologist, but he came to it in his
own way.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
He wanted me.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
To be a very skilled and perhaps famous violin as
that did not transpire. I instead became a skilled and
mildly Internet famous podcaster.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
And I today I learned I knew about the tuning,
but I did not know about the etymology of mandolin
and violin. That's very interest. Thank you for that. So
Paganini is training on the mandolin first, and he's doing
it when he's five. A couple of years later, he's
stepping up to the violin, and his dad is his teacher.
(07:16):
Similar kind of to your situation. His dad is also
figuring out, look, let's be honest, folks, it's the late
seventeen hundreds. Child labor is very highly normalized and approved of.
So by the time this kid is eleven, his dad
puts him on the mean streets of Judoah to play,
(07:38):
to play violin.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
Yeah, for the public. He's already pretty good by then.
He gets sent at the age of thirteen to study
with the famous violinist and teacher Alessandro Rola, But when
he arrived, Rolla decided that Paganini was already so skilled
up that he really couldn't teach him much, so instead
he referred to him to his own teacher, the teacher's teacher,
(08:02):
Ferdinando Pier, and because of his abilities, he was then
again passed on to another teacher, Pierre's teacher, the teacher's
teachers teacher, Yeah, Gasparo Jiretti, the grandfather teacher, like the
final boss of violin teachers.
Speaker 1 (08:19):
That's that's how swatsy with a boat too, That's how
the story goes. There is a perspective that we're putting
a spin on here in our research, because we know
that he definitely went to all three of those teachers.
But as we'll see, our buddy Nick is kind of is.
There's no kind of about it. He's a source of legend.
(08:41):
So a lot of times you'll hear stories about his
progression phrased in this way, right like, instead of just
saying he had three different teachers who knew each other,
they'll say, oh, he's too good, and he was too
good again, and then finally he met the master. He
was too too good again again. Just like a Kanye West.
In March of seventeen ninety six, Genoa is massively destabilized
(09:06):
because the French invade northern Italy. As a result, the family,
the Paganini family, relocates to their country home near Bolzanetto.
And there was a silver lining here. This is really
interesting to me for such a public facing guy. While
his family was basically on lockdown exile to the country,
(09:29):
Paganini picked up a guitar. At some point he became
obsessed with the guitar. It was one of his favorite
instruments ever, and he never did a public performance. He
decided probably from the jump, that guitar was for him
and maybe his friends had maybe his lovers if he
(09:51):
thought they performed. Well, that's fair.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
Yeah, it's interesting in guitar, you know, on the other hand,
to it completely different than the violin and a whole
other set of skills, you know, definitely a string instrument
held in the same way as the mandolin, the whole
other universe of tuning and technique. So this guy really
was super super you know, just primed to be a
(10:14):
brilliant musician.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
Yeah, yeah, and then guitar tunes, as you said, a
whole other bag of badgers. This is at least part
of the reason he is primarily known as a violinist today.
Later people would the public, I mean, would learn about
his virtuosity with the guitar. In seventeen ninety seven, he
(10:37):
and his father Paganini Senior go on tour, and little
Nikki builds a reputation with every single concert he does.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
Because, like I said of the aforementioned shredding, the guy
tosses his hair around and like rends his garments practically.
I mean, I bet you he at some point did
the move where he slides on his knees across the
stage at that level of flair.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
You know.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
The only historical classical music analog that I can think
of that reminds me of him as Ben who.
Speaker 1 (11:07):
Is that Franz list list?
Speaker 2 (11:11):
Domania RAN's list was similarly a big, showy, flashy performer
and had women like literally throwing their pantaloons at him.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
Often considered the first analog to the rock Star and
Shout Out Phoenix.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
Very much so, and also the very delightfully schlocky sixties
film list of Mania. But I would definitely say that
Paganini is in the running for another proto rock star.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
Oh for sure. Yeah. In eighteen hundred, he and his
father traveled to Livorno, where Paganini plays in more concerts,
and his dad again tries to be a salesperson for
boding paraphernalia. You can probably hear me rolling my eyes,
(11:58):
and that's just because he had to make a living.
No one knew what was going to happen to Paganini
at this point. He's like seventeen years old. He's already
making waves. But you know, sometimes the brightest stars burned briefest,
and we didn't know that he was going to be
this amazing musical force. In eighteen oh one, he's eighteen
(12:19):
years old and he is appointed first Violin of the
Republic of Luca. No, maybe could tell our fellow ridiculous
historians a little bit about the prestige of being first
violin in these kind of groups.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
Just means you're the best. You know people how they
call it first chair. You're just the number one hot
sh shredder the conductor's hand at the very beginning. You
certainly do. You also are the person that provides the
initial tuning pitch for the entire orchestra. It's a big
deal and oftentimes you're the person that gets the solos.
(12:57):
I mean, they'll have like featured artists that come in
and do so, but like, yeah, the first of first
chair violinist is a very important leadership position in any orchestra.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
Do you know who I love in any orchestra? Or
we are immensely fortunate to have the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra here,
and I go pretty often because I just dig the
vibe of the place and it's by a museum that
I go to already. And my favorite, one of my
favorite performers, just just for their energy is always the
(13:31):
percussionist in the group, who have you don't have beat
me here, Max, who don't have shit to do? For
like eight to ten minutes, and then it's time for
the symbols, right, it's time for the big drums, and
they just go tambourine shake is one of my favorites,
and they so tambourine shit. You're right, I love the
(13:53):
I've only seen this in real life a couple of times,
but I did see a person who was, you know,
on the miscellaneous percussion, but they were on a song
where they just had some triangle business going on. And
they just triangle is an important part of the orchestra,
but they just stared at the sheep music, you know,
stock still absolutely like a like a scarecrow Halloween statue.
(14:15):
And then when their time came, they hit that ding,
and they hit that ding perfectly, the occasional clippity clop. Yeah,
I think I saw a really great video. I think
it was I think I'm describing this correctly.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
It was a percussionist who has waited exactly what you're described,
been waiting in that moment, and then hit the big
skin drum, big bass drum with a mallet and it
bounced it out of his hand and hit somebody in
the back of the head.
Speaker 1 (14:41):
Paganini would never now well, I mean he might, he
might have lost himself in the music, you know, the
moment that he wanted. He didn't let it go because
he was Paganini. You're right right, And a substantial portion
of Paganini's income came from freelance. See even when he
had the prestigious roll of first violin. This sounds like
(15:03):
a meteoric rise to fame, but the success story was
not perfect. It hit some discordant notes. I know, Pagadidi
didn't just act like a rock star on stage. He
had all the vices of a rock star from you know,
(15:23):
the Halcyon era of the nineteen seventies. He loved gambling,
he loved romancing people on a very short term basis.
How's that for diplomacy. I think it's good he did.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
Indeed, he was no stranger to diabolical rumors from the start.
It sounds like a plot lifted directly out of the
incredibly good TV series Hannibal. Rumors ran a muck about
his having murdered a woman and used her intestines as
violin strings and imprisoning her soul.
Speaker 1 (15:59):
With the instrument. Right, that's just for fun.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
It is true that early violin streams were made from
gut material. Kata are often made from kat guts, so
you could, in fact harvest to human beings guts.
Speaker 1 (16:13):
And I'm not joking.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
This is in fact a plot of an episode of
Hannibal where there's a murderous violin maker.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
Yeah, and keep in mind to folks, of course, this
is kind of our Halloween episode. So we're talking about
these scary rumors. But keep in mind back in this time,
pre social media, rumors were spread word of mouth and
usually just some often by the way by people who
are making a joke and then someone else took it seriously. Uh,
(16:45):
satire sometimes gets lost in the game of telephone. People
like to gab it. Ben.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
Actually, you know what, here's a good chance to plug
our sister podcast stuff they don't want you to know.
And an episode we've got that just came out about
info hazards, the idea that an idea can infect you
and be spread around like a disease. So rumors, one
could argue, are info hazard.
Speaker 1 (17:07):
Yeah, they're mimetic. That's a really good comparison, and that
is I really enjoyed that conversation me too. I think
we both still kind of have a stage high off
of it because we recorded that yesterday.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
We did, and we just in general on that show
and sometimes on this show, we just really love thought experiments,
and there are so many fascinating thought experiments, including the
idea of Rocco's basilisk that we discussed in that episode.
So do check that out if you're not an initiate
into the world of stuff I Don't want you to know.
Speaker 1 (17:37):
And do check out some more Paganini rumors. So this
guy is a mysterious dude. We'll talk a little bit
more about his very singular appearance and the vibe he cultivates.
But he wanted these rumors. He invited these to them,
(18:00):
you could say, as often as he solicited his lovers.
Another rumor on the streets was that he his violin
emitted the screams of women when he performed on stage.
And you can read contemporary historical figures who go to
(18:20):
AINI Paganini concert, not a Panini concert, have a Panini
at a Paganini. I'm into the idea of a Panini concert.
You know what I mean is that just like a
parade of sandwiches. Well, Panini is an Italian sandwich, if
I'm not mistaken.
Speaker 2 (18:36):
So perhaps and the refreshment counter at a Paganini concerto,
one could enjoy a Panini.
Speaker 1 (18:42):
I think women were screaming in the audience, by the way,
like I said, it was a total like BEATLEMANI at
type situation.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
Ben I put a link in the chat. I just
really would love you to see this image. I thought
that I remembered seeing something like this, but it is
such a cool painting, or like an etching kind of
thing of Paganini ripping into the violet. It his fingers flying,
and his silhouette on the wall is the devil.
Speaker 1 (19:09):
Oh yeah, I've seen this one. I love it. I
feel like this would be Paganini approved as well. The
devil virtuoso.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
Well, Ben, don't you think he had I mean it
was a little bit dangerous. I guess he was in
a part of Europe. It was the eighteen hundreds. They
weren't burning people at the stake anymore. It was just
a little bit you know, unclean, you know, kind of
maybe the rumors, but I would think, uh, he would
lean into this stuff because it's just absolutely fabulous. I mean,
no pr is bad pr And like, I gotta go
(19:41):
see this devil, the demon possessed violinist.
Speaker 1 (19:45):
Yeah, and for a long time the violin was regarded
by certain aspects of the European population as an instrument
of the devil. Right. That's part of why we get
the American folklore about the devil playing the fiddle. So
it's not necessarily surprising that rumors about a deal with
the devil will start circulating, at least for fun, when
(20:07):
someone's really good at the violin, and some people even
took it a step further and they said, maybe Paganini
is the devil himself. That was for the record several
of his exes who said that da da da da,
but the one of the first, one of the first rumors,
and I think this is what the drawing that you
(20:31):
shared shows us. One of the first rumors came out
of a concert in Vienna where one audience member swore seriously,
from what we can tell, that they had seen the
devil helping Paganini play on stage. And then other people
started saying, I saw Paganini on the street, but when
(20:51):
he isn't performing, he's rocking horns and hooves.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
Yeah, I can picture it too, Ben, can't you you know,
like sort of doing that rooting, sort of bull wind
up thing with his right hoof as he you know,
cocks his head like rips it on the violin.
Speaker 1 (21:06):
I totally see this. Yeah. Somebody said lightning struck the
end of Paganini's bow during a performance and fire from
his fingers as he rossened up his bow. Man. I
love that Charlie Daniels song All Hard if your great cool?
(21:33):
Yeah great too, big influence.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
I would have to argue on the band Primus.
Speaker 1 (21:41):
Also with every song, every Primus song sounds like Devil
went down to George. Also, uh, looking back, I think
that was uh for for many kids, that may have
been their first introduction to rap cadence. Yeah met Dam Dad, but.
Speaker 2 (21:59):
Also auctioned Yeah Going Once, Going twice fun tune though
holds up. I will say then that you should if
you have, if you likely you have only heard bits
of it. I do recommend listening to it in one
sitting because it is a it is an it's about really,
it tells it sale.
Speaker 1 (22:14):
Yeah, it's a it's a long form narrative. It's pretty good.
I'm gonna listen to it after this again. So uh.
One thing was for sure, though, All of these rumors
about a cult or infernal activity came about as satire
or as an attempt to explain just why this guy
(22:36):
was so good. His skill on the violin was unparalleled.
He was one of the first solo violinists. This is fascinating,
some of the first solo violinists to perform in public
without sheet music. Instead, he chose to memorize everything, and
he was cool with some of his contemporaries. You know
other people who are professional violinists. If he liked a
(22:59):
compass somebody made, then he would do his own cover
version of it, and he would just kind of, you know,
go Charlie Daniels with it, because he's since he doesn't
have sheet music, he's just running around the stage, you
know what, you know what I mean, like a nineteen
seventies got lead guitarist.
Speaker 2 (23:16):
Exactly, like what's that guy's name, Angus from ac DC,
always kind of hoofing around, you know, like with his
foot out, kind of jumping, doing the little Marty McFly
kind of dance.
Speaker 1 (23:27):
Yeah, and still he's got a pretty serious gambling problem.
So he's he Being a famous musician, as we can
unfortunately assure you, does not always make you a wealthy person.
Well that's right, I was going to say earlier.
Speaker 2 (23:42):
The reason he needed to supplement his income with freelance,
you know, solo violin gigs, is because being a first chair,
while prestigious and depending on the orchestra, doesn't typically pay
a whole heck.
Speaker 1 (23:54):
Of a lot. It is not a life of luxury, no, yeah. Yeah,
And add to that lose in Paganini's case, he's losing
a lot of his disposable income because he loves the gambling.
You know, he serves at the pleasure of the fates
and fortune, and he loses a lot. He pawned his
(24:16):
own violin one time because he just had to get
out of this gambling debt. A French merchant came and
saved the day they lent him. I don't know, have
you heard of this. You're more familiar with violins than
I am. Have you heard of a Guarneri violin? I haven't,
but I'm.
Speaker 2 (24:33):
Sure it's just like a maker's mark kind of situation,
you know, like a very like you know, I mean,
the big famous one is Strativarius. Those are still around
and incredibly sought after and incredibly expensive. But I do
know that, like, really serious violinists often will have instruments
that are worth tens of thousands of dollars and have
to be insured for super high amounts. Oh, because they're
(24:56):
one of a kind, you know, handmade, And that's likely
what the deal was with this.
Speaker 1 (25:00):
I'm not familiar with that particularly. Okay, Well, this this guy,
French merchant, you don't think of him like the upper
middle class kind of Let's call him kindly a kindly
French merchant lent Paganini a violin, said, you know, I
know you got to play this concert. I believe in music,
you know, give me a plus one to your concert.
(25:20):
I could borrow my violin. And after he heard Paganini play,
he was so moved that he gave Nick the violin.
He heard a play and he said, oh dang, all right, bro,
you keep it. We don't know too much more about
how stuff worked out with that French merchant, but we
do know that Paganini was what I call a known lothario.
(25:45):
He had many many intimate intimate partners, intimate partners after
dark experiences. He was a busy boy off stage. He
did get busy off stage again.
Speaker 2 (25:58):
This this plays into the whole kind of mythos of
like the rock star.
Speaker 1 (26:03):
However you may look at that.
Speaker 2 (26:05):
Lifestyle, it definitely is a thing, and this guy lived
it many sexual partners. Amid all of those partners was
at least one who was considered kind of the love
of his life type figure, a singer named Antonio Bianci,
who he met in Milan in eighteen thirteen. They would
do concerts together throughout Italy and had a son together.
(26:26):
Named Achili Tiro Alessandro born on July twenty third, eighteen
twenty five in Palermo, baptized at Saint Bartolomeo's And they
actually never officially legalized their partnership.
Speaker 1 (26:43):
Let's just say they had an entanglement a situationships. They
didn't do that.
Speaker 2 (26:48):
Situationship came to an end April of eighteen twenty eight
in Vienna. And then for a little bit of context
around this part of the world or this part of Italy.
If anyone's seen the second season of The White Lotus,
the HBO series about the you know, the resort and
all of the crimey wymy shenanigans that ensue.
Speaker 1 (27:09):
They go to Palermo.
Speaker 2 (27:11):
Yeah, and then it is an island like off of
the coast of I can't remember exactly.
Speaker 1 (27:16):
Maybe it is Milan.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
I think it is where the actual resort is, but
the Palermo part is where the is where they go
for the kind of finale, the big climax.
Speaker 1 (27:26):
Yeah, Palermo is the capital of Sicily and Vienna. Austria
is so not too far away. But when things don't
work out for them, they're in Austria. That's where it ends.
If we're jumping around in time a little bit here,
as is our right, as is our want. Paganini becomes
(27:47):
a violinist earlier in eighteen oh five for the how
would you say this, Bacciochi court, Sure, yeah, maybe put
a little more stank on it, but Ciocchi, all right,
I don't want to be that guy in Taco Bell
asked for a case Sudi.
Speaker 2 (28:01):
Do that in honor of my father. He did it
all the time. I've carried on that legacy of cringe.
Speaker 1 (28:07):
So this guy is he's a court violinist. He's still gambling.
Speaker 2 (28:14):
You know.
Speaker 1 (28:15):
It's the early eighteen hundreds. He is giving private lessons
to the husband of Alisa Bonaparte, who is Napoleon's sister,
and her husband is named Felice. And while Paganini is
teaching this guy to play violin for a decade, by
(28:36):
the way, he's also sleeping with Alisa.
Speaker 2 (28:41):
What a cat rest scallion, scally wag, yeah, lout rake yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:49):
And he he has to hit the road jack at
a as a result, the heat's getting too much, so
he returns to touring. Like you said, Genoah, he's popular
with local audiences, but he's not super well known to
the rest of Europe until his first big break in
eighteen thirteen concert in Milan. This is where he gets
(29:13):
a huge following. This is where rumors start spreading about
his spellbinding powers and is packed with the forces of evil,
by the way, rumors that he never publicly rejected.
Speaker 2 (29:26):
That's what I'm saying. It would make sense, you know,
if he was not a feared for his you know, safety,
why not lean into it. It's a it's a point
of interest. I would certainly want to want to get
in on this particular satanic panic.
Speaker 1 (29:39):
Oh yeah, yeah, And that's just what it was, right,
perhaps not as dangerous as the Inquisition, right, if it
was just a it was a naughty boy who is edgy,
who is Alice Cooper esque original Edge Lord. Yeah yeah.
And he leaned into it because he composed what is
often described just a fiendishly difficult set of variations called
(30:03):
the Witches l'astrega. Yeah, yeah, just so, and he rocked out.
This gave him the attention of other prominent, perhaps more
conservative musicians across Europe. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (30:16):
The thing that was neat and sort of unique about
Paganini was that he didn't you sheet music because he
memorized all of his stuff, which gave him the freedom
to do all of those stage theatrics that we were
talking about, like you know, swaying quite literally rocking the
f out, and he started to attract the attention of
(30:38):
other prominent, yet more conservative musicians across Europe who maybe
looked a bit of skance.
Speaker 1 (30:45):
At his shenaniganry.
Speaker 2 (30:46):
One of his early encounters with Charles Philippe Lafonte and
Lewis Spohrer birthed a very intense rivalry.
Speaker 1 (30:55):
Yes, which continued for quite some time. He was friends
with other musics, but not friends with all of them.
He was old, but like his vibe. Yeah yeah, not
everything is for everyone. You know. One guy who did
like him was the Pope. I guess that's a flex.
In eighteen twenty seven, Pope Leo twelve gave Paganini the
(31:17):
Order of the Golden Spur, which was a big deal
in the day. We must not have heard the devil rooms.
What do you think about that? You know, I wonder
about that one too. Honestly, maybe that was a maybe
he just got co signs from both sides of the aisle.
Speaker 2 (31:32):
I guess, so you know, it's better to have him
in our corner, right, for when the infernal line comes
down and starts taking names, his fame begins to truly
spread across Europe. He goes on like a proper rockstar
concert tour that began in Vienna in eighteen twenty eight,
stopped in every single major European city in Germany, Poland Bohemia,
(31:55):
running until February of eighteen thirty.
Speaker 1 (31:57):
One, when he played in Strasberg. Yeah, and then he
moves on with more tours around Paris and Britain. He
gets pretty much unanimous critical acclaim because he's just good. Yes, Yeah,
he's a badass. He's a bad mamma jammer. As long
(32:18):
as he could, as long as he could get on stage.
He was no stranger to chronic illness. We're going to
dive into that in a second, but we know that
being a relatively sickly child and sickly adult and also
frequently touring probably had an effect on his health. And
(32:42):
then it didn't help that he also got syphilis as
early as eighteen twenty two. The treatment he was given
for syphilis was mercury and opium, which are, by the way, yeah,
not things you should take even if you don't have syphilis.
Speaker 2 (33:00):
Yeah, I mean opium, you know, okay that you probably
have a good old time with that, But mercury, they
kind of went on to figure out that that stuff
made you crazy. And if I'm not mistaken, soda syphilis, yeah,
given enough time to metastasize. By the way, Ben, it
always occurs to me when we're talking about people like this,
whether they be great performers or speakers or whatever, and
(33:22):
the thought that crosses my mind is are there recordings?
And the good news is kind of yes, you know,
we haven't really pushed this home, but be kind of
leaning more on his performance skills so that he was
a composer. Yes, he wrote all his music. He wrote,
He wrote original music, which required the level and skill
(33:44):
that he had, and so there would be you know,
some people wouldn't be able to pull this stuff off.
You can find wax cylinder recordings in the British Library,
thought to be one of Paganini's only pupils. Actually I
think his only pupil Camillo Sivori, and then include his
Witch's Dance and Savori, who also composed in the style
of Paganini.
Speaker 1 (34:05):
The second violin can share you.
Speaker 2 (34:06):
I am not seeing if there are any actual pugany
because I guess he couldn't really do recordings until early
nineteen hundreds, and we lost him just before the technology
I think came into it.
Speaker 1 (34:18):
You know what, Let's play just briefly so everybody can
hear it. Let's play a little bit of a Paganini composition. Yes,
so here's a snippet of the Witch's dance. The violinist
shakes the hand, yeah, all right, the conductor's warming up,
(34:42):
all right, he's doing his own weird hand thing. So
there's multiple people played. You got to wait for our guy,
the first violin to hop in. Here he comes. Oh yeah,
(35:11):
So in like the seventeen eighteen hundreds, this would be
like Harry and Jimmy hendrixh one hundred percent listening to
those runs.
Speaker 2 (35:18):
I mean he also kind of created some unique stylistic
touches of his own that we'll get to in a minute.
But those are called like those really fast runs, glissando
kind of things. It's very, very difficult, and if anyone
has ever had a sibling or maybe themselves tried to
take up the violin, it sounds horrible unless you're really
(35:39):
really good.
Speaker 1 (35:41):
Right, Yeah, because unlike unlike your favorite guitar, the violin
doesn't have frets.
Speaker 2 (35:49):
You gotta man, it's a very small fingerboard, you know,
and you know when you first start. I started playing
Suzuki violin, which also leans heavily into memorization, which I
thought was interesting. It tapes little little pieces of tape
on the on the fret, on the front board, on
the fingerboard, so that you know where the main notes are.
But once you start getting more advanced, you start to
(36:09):
shift your hand around and like shift up and up
and up, and sometimes do things called like double stops,
where you'll play two strings at a time and make
these like little kind of mini chords and.
Speaker 1 (36:19):
All on this tiny piece of physical real estate. It's
funny the memorization, which I do believe is impressive, just
the muscle memory of it. It reminds me of when
I ask my accomplished trombonist friends to show me without
the trombone what a note looks like, and they have
it down and it looks really cool when they just
(36:41):
stretch their arm to a certain degree and say this
is this and this, uh so shout out to trombodis
I don't think you get enough love, and you're an
important part of the crew. How did Paganini get so good? Well,
going back to that small fingerboard conversation, he was a
(37:02):
very very flexible guy. He was basically gumby on stage,
and later historians and researchers would wonder whether this came
from something called Eller's don Lois syndrome or possibly more fans,
(37:26):
which people speculate Abraham Lincoln might have had as well
because of the word.
Speaker 2 (37:30):
Jefford Cox from the bands Deer Hunter has been very
open about his mar Fans syndrome. He's a very tall
and lanky fellow and it has actual health consequences with
it does result in sort of a very tall and
skinny frame.
Speaker 1 (37:45):
Yeah, And whether you have Mark fans or Eller's down
los we have a lot of speculation that this condition
may have been part of how he was able to
go at the violin with such phenomenal speed and not
always have to change his position. His fingers were just
(38:06):
super flexible, which meant that he could hit these huge
stretches and these runs with relative ease.
Speaker 2 (38:14):
You know, I'm not gonna dox anybody, but we do
have a close friend both of you. You and I'm
mutual who has dollars dan Low's And it is not
some sort of debilitating I guess there maybe are our
stages of it, but what it typically results in is
just a very stretchy and flexible skin.
Speaker 1 (38:31):
Yeah, it's kind of a gumby situation. And bro, if
you're listening, you know, we're saying that out of affection.
And I love when that guy explains it to people.
It's always like he's got his presentation down, pat, you
know what I mean with the super flexible stuff. Also
it helps fight wrinkles, right right, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (38:52):
Yeah, the friend that I'm talking about has a perpetually youthful.
Speaker 1 (38:57):
Glow and also youthful fun vibe. I love that guy,
all right. So Paganini widely employs the special effects of
the violin world. He's got a high speed left hand pisocado.
He barely touches the strings to make some ghosty sounds,
(39:18):
and the pisocados where the upper fingers of the left
hand plucked the string while the lower ones hold down
the notes.
Speaker 2 (39:27):
Sort of pitsicado in general is just plucking the violin,
but he's doing a form of pitsicato. That's like even
more advanced, I think is borderline of his own design.
So what he would do is he would be plucking
with his left hand, which is the hand you typically
push down the strings on the left hand. Yeah, and
then he could also be he sort of like a
hammer on on a guitar, where you pull up on
(39:48):
the string and it makes a plucking sound. But he
would combine that with hitting it with the bow in between,
and then aven plucking.
Speaker 1 (39:54):
With the right hand.
Speaker 2 (39:55):
And there are some really really fancy, showy violin pieces
that incorporate that technique and the ghostly harmonics that you
were describing. There's a really beautiful piece was when I
was at my kind of advanced dist in violin called
the Chardash. It's a very famous you've heard heard.
Speaker 1 (40:17):
Anyway.
Speaker 2 (40:17):
There's a whole part in it that uses these double
harmonics where you have to so gently touch your pinky
at an exact fifth interval and just touch it of
the finger you're putting down the string, and it creates
this really kind of ghostly harmonic sound. They're called artificial harmonics. Yeah,
and I'm a nerd.
Speaker 1 (40:37):
And he also had a lot of these double stops
two notes played simultaneously every way you can imagine a
bow touching a violin and producing a sound. He did it.
You know. He basically he knew all the super moves,
and he had been called by multiple people faultless, beyond imagination,
(41:01):
utterly unique and gifted beyond, you know, beyond mortal KeNH
Because he was such a successful virtuoso, it became a
coup of your own if you were in the audience.
And he cultivated this is what we're talking about earlier,
his appearance. He cultivated a purposely edgy appearance. He wanted
(41:24):
to look like a fan of the film The Crow.
He was pale, he was gaunt, he had eternally messy
black hair, he was wore a long frock coat. And
because he had an earlier botched operation on his jaw, Yeah,
he had a weird He always had a kind of
(41:46):
weird expression. So he looked like a spooky guy.
Speaker 2 (41:50):
He did look like a bit of a ghoul, didn't he. Yes,
just a spooky season you know what. I also bet Ben,
I'm picturing a bit of a smell. Oh, come on, man, it.
Speaker 1 (42:00):
Was don't know why. I just I picture a bit
of a of a tour bus smell. In this era,
it was already smelling everything stink, you know what I mean?
I think that was Oh gosh. We were talking with
Bahamas about that a while a while ago. Yes, Aj Bahamas,
Jacob's one of our smartest friends. Remember when we talked
(42:21):
to Moe Raka and he was just talking about mostly
said the same thing.
Speaker 2 (42:26):
He was talking about the seventies in New York City recently,
the seventies everyone smelled like Bo on the subway.
Speaker 1 (42:33):
It's very, very true. This is a different time for Bo.
Speaker 2 (42:36):
And I'm just thinking our boy Agannini was a bit
of a stinker.
Speaker 1 (42:40):
Yeah, I hate to profile. I don't know why, but
he's got the look. He does have the look, the unkempt.
I bet that Frock coat. Bet it didn't get laundered
too frequently. Yeah, how many Frock coats did he have?
That's all?
Speaker 2 (42:53):
Did he even have a closet? At this point, he
seemed like he was a bit of a transient.
Speaker 1 (42:56):
Well, in eighteen thirty six, he goes back to Paris
to set up a casino and the casino fail. That
goes well, right now, okay, yeah, it fails terribly cartoonishly.
Dare I say ridiculously. It left him in financial dire straits.
Not the band.
Speaker 2 (43:14):
You don't have no microwave of it. You know that
song drops a slur very casually. I did not realize
it until very recently when I was I was trying
to show my kid in the video because it was
that classic early MTV computery video. And then the second verse,
I mean to be fair, it is sort of playing
a character who would use that word five.
Speaker 1 (43:33):
But it's not good. It does not age well, no, no, no.
And then we've got what's the name of that? Is
it money for nothing? Money for nothing? Is it chicks
for free? Or checks for free? I think it's money
for nothing and chicks for free, chicks for free? Okay,
let us know, let us let us know. Dire straits.
(43:54):
They're still kicking around, and because the casino is ruined,
he has to auction off a bunch of his personal effects.
So if he had multiple frock coats, he doesn't anymore.
He has to auction off his musical instruments to make
good on his losses. He leaves Paris for Marseille in
(44:15):
eighteen thirty eight during Christmas. Then he travels to Nice
in the entire time, his medical condition is getting worse
and worse and worse. It's eighteen forty. The local bishop
sends Paganini a priest to perform the last rites, and
Paganini is pissed off. He pretty much says, come on, guys,
(44:37):
I'm not dead yet. Why are you here? And he
turns the priest away because he says, you know, I'm
not gonna die yet. That's the official explanation. But for
people who believe the rumor that he was the Devil's violinist,
they thought he had already sworn allegiance to infernal powers
(44:58):
and as such could not take last rites in the church. Anyway,
it looks like the bishop who sent the priest was
onto something, because Paganini dies a week later, May eighteen forty,
May twenty seventh, eighteen forty. He's just fifty seven years old. Yes,
he died as he lived fast and loose. Oh that's
(45:20):
a heck of a way to describe internal hemorrhagy. I
know exactly, internal hemorrhaging. Indeed, was this a complication from
his syphilis? It had to be a culmination of multiple things. Yeah,
you know, we talked about genetic conditions syphilis, tuberculosis, whatever
else he picked up in his adult adventures. It's a
(45:45):
weird pause. Try for the diplomacy here, folks. Uh, yeah,
his This is how we know that he had this
association with the devil. The Catholic Church denied his body
a Catholic burial in Genoa, but the Popa loved him.
Speaker 2 (46:04):
Yeah, but Papa, Papa, where are you in his hour
of need?
Speaker 1 (46:09):
Where is burial? Need? Where is job rule? It took uh?
But the okay like his fans though, are the equivalent
of barbs? Is that the Nicki minaj fans.
Speaker 2 (46:25):
Or whatever bars in the behive or swifties in Behi Bayhive.
There's another what do you know what they called chapel
ron fans. I don't know that was too new. Chaps,
the Chapsters. Charlie xc x O G fans are angels
because Charlie's angels.
Speaker 1 (46:40):
You know, I get it. Well, he had this kind
of fandom. You know, what do they call it? What
can we give him a name? Then the Ninis I
like that? Yeah, Oh, the Pagans, the Pagans followers. There
we go. I believe the guy didn't think to start
a cult of Paganini. I I had a little harder guy.
(47:02):
I think he was a one on one kind of guy.
I think that's probably true, you know what I mean,
and probably with people he's trying to sleep with. That's what. Yeah,
it took anyways, fans the Pagans uh. They spend four
years lobbying the Catholic Church and appealing to the Pope
to let this guy's body be transported back to Genoa.
(47:24):
He goes on a posthumous tour, he's taken to Genoa.
He's still not buried. He's finally buried in eighteen seventy six,
so many years after he dies, he is buried in
a cemetery in Pharma.
Speaker 2 (47:39):
You know, this reminds me of remember when James Brown
passed away and like he went unburied for months. I
want to say, he died on Christmas Day of whatever
year that was, and they kept his body like in
a freezer or something, or like a refrigerator in his
own on his own property, I want to say, because
there were a lot of legal issues his a state
(48:00):
and all of that, but it was the weirdest thing,
like they did. There was a whole like what's the
deal with James Brown's burial very similar.
Speaker 1 (48:08):
Yeah, and this is only one story of a musician
rumored to have sold their soul to the devil. We
know that Paganini's body was finally reinterred in a new
cemetery still in part in eighteen ninety six. He has
found peace. We cannot speak to any direct proof of
(48:28):
supernatural affiliation, but we can say some people genuinely believe
he had made a deal with the devil because he
was just that good. So if you want an obscure
Halloween costume, or if you don't want to dress up,
just mess up your hair, put on a long coat
and tell people you're Paganini for Halloween exactly. I mean,
(48:52):
fun costume.
Speaker 2 (48:54):
There was one thing in the Beetlejuice movie, the New
Beetlejuice movie, that I thought was kind of cute. I
had a little ragged on It's okay, it's fine, but
the young Lydia Dietz's daughter character played by Jenna Ortega,
dresses up as Marie Currie for Halloween, and like she's
got like sort of like like bags under her eyes,
like it's meant to represent like radiation poisoning. I love
(49:16):
the idea of deep cut historical Halloween cousin. I think
Paganini would be a good one.
Speaker 1 (49:21):
That's a cool Yeah, it's a cool idea. The more
I think about more I like it. I love obscure costumes.
Not only really backfired once. I don't think we knew
each other. I dressed as HH Holmes and I looked
I did it Orange Star No, uh, the serial Killer
from the Devil with the White City. I was thinking
(49:41):
of John. Sorry, different different homes. But HH Holmes. Please
read The Devil in the White City if you haven't,
It's just a fantastic book. HH Holmes, real monster, kind
of a deep cut. And here's why I backfired. The
one person other than my girlfriend at the time who
recognized was super not chill No was very excited that
(50:06):
they've met someone dressed as HH Holmes and wanted to
hang out. What does that say about this person? Not
not I get you know. First suppressions are the measure
the within span of a human character. But that lady
had a creepy vibe.
Speaker 2 (50:23):
Well, speaking of creepy vibes and serial killer fandom. Since
we're wrapping up this episode and Ben, a huge thanks
to you for putting together this incredible brief on such
an incredibly weird and I guess divisive fellow. I did
want to make a spooky season film recommendation.
Speaker 1 (50:41):
Let's hear it. It is called.
Speaker 2 (50:43):
Red Rooms, and it is a French Canadian kind of
procedural horror, you know, serial killer type thing, but it
is all from the perspective of a super fan of
this serial killer who is on trial, and it does
some of the most incredible things with there's I don't
(51:06):
know if anyone's familiar or it have to be too heavy,
but the idea of Red Rooms is sort of an
Internet rumor, kind of like snuff films, the idea that
on the dark Web there exists these murder films that
you can bid on or watch cams of or whatever,
and they are largely thought to be mythical. But in
the reality of this movie, they are not mythical. And
(51:26):
this gentleman has perpetrated multiple of these and you experience
others watching them, but you don't ever see them.
Speaker 1 (51:34):
You just see their reactions and hear the sound.
Speaker 2 (51:37):
And I swear ben it is one of the most
stunning and haunting horror type films I've ever seen. It's
up there to me with like a Silence of the
Lambs type situation. I highly I can't recommend it enough.
Speaker 1 (51:49):
Do check it out, folks. I will do the same
and let us know your favorite Halloween films and rewatches.
I'm all, it's always Halloween in America in my opinion,
so I'm always yeah, so I'm always watching horror films.
The thanks has always ridiculous histories for tuning in, big,
big thanks to our super producer, mister Max Williams. I
(52:13):
called him the Ookie Boogieman earlier because I was up
really late last night and Nightmare Before Christmas came on
and I just came on, Ben, you have like cable
or something, what do we talk? Well, not to I
wrote anybody, you know what I mean, but it popped
on and I remember distinctly thinking, well, I can't go
(52:33):
to sleep now, I've got to see what happens in
this movie that I've watched, you know clearly like thirty times.
Speaker 2 (52:41):
Well, the four K remaster looks fantastic, stunning, right, yeah,
very very very cool.
Speaker 1 (52:47):
A big fan of Night Before Christmas as well.
Speaker 2 (52:49):
And big fan of you, Ben as well as you
superproducer Max as well. As Alex Williams who composed this theme,
and huge fans of Christopher Hasiotis and Ease Jeffcoat here
in spirit oh.
Speaker 1 (53:04):
Our buddy Christopher is going to be performing at our
local Atlanta Rite Club I Believe on November sixth. It's
a good show for a good cause. Check it out
if you're in town. We also want to thank, with
great reluctance, our pal Jonathan Strickland, who definitely made a
deal with the Devil but for podcast Yeah, kind of
(53:24):
a similarly bunk deal to the one I'm met for violining.
Just kidding, Jonathan, You're great. Yeah, we love you, man
jee UIs Ben You got anything else to say? Happy Halloween? Ah, Yes,
Happy Halloween. Indeed, we'll see you next time, folks.
Speaker 2 (53:48):
For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio. Welcome back to
(00:27):
the show Ridiculous Historians. Thank you, as always so much
for tuning in. Let's hear it for our super producer,
mister Max Williams. Hello, I have never worshiped Satan. Yeah,
to your knowledge? Right. Also, you're missing out. Yeah, that's
Doul Brown. I'm Ben Bollen. What's your position on Satan? Ben?
(00:49):
Which one? There's ha Satan? Uh, there's also the idea
of the light Bringer. I feel like the concept of
Satan from the comic has many aspects, the idea of
the anti q oh, the Antichrist is the son of Satan. Right. Yeah.
We did an episode years and years ago about the
(01:12):
nature and origins of Satan for stuff they don't want
you to know, and we got a lot We still
have the YouTube video out. We had a lot of
discourse on that one, because Noel, the devil is on
people's minds.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
Well, the devil is in the details, Ben, that's what
they say. Whatever happened to just good old American as
apple pie Satan? When did it have to get all complicated?
Speaker 1 (01:35):
Yeah? What happened to the guy who just went down
to Georgia? And lost a violin contest.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
You know, it is funny that you should say that, Ben,
we are talking about making a deal with the devil
for violin shop, but not the Charlie Daniels band version.
Turns out there's a historical president for that tune.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
Oh what a setup, nol. Yeah, we are if we
wanted to do something a little bit halloween ish, a
bit HALLOWEENI. You can Seweeni a couple of Weeni's little HALLOWEENI.
Here we have all become enamored with the story of
a celebrity violinist. A lot of people not in the
music world may not have heard of this guy, but
(02:19):
in his day, Nicolo Paganini was a real life bad
boy rock star, right like you have a past with
the violin I like phrasing it that way.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
Why yes, Ben, Back when I was a small German boy,
I too made a deal with the devil at a
crossroads at midnight to attain my violin prowess. Much like
Nicolo Paganini, though my deal was a little bit second rate.
I could not shred nearly as well as the man.
He's considered by many. By most who know of him
to be a musical genius. He was also like basically
(02:52):
a rock star guy, you know rock the long kind
of unkempt locks and the un button do you know,
silk shirt showing nip. You know, he was a virtuoso
and some people believe that all of these powers combined
could result from nothing less than a pact with Satan.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
Yeah, and we're going to get to how that rumor started.
But before we do, we've got to dive into his
origin story. You'll see why we consider this ridiculous history.
We're also gonna call our buddy Nikki the Devil's Violinist.
Occasionally no offense to violinist or devils. But this guy
is born. It's October twenty seventh, seventeen eighty two in Genoa, Italy,
(03:41):
not the most stable time for Italy in general. He's
part of a big family, that's right.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
He was the third of six children. Be isn't that
like the literal middle child. Maybe that's where he got
the chip on his shoulder to devil worship rie. We're kidding,
by the way, these are rumors we're gonna play into
a little bit.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
It's fun. We like to have fun here on Ridiculous History.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
Third of six children born to Antonio and Teresa nee
Bocardo Paganini. M.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
Yeah, and okay, so you know how today we call
people helicopter parents if they're always sort of living vicariously
through their kids and taking them to a million different
extra curriculars. You know, like, look, that can be really
difficult for the kids, but every so often, you know,
(04:32):
it results in a tiger woods And that's kind of
what happened with Paganeti because his mom had decided from
the jump that this one of her six children would
be a famous violtist. His father was also really gifted musician.
He was trying to be a salesman of boat supplies,
(04:54):
but wow, yeah he wasn't good as like ropes and
stuff and sales like voting pa finalia yeka. But he
he unfortunately was not successful with that. He was more
successful supporting his family and his six kids by playing
music on the mandolin and also sulling mandolin. So that's
a pretty good I think that's a pretty good way
(05:17):
to sell mandolins. Right, You show up somewhere, you get
paid to rock out on your little and someone's like,
I'm so inspired, and then you say, guess what buddy,
you can also buy a mandolin. I love the gentle
sound of a mandolin, and there's.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
Nothing more cliche le Italian in a music cue than
a fast picked mandolin, you know, perhaps by Captain Corelli himself.
You know it's funny though, Ben, I mean, you may
not know this. I bet you probably do, But anyone
out there who doesn't, it's for you. A mandolin is
tuned exactly the same as a violin. That's where the
olin park comes from, except it has dual strings. The
(05:54):
high strings are tuned in unisons and the low strings
are tuned in octave. So that's what gives you that
really nice, full sound. And while I did not have
the same level of shred in common with Paganini, I
too had a bit of a helicopter.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
Parent situation growing up.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
Though it was my father who stood over me assiduously
as I practiced violin and would give me a good
swat with a bow if I messed up. Yeah, that
part true, It is very true. It was not the
best relationship. Made me resent the violin, but I eventually
moved on to you know, taking that parleying that into
(06:30):
other things that I enjoyed very much.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
Like guitar, playing in bands and all of that.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
So I've forgiven my papa for this transgression, and not
to be apologist, but he came to it in his
own way.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
He wanted me.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
To be a very skilled and perhaps famous violin as
that did not transpire. I instead became a skilled and
mildly Internet famous podcaster.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
And I today I learned I knew about the tuning,
but I did not know about the etymology of mandolin
and violin. That's very interest. Thank you for that. So
Paganini is training on the mandolin first, and he's doing
it when he's five. A couple of years later, he's
stepping up to the violin, and his dad is his teacher.
(07:16):
Similar kind of to your situation. His dad is also
figuring out, look, let's be honest, folks, it's the late
seventeen hundreds. Child labor is very highly normalized and approved of.
So by the time this kid is eleven, his dad
puts him on the mean streets of Judoah to play,
(07:38):
to play violin.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
Yeah, for the public. He's already pretty good by then.
He gets sent at the age of thirteen to study
with the famous violinist and teacher Alessandro Rola, But when
he arrived, Rolla decided that Paganini was already so skilled
up that he really couldn't teach him much, so instead
he referred to him to his own teacher, the teacher's teacher,
(08:02):
Ferdinando Pier, and because of his abilities, he was then
again passed on to another teacher, Pierre's teacher, the teacher's
teachers teacher, Yeah, Gasparo Jiretti, the grandfather teacher, like the
final boss of violin teachers.
Speaker 1 (08:19):
That's that's how swatsy with a boat too, That's how
the story goes. There is a perspective that we're putting
a spin on here in our research, because we know
that he definitely went to all three of those teachers.
But as we'll see, our buddy Nick is kind of is.
There's no kind of about it. He's a source of legend.
(08:41):
So a lot of times you'll hear stories about his
progression phrased in this way, right like, instead of just
saying he had three different teachers who knew each other,
they'll say, oh, he's too good, and he was too
good again, and then finally he met the master. He
was too too good again again. Just like a Kanye West.
In March of seventeen ninety six, Genoa is massively destabilized
(09:06):
because the French invade northern Italy. As a result, the family,
the Paganini family, relocates to their country home near Bolzanetto.
And there was a silver lining here. This is really
interesting to me for such a public facing guy. While
his family was basically on lockdown exile to the country,
(09:29):
Paganini picked up a guitar. At some point he became
obsessed with the guitar. It was one of his favorite
instruments ever, and he never did a public performance. He
decided probably from the jump, that guitar was for him
and maybe his friends had maybe his lovers if he
(09:51):
thought they performed. Well, that's fair.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
Yeah, it's interesting in guitar, you know, on the other hand,
to it completely different than the violin and a whole
other set of skills, you know, definitely a string instrument
held in the same way as the mandolin, the whole
other universe of tuning and technique. So this guy really
was super super you know, just primed to be a
(10:14):
brilliant musician.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
Yeah, yeah, and then guitar tunes, as you said, a
whole other bag of badgers. This is at least part
of the reason he is primarily known as a violinist today.
Later people would the public, I mean, would learn about
his virtuosity with the guitar. In seventeen ninety seven, he
(10:37):
and his father Paganini Senior go on tour, and little
Nikki builds a reputation with every single concert he does.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
Because, like I said of the aforementioned shredding, the guy
tosses his hair around and like rends his garments practically.
I mean, I bet you he at some point did
the move where he slides on his knees across the
stage at that level of flair.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
You know.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
The only historical classical music analog that I can think
of that reminds me of him as Ben who.
Speaker 1 (11:07):
Is that Franz list list?
Speaker 2 (11:11):
Domania RAN's list was similarly a big, showy, flashy performer
and had women like literally throwing their pantaloons at him.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
Often considered the first analog to the rock Star and
Shout Out Phoenix.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
Very much so, and also the very delightfully schlocky sixties
film list of Mania. But I would definitely say that
Paganini is in the running for another proto rock star.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
Oh for sure. Yeah. In eighteen hundred, he and his
father traveled to Livorno, where Paganini plays in more concerts,
and his dad again tries to be a salesperson for
boding paraphernalia. You can probably hear me rolling my eyes,
(11:58):
and that's just because he had to make a living.
No one knew what was going to happen to Paganini
at this point. He's like seventeen years old. He's already
making waves. But you know, sometimes the brightest stars burned briefest,
and we didn't know that he was going to be
this amazing musical force. In eighteen oh one, he's eighteen
(12:19):
years old and he is appointed first Violin of the
Republic of Luca. No, maybe could tell our fellow ridiculous
historians a little bit about the prestige of being first
violin in these kind of groups.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
Just means you're the best. You know people how they
call it first chair. You're just the number one hot
sh shredder the conductor's hand at the very beginning. You
certainly do. You also are the person that provides the
initial tuning pitch for the entire orchestra. It's a big
deal and oftentimes you're the person that gets the solos.
(12:57):
I mean, they'll have like featured artists that come in
and do so, but like, yeah, the first of first
chair violinist is a very important leadership position in any orchestra.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
Do you know who I love in any orchestra? Or
we are immensely fortunate to have the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra here,
and I go pretty often because I just dig the
vibe of the place and it's by a museum that
I go to already. And my favorite, one of my
favorite performers, just just for their energy is always the
(13:31):
percussionist in the group, who have you don't have beat
me here, Max, who don't have shit to do? For
like eight to ten minutes, and then it's time for
the symbols, right, it's time for the big drums, and
they just go tambourine shake is one of my favorites,
and they so tambourine shit. You're right, I love the
(13:53):
I've only seen this in real life a couple of times,
but I did see a person who was, you know,
on the miscellaneous percussion, but they were on a song
where they just had some triangle business going on. And
they just triangle is an important part of the orchestra,
but they just stared at the sheep music, you know,
stock still absolutely like a like a scarecrow Halloween statue.
(14:15):
And then when their time came, they hit that ding,
and they hit that ding perfectly, the occasional clippity clop. Yeah,
I think I saw a really great video. I think
it was I think I'm describing this correctly.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
It was a percussionist who has waited exactly what you're described,
been waiting in that moment, and then hit the big
skin drum, big bass drum with a mallet and it
bounced it out of his hand and hit somebody in
the back of the head.
Speaker 1 (14:41):
Paganini would never now well, I mean he might, he
might have lost himself in the music, you know, the
moment that he wanted. He didn't let it go because
he was Paganini. You're right right, And a substantial portion
of Paganini's income came from freelance. See even when he
had the prestigious roll of first violin. This sounds like
(15:03):
a meteoric rise to fame, but the success story was
not perfect. It hit some discordant notes. I know, Pagadidi
didn't just act like a rock star on stage. He
had all the vices of a rock star from you know,
(15:23):
the Halcyon era of the nineteen seventies. He loved gambling,
he loved romancing people on a very short term basis.
How's that for diplomacy. I think it's good he did.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
Indeed, he was no stranger to diabolical rumors from the start.
It sounds like a plot lifted directly out of the
incredibly good TV series Hannibal. Rumors ran a muck about
his having murdered a woman and used her intestines as
violin strings and imprisoning her soul.
Speaker 1 (15:59):
With the instrument. Right, that's just for fun.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
It is true that early violin streams were made from
gut material. Kata are often made from kat guts, so
you could, in fact harvest to human beings guts.
Speaker 1 (16:13):
And I'm not joking.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
This is in fact a plot of an episode of
Hannibal where there's a murderous violin maker.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
Yeah, and keep in mind to folks, of course, this
is kind of our Halloween episode. So we're talking about
these scary rumors. But keep in mind back in this time,
pre social media, rumors were spread word of mouth and
usually just some often by the way by people who
are making a joke and then someone else took it seriously. Uh,
(16:45):
satire sometimes gets lost in the game of telephone. People
like to gab it. Ben.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
Actually, you know what, here's a good chance to plug
our sister podcast stuff they don't want you to know.
And an episode we've got that just came out about
info hazards, the idea that an idea can infect you
and be spread around like a disease. So rumors, one
could argue, are info hazard.
Speaker 1 (17:07):
Yeah, they're mimetic. That's a really good comparison, and that
is I really enjoyed that conversation me too. I think
we both still kind of have a stage high off
of it because we recorded that yesterday.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
We did, and we just in general on that show
and sometimes on this show, we just really love thought experiments,
and there are so many fascinating thought experiments, including the
idea of Rocco's basilisk that we discussed in that episode.
So do check that out if you're not an initiate
into the world of stuff I Don't want you to know.
Speaker 1 (17:37):
And do check out some more Paganini rumors. So this
guy is a mysterious dude. We'll talk a little bit
more about his very singular appearance and the vibe he cultivates.
But he wanted these rumors. He invited these to them,
(18:00):
you could say, as often as he solicited his lovers.
Another rumor on the streets was that he his violin
emitted the screams of women when he performed on stage.
And you can read contemporary historical figures who go to
(18:20):
AINI Paganini concert, not a Panini concert, have a Panini
at a Paganini. I'm into the idea of a Panini concert.
You know what I mean is that just like a
parade of sandwiches. Well, Panini is an Italian sandwich, if
I'm not mistaken.
Speaker 2 (18:36):
So perhaps and the refreshment counter at a Paganini concerto,
one could enjoy a Panini.
Speaker 1 (18:42):
I think women were screaming in the audience, by the way,
like I said, it was a total like BEATLEMANI at
type situation.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
Ben I put a link in the chat. I just
really would love you to see this image. I thought
that I remembered seeing something like this, but it is
such a cool painting, or like an etching kind of
thing of Paganini ripping into the violet. It his fingers flying,
and his silhouette on the wall is the devil.
Speaker 1 (19:09):
Oh yeah, I've seen this one. I love it. I
feel like this would be Paganini approved as well. The
devil virtuoso.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
Well, Ben, don't you think he had I mean it
was a little bit dangerous. I guess he was in
a part of Europe. It was the eighteen hundreds. They
weren't burning people at the stake anymore. It was just
a little bit you know, unclean, you know, kind of
maybe the rumors, but I would think, uh, he would
lean into this stuff because it's just absolutely fabulous. I mean,
no pr is bad pr And like, I gotta go
(19:41):
see this devil, the demon possessed violinist.
Speaker 1 (19:45):
Yeah, and for a long time the violin was regarded
by certain aspects of the European population as an instrument
of the devil. Right. That's part of why we get
the American folklore about the devil playing the fiddle. So
it's not necessarily surprising that rumors about a deal with
the devil will start circulating, at least for fun, when
(20:07):
someone's really good at the violin, and some people even
took it a step further and they said, maybe Paganini
is the devil himself. That was for the record several
of his exes who said that da da da da,
but the one of the first, one of the first rumors,
and I think this is what the drawing that you
(20:31):
shared shows us. One of the first rumors came out
of a concert in Vienna where one audience member swore seriously,
from what we can tell, that they had seen the
devil helping Paganini play on stage. And then other people
started saying, I saw Paganini on the street, but when
(20:51):
he isn't performing, he's rocking horns and hooves.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
Yeah, I can picture it too, Ben, can't you you know,
like sort of doing that rooting, sort of bull wind
up thing with his right hoof as he you know,
cocks his head like rips it on the violin.
Speaker 1 (21:06):
I totally see this. Yeah. Somebody said lightning struck the
end of Paganini's bow during a performance and fire from
his fingers as he rossened up his bow. Man. I
love that Charlie Daniels song All Hard if your great cool?
(21:33):
Yeah great too, big influence.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
I would have to argue on the band Primus.
Speaker 1 (21:41):
Also with every song, every Primus song sounds like Devil
went down to George. Also, uh, looking back, I think
that was uh for for many kids, that may have
been their first introduction to rap cadence. Yeah met Dam Dad, but.
Speaker 2 (21:59):
Also auctioned Yeah Going Once, Going twice fun tune though
holds up. I will say then that you should if
you have, if you likely you have only heard bits
of it. I do recommend listening to it in one
sitting because it is a it is an it's about really,
it tells it sale.
Speaker 1 (22:14):
Yeah, it's a it's a long form narrative. It's pretty good.
I'm gonna listen to it after this again. So uh.
One thing was for sure, though, All of these rumors
about a cult or infernal activity came about as satire
or as an attempt to explain just why this guy
(22:36):
was so good. His skill on the violin was unparalleled.
He was one of the first solo violinists. This is fascinating,
some of the first solo violinists to perform in public
without sheet music. Instead, he chose to memorize everything, and
he was cool with some of his contemporaries. You know
other people who are professional violinists. If he liked a
(22:59):
compass somebody made, then he would do his own cover
version of it, and he would just kind of, you know,
go Charlie Daniels with it, because he's since he doesn't
have sheet music, he's just running around the stage, you
know what, you know what I mean, like a nineteen
seventies got lead guitarist.
Speaker 2 (23:16):
Exactly, like what's that guy's name, Angus from ac DC,
always kind of hoofing around, you know, like with his
foot out, kind of jumping, doing the little Marty McFly
kind of dance.
Speaker 1 (23:27):
Yeah, and still he's got a pretty serious gambling problem.
So he's he Being a famous musician, as we can
unfortunately assure you, does not always make you a wealthy person.
Well that's right, I was going to say earlier.
Speaker 2 (23:42):
The reason he needed to supplement his income with freelance,
you know, solo violin gigs, is because being a first chair,
while prestigious and depending on the orchestra, doesn't typically pay
a whole heck.
Speaker 1 (23:54):
Of a lot. It is not a life of luxury, no, yeah. Yeah,
And add to that lose in Paganini's case, he's losing
a lot of his disposable income because he loves the gambling.
You know, he serves at the pleasure of the fates
and fortune, and he loses a lot. He pawned his
(24:16):
own violin one time because he just had to get
out of this gambling debt. A French merchant came and
saved the day they lent him. I don't know, have
you heard of this. You're more familiar with violins than
I am. Have you heard of a Guarneri violin? I haven't,
but I'm.
Speaker 2 (24:33):
Sure it's just like a maker's mark kind of situation,
you know, like a very like you know, I mean,
the big famous one is Strativarius. Those are still around
and incredibly sought after and incredibly expensive. But I do
know that, like, really serious violinists often will have instruments
that are worth tens of thousands of dollars and have
to be insured for super high amounts. Oh, because they're
(24:56):
one of a kind, you know, handmade, And that's likely
what the deal was with this.
Speaker 1 (25:00):
I'm not familiar with that particularly. Okay, Well, this this guy,
French merchant, you don't think of him like the upper
middle class kind of Let's call him kindly a kindly
French merchant lent Paganini a violin, said, you know, I
know you got to play this concert. I believe in music,
you know, give me a plus one to your concert.
(25:20):
I could borrow my violin. And after he heard Paganini play,
he was so moved that he gave Nick the violin.
He heard a play and he said, oh dang, all right, bro,
you keep it. We don't know too much more about
how stuff worked out with that French merchant, but we
do know that Paganini was what I call a known lothario.
(25:45):
He had many many intimate intimate partners, intimate partners after
dark experiences. He was a busy boy off stage. He
did get busy off stage again.
Speaker 2 (25:58):
This this plays into the whole kind of mythos of
like the rock star.
Speaker 1 (26:03):
However you may look at that.
Speaker 2 (26:05):
Lifestyle, it definitely is a thing, and this guy lived
it many sexual partners. Amid all of those partners was
at least one who was considered kind of the love
of his life type figure, a singer named Antonio Bianci,
who he met in Milan in eighteen thirteen. They would
do concerts together throughout Italy and had a son together.
(26:26):
Named Achili Tiro Alessandro born on July twenty third, eighteen
twenty five in Palermo, baptized at Saint Bartolomeo's And they
actually never officially legalized their partnership.
Speaker 1 (26:43):
Let's just say they had an entanglement a situationships. They
didn't do that.
Speaker 2 (26:48):
Situationship came to an end April of eighteen twenty eight
in Vienna. And then for a little bit of context
around this part of the world or this part of Italy.
If anyone's seen the second season of The White Lotus,
the HBO series about the you know, the resort and
all of the crimey wymy shenanigans that ensue.
Speaker 1 (27:09):
They go to Palermo.
Speaker 2 (27:11):
Yeah, and then it is an island like off of
the coast of I can't remember exactly.
Speaker 1 (27:16):
Maybe it is Milan.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
I think it is where the actual resort is, but
the Palermo part is where the is where they go
for the kind of finale, the big climax.
Speaker 1 (27:26):
Yeah, Palermo is the capital of Sicily and Vienna. Austria
is so not too far away. But when things don't
work out for them, they're in Austria. That's where it ends.
If we're jumping around in time a little bit here,
as is our right, as is our want. Paganini becomes
(27:47):
a violinist earlier in eighteen oh five for the how
would you say this, Bacciochi court, Sure, yeah, maybe put
a little more stank on it, but Ciocchi, all right,
I don't want to be that guy in Taco Bell
asked for a case Sudi.
Speaker 2 (28:01):
Do that in honor of my father. He did it
all the time. I've carried on that legacy of cringe.
Speaker 1 (28:07):
So this guy is he's a court violinist. He's still gambling.
Speaker 2 (28:14):
You know.
Speaker 1 (28:15):
It's the early eighteen hundreds. He is giving private lessons
to the husband of Alisa Bonaparte, who is Napoleon's sister,
and her husband is named Felice. And while Paganini is
teaching this guy to play violin for a decade, by
(28:36):
the way, he's also sleeping with Alisa.
Speaker 2 (28:41):
What a cat rest scallion, scally wag, yeah, lout rake yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:49):
And he he has to hit the road jack at
a as a result, the heat's getting too much, so
he returns to touring. Like you said, Genoah, he's popular
with local audiences, but he's not super well known to
the rest of Europe until his first big break in
eighteen thirteen concert in Milan. This is where he gets
(29:13):
a huge following. This is where rumors start spreading about
his spellbinding powers and is packed with the forces of evil,
by the way, rumors that he never publicly rejected.
Speaker 2 (29:26):
That's what I'm saying. It would make sense, you know,
if he was not a feared for his you know, safety,
why not lean into it. It's a it's a point
of interest. I would certainly want to want to get
in on this particular satanic panic.
Speaker 1 (29:39):
Oh yeah, yeah, And that's just what it was, right,
perhaps not as dangerous as the Inquisition, right, if it
was just a it was a naughty boy who is edgy,
who is Alice Cooper esque original Edge Lord. Yeah yeah.
And he leaned into it because he composed what is
often described just a fiendishly difficult set of variations called
(30:03):
the Witches l'astrega. Yeah, yeah, just so, and he rocked out.
This gave him the attention of other prominent, perhaps more
conservative musicians across Europe. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (30:16):
The thing that was neat and sort of unique about
Paganini was that he didn't you sheet music because he
memorized all of his stuff, which gave him the freedom
to do all of those stage theatrics that we were
talking about, like you know, swaying quite literally rocking the
f out, and he started to attract the attention of
(30:38):
other prominent, yet more conservative musicians across Europe who maybe
looked a bit of skance.
Speaker 1 (30:45):
At his shenaniganry.
Speaker 2 (30:46):
One of his early encounters with Charles Philippe Lafonte and
Lewis Spohrer birthed a very intense rivalry.
Speaker 1 (30:55):
Yes, which continued for quite some time. He was friends
with other musics, but not friends with all of them.
He was old, but like his vibe. Yeah yeah, not
everything is for everyone. You know. One guy who did
like him was the Pope. I guess that's a flex.
In eighteen twenty seven, Pope Leo twelve gave Paganini the
(31:17):
Order of the Golden Spur, which was a big deal
in the day. We must not have heard the devil rooms.
What do you think about that? You know, I wonder
about that one too. Honestly, maybe that was a maybe
he just got co signs from both sides of the aisle.
Speaker 2 (31:32):
I guess, so you know, it's better to have him
in our corner, right, for when the infernal line comes
down and starts taking names, his fame begins to truly
spread across Europe. He goes on like a proper rockstar
concert tour that began in Vienna in eighteen twenty eight,
stopped in every single major European city in Germany, Poland Bohemia,
(31:55):
running until February of eighteen thirty.
Speaker 1 (31:57):
One, when he played in Strasberg. Yeah, and then he
moves on with more tours around Paris and Britain. He
gets pretty much unanimous critical acclaim because he's just good. Yes, Yeah,
he's a badass. He's a bad mamma jammer. As long
(32:18):
as he could, as long as he could get on stage.
He was no stranger to chronic illness. We're going to
dive into that in a second, but we know that
being a relatively sickly child and sickly adult and also
frequently touring probably had an effect on his health. And
(32:42):
then it didn't help that he also got syphilis as
early as eighteen twenty two. The treatment he was given
for syphilis was mercury and opium, which are, by the way, yeah,
not things you should take even if you don't have syphilis.
Speaker 2 (33:00):
Yeah, I mean opium, you know, okay that you probably
have a good old time with that, But mercury, they
kind of went on to figure out that that stuff
made you crazy. And if I'm not mistaken, soda syphilis, yeah,
given enough time to metastasize. By the way, Ben, it
always occurs to me when we're talking about people like this,
whether they be great performers or speakers or whatever, and
(33:22):
the thought that crosses my mind is are there recordings?
And the good news is kind of yes, you know,
we haven't really pushed this home, but be kind of
leaning more on his performance skills so that he was
a composer. Yes, he wrote all his music. He wrote,
He wrote original music, which required the level and skill
(33:44):
that he had, and so there would be you know,
some people wouldn't be able to pull this stuff off.
You can find wax cylinder recordings in the British Library,
thought to be one of Paganini's only pupils. Actually I
think his only pupil Camillo Sivori, and then include his
Witch's Dance and Savori, who also composed in the style
of Paganini.
Speaker 1 (34:05):
The second violin can share you.
Speaker 2 (34:06):
I am not seeing if there are any actual pugany
because I guess he couldn't really do recordings until early
nineteen hundreds, and we lost him just before the technology
I think came into it.
Speaker 1 (34:18):
You know what, Let's play just briefly so everybody can
hear it. Let's play a little bit of a Paganini composition. Yes,
so here's a snippet of the Witch's dance. The violinist
shakes the hand, yeah, all right, the conductor's warming up,
(34:42):
all right, he's doing his own weird hand thing. So
there's multiple people played. You got to wait for our guy,
the first violin to hop in. Here he comes. Oh yeah,
(35:11):
So in like the seventeen eighteen hundreds, this would be
like Harry and Jimmy hendrixh one hundred percent listening to
those runs.
Speaker 2 (35:18):
I mean he also kind of created some unique stylistic
touches of his own that we'll get to in a minute.
But those are called like those really fast runs, glissando
kind of things. It's very, very difficult, and if anyone
has ever had a sibling or maybe themselves tried to
take up the violin, it sounds horrible unless you're really
(35:39):
really good.
Speaker 1 (35:41):
Right, Yeah, because unlike unlike your favorite guitar, the violin
doesn't have frets.
Speaker 2 (35:49):
You gotta man, it's a very small fingerboard, you know,
and you know when you first start. I started playing
Suzuki violin, which also leans heavily into memorization, which I
thought was interesting. It tapes little little pieces of tape
on the on the fret, on the front board, on
the fingerboard, so that you know where the main notes are.
But once you start getting more advanced, you start to
(36:09):
shift your hand around and like shift up and up
and up, and sometimes do things called like double stops,
where you'll play two strings at a time and make
these like little kind of mini chords and.
Speaker 1 (36:19):
All on this tiny piece of physical real estate. It's
funny the memorization, which I do believe is impressive, just
the muscle memory of it. It reminds me of when
I ask my accomplished trombonist friends to show me without
the trombone what a note looks like, and they have
it down and it looks really cool when they just
(36:41):
stretch their arm to a certain degree and say this
is this and this, uh so shout out to trombodis
I don't think you get enough love, and you're an
important part of the crew. How did Paganini get so good? Well,
going back to that small fingerboard conversation, he was a
(37:02):
very very flexible guy. He was basically gumby on stage,
and later historians and researchers would wonder whether this came
from something called Eller's don Lois syndrome or possibly more fans,
(37:26):
which people speculate Abraham Lincoln might have had as well
because of the word.
Speaker 2 (37:30):
Jefford Cox from the bands Deer Hunter has been very
open about his mar Fans syndrome. He's a very tall
and lanky fellow and it has actual health consequences with
it does result in sort of a very tall and
skinny frame.
Speaker 1 (37:45):
Yeah, And whether you have Mark fans or Eller's down
los we have a lot of speculation that this condition
may have been part of how he was able to
go at the violin with such phenomenal speed and not
always have to change his position. His fingers were just
(38:06):
super flexible, which meant that he could hit these huge
stretches and these runs with relative ease.
Speaker 2 (38:14):
You know, I'm not gonna dox anybody, but we do
have a close friend both of you. You and I'm
mutual who has dollars dan Low's And it is not
some sort of debilitating I guess there maybe are our
stages of it, but what it typically results in is
just a very stretchy and flexible skin.
Speaker 1 (38:31):
Yeah, it's kind of a gumby situation. And bro, if
you're listening, you know, we're saying that out of affection.
And I love when that guy explains it to people.
It's always like he's got his presentation down, pat, you
know what I mean with the super flexible stuff. Also
it helps fight wrinkles, right right, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (38:52):
Yeah, the friend that I'm talking about has a perpetually youthful.
Speaker 1 (38:57):
Glow and also youthful fun vibe. I love that guy,
all right. So Paganini widely employs the special effects of
the violin world. He's got a high speed left hand pisocado.
He barely touches the strings to make some ghosty sounds,
(39:18):
and the pisocados where the upper fingers of the left
hand plucked the string while the lower ones hold down
the notes.
Speaker 2 (39:27):
Sort of pitsicado in general is just plucking the violin,
but he's doing a form of pitsicato. That's like even
more advanced, I think is borderline of his own design.
So what he would do is he would be plucking
with his left hand, which is the hand you typically
push down the strings on the left hand. Yeah, and
then he could also be he sort of like a
hammer on on a guitar, where you pull up on
(39:48):
the string and it makes a plucking sound. But he
would combine that with hitting it with the bow in between,
and then aven plucking.
Speaker 1 (39:54):
With the right hand.
Speaker 2 (39:55):
And there are some really really fancy, showy violin pieces
that incorporate that technique and the ghostly harmonics that you
were describing. There's a really beautiful piece was when I
was at my kind of advanced dist in violin called
the Chardash. It's a very famous you've heard heard.
Speaker 1 (40:17):
Anyway.
Speaker 2 (40:17):
There's a whole part in it that uses these double
harmonics where you have to so gently touch your pinky
at an exact fifth interval and just touch it of
the finger you're putting down the string, and it creates
this really kind of ghostly harmonic sound. They're called artificial harmonics. Yeah,
and I'm a nerd.
Speaker 1 (40:37):
And he also had a lot of these double stops
two notes played simultaneously every way you can imagine a
bow touching a violin and producing a sound. He did it.
You know. He basically he knew all the super moves,
and he had been called by multiple people faultless, beyond imagination,
(41:01):
utterly unique and gifted beyond, you know, beyond mortal KeNH
Because he was such a successful virtuoso, it became a
coup of your own if you were in the audience.
And he cultivated this is what we're talking about earlier,
his appearance. He cultivated a purposely edgy appearance. He wanted
(41:24):
to look like a fan of the film The Crow.
He was pale, he was gaunt, he had eternally messy
black hair, he was wore a long frock coat. And
because he had an earlier botched operation on his jaw, Yeah,
he had a weird He always had a kind of
(41:46):
weird expression. So he looked like a spooky guy.
Speaker 2 (41:50):
He did look like a bit of a ghoul, didn't he. Yes,
just a spooky season you know what. I also bet Ben,
I'm picturing a bit of a smell. Oh, come on, man, it.
Speaker 1 (42:00):
Was don't know why. I just I picture a bit
of a of a tour bus smell. In this era,
it was already smelling everything stink, you know what I mean?
I think that was Oh gosh. We were talking with
Bahamas about that a while a while ago. Yes, Aj Bahamas,
Jacob's one of our smartest friends. Remember when we talked
(42:21):
to Moe Raka and he was just talking about mostly
said the same thing.
Speaker 2 (42:26):
He was talking about the seventies in New York City recently,
the seventies everyone smelled like Bo on the subway.
Speaker 1 (42:33):
It's very, very true. This is a different time for Bo.
Speaker 2 (42:36):
And I'm just thinking our boy Agannini was a bit
of a stinker.
Speaker 1 (42:40):
Yeah, I hate to profile. I don't know why, but
he's got the look. He does have the look, the unkempt.
I bet that Frock coat. Bet it didn't get laundered
too frequently. Yeah, how many Frock coats did he have?
That's all?
Speaker 2 (42:53):
Did he even have a closet? At this point, he
seemed like he was a bit of a transient.
Speaker 1 (42:56):
Well, in eighteen thirty six, he goes back to Paris
to set up a casino and the casino fail. That
goes well, right now, okay, yeah, it fails terribly cartoonishly.
Dare I say ridiculously. It left him in financial dire straits.
Not the band.
Speaker 2 (43:14):
You don't have no microwave of it. You know that
song drops a slur very casually. I did not realize
it until very recently when I was I was trying
to show my kid in the video because it was
that classic early MTV computery video. And then the second verse,
I mean to be fair, it is sort of playing
a character who would use that word five.
Speaker 1 (43:33):
But it's not good. It does not age well, no, no, no.
And then we've got what's the name of that? Is
it money for nothing? Money for nothing? Is it chicks
for free? Or checks for free? I think it's money
for nothing and chicks for free, chicks for free? Okay,
let us know, let us let us know. Dire straits.
(43:54):
They're still kicking around, and because the casino is ruined,
he has to auction off a bunch of his personal effects.
So if he had multiple frock coats, he doesn't anymore.
He has to auction off his musical instruments to make
good on his losses. He leaves Paris for Marseille in
(44:15):
eighteen thirty eight during Christmas. Then he travels to Nice
in the entire time, his medical condition is getting worse
and worse and worse. It's eighteen forty. The local bishop
sends Paganini a priest to perform the last rites, and
Paganini is pissed off. He pretty much says, come on, guys,
(44:37):
I'm not dead yet. Why are you here? And he
turns the priest away because he says, you know, I'm
not gonna die yet. That's the official explanation. But for
people who believe the rumor that he was the Devil's violinist,
they thought he had already sworn allegiance to infernal powers
(44:58):
and as such could not take last rites in the church. Anyway,
it looks like the bishop who sent the priest was
onto something, because Paganini dies a week later, May eighteen forty,
May twenty seventh, eighteen forty. He's just fifty seven years old. Yes,
he died as he lived fast and loose. Oh that's
(45:20):
a heck of a way to describe internal hemorrhagy. I
know exactly, internal hemorrhaging. Indeed, was this a complication from
his syphilis? It had to be a culmination of multiple things. Yeah,
you know, we talked about genetic conditions syphilis, tuberculosis, whatever
else he picked up in his adult adventures. It's a
(45:45):
weird pause. Try for the diplomacy here, folks. Uh, yeah,
his This is how we know that he had this
association with the devil. The Catholic Church denied his body
a Catholic burial in Genoa, but the Popa loved him.
Speaker 2 (46:04):
Yeah, but Papa, Papa, where are you in his hour
of need?
Speaker 1 (46:09):
Where is burial? Need? Where is job rule? It took uh?
But the okay like his fans though, are the equivalent
of barbs? Is that the Nicki minaj fans.
Speaker 2 (46:25):
Or whatever bars in the behive or swifties in Behi Bayhive.
There's another what do you know what they called chapel
ron fans. I don't know that was too new. Chaps,
the Chapsters. Charlie xc x O G fans are angels
because Charlie's angels.
Speaker 1 (46:40):
You know, I get it. Well, he had this kind
of fandom. You know, what do they call it? What
can we give him a name? Then the Ninis I
like that? Yeah, Oh, the Pagans, the Pagans followers. There
we go. I believe the guy didn't think to start
a cult of Paganini. I I had a little harder guy.
(47:02):
I think he was a one on one kind of guy.
I think that's probably true, you know what I mean,
and probably with people he's trying to sleep with. That's what. Yeah,
it took anyways, fans the Pagans uh. They spend four
years lobbying the Catholic Church and appealing to the Pope
to let this guy's body be transported back to Genoa.
(47:24):
He goes on a posthumous tour, he's taken to Genoa.
He's still not buried. He's finally buried in eighteen seventy six,
so many years after he dies, he is buried in
a cemetery in Pharma.
Speaker 2 (47:39):
You know, this reminds me of remember when James Brown
passed away and like he went unburied for months. I
want to say, he died on Christmas Day of whatever
year that was, and they kept his body like in
a freezer or something, or like a refrigerator in his
own on his own property, I want to say, because
there were a lot of legal issues his a state
(48:00):
and all of that, but it was the weirdest thing,
like they did. There was a whole like what's the
deal with James Brown's burial very similar.
Speaker 1 (48:08):
Yeah, and this is only one story of a musician
rumored to have sold their soul to the devil. We
know that Paganini's body was finally reinterred in a new
cemetery still in part in eighteen ninety six. He has
found peace. We cannot speak to any direct proof of
(48:28):
supernatural affiliation, but we can say some people genuinely believe
he had made a deal with the devil because he
was just that good. So if you want an obscure
Halloween costume, or if you don't want to dress up,
just mess up your hair, put on a long coat
and tell people you're Paganini for Halloween exactly. I mean,
(48:52):
fun costume.
Speaker 2 (48:54):
There was one thing in the Beetlejuice movie, the New
Beetlejuice movie, that I thought was kind of cute. I
had a little ragged on It's okay, it's fine, but
the young Lydia Dietz's daughter character played by Jenna Ortega,
dresses up as Marie Currie for Halloween, and like she's
got like sort of like like bags under her eyes,
like it's meant to represent like radiation poisoning. I love
(49:16):
the idea of deep cut historical Halloween cousin. I think
Paganini would be a good one.
Speaker 1 (49:21):
That's a cool Yeah, it's a cool idea. The more
I think about more I like it. I love obscure costumes.
Not only really backfired once. I don't think we knew
each other. I dressed as HH Holmes and I looked
I did it Orange Star No, uh, the serial Killer
from the Devil with the White City. I was thinking
(49:41):
of John. Sorry, different different homes. But HH Holmes. Please
read The Devil in the White City if you haven't,
It's just a fantastic book. HH Holmes, real monster, kind
of a deep cut. And here's why I backfired. The
one person other than my girlfriend at the time who
recognized was super not chill No was very excited that
(50:06):
they've met someone dressed as HH Holmes and wanted to
hang out. What does that say about this person? Not
not I get you know. First suppressions are the measure
the within span of a human character. But that lady
had a creepy vibe.
Speaker 2 (50:23):
Well, speaking of creepy vibes and serial killer fandom. Since
we're wrapping up this episode and Ben, a huge thanks
to you for putting together this incredible brief on such
an incredibly weird and I guess divisive fellow. I did
want to make a spooky season film recommendation.
Speaker 1 (50:41):
Let's hear it. It is called.
Speaker 2 (50:43):
Red Rooms, and it is a French Canadian kind of
procedural horror, you know, serial killer type thing, but it
is all from the perspective of a super fan of
this serial killer who is on trial, and it does
some of the most incredible things with there's I don't
(51:06):
know if anyone's familiar or it have to be too heavy,
but the idea of Red Rooms is sort of an
Internet rumor, kind of like snuff films, the idea that
on the dark Web there exists these murder films that
you can bid on or watch cams of or whatever,
and they are largely thought to be mythical. But in
the reality of this movie, they are not mythical. And
(51:26):
this gentleman has perpetrated multiple of these and you experience
others watching them, but you don't ever see them.
Speaker 1 (51:34):
You just see their reactions and hear the sound.
Speaker 2 (51:37):
And I swear ben it is one of the most
stunning and haunting horror type films I've ever seen. It's
up there to me with like a Silence of the
Lambs type situation. I highly I can't recommend it enough.
Speaker 1 (51:49):
Do check it out, folks. I will do the same
and let us know your favorite Halloween films and rewatches.
I'm all, it's always Halloween in America in my opinion,
so I'm always yeah, so I'm always watching horror films.
The thanks has always ridiculous histories for tuning in, big,
big thanks to our super producer, mister Max Williams. I
(52:13):
called him the Ookie Boogieman earlier because I was up
really late last night and Nightmare Before Christmas came on
and I just came on, Ben, you have like cable
or something, what do we talk? Well, not to I
wrote anybody, you know what I mean, but it popped
on and I remember distinctly thinking, well, I can't go
(52:33):
to sleep now, I've got to see what happens in
this movie that I've watched, you know clearly like thirty times.
Speaker 2 (52:41):
Well, the four K remaster looks fantastic, stunning, right, yeah,
very very very cool.
Speaker 1 (52:47):
A big fan of Night Before Christmas as well.
Speaker 2 (52:49):
And big fan of you, Ben as well as you
superproducer Max as well. As Alex Williams who composed this theme,
and huge fans of Christopher Hasiotis and Ease Jeffcoat here
in spirit oh.
Speaker 1 (53:04):
Our buddy Christopher is going to be performing at our
local Atlanta Rite Club I Believe on November sixth. It's
a good show for a good cause. Check it out
if you're in town. We also want to thank, with
great reluctance, our pal Jonathan Strickland, who definitely made a
deal with the Devil but for podcast Yeah, kind of
(53:24):
a similarly bunk deal to the one I'm met for violining.
Just kidding, Jonathan, You're great. Yeah, we love you, man
jee UIs Ben You got anything else to say? Happy Halloween? Ah, Yes,
Happy Halloween. Indeed, we'll see you next time, folks.
Speaker 2 (53:48):
For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
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Ridiculous History News
Hosts And Creators
Ben Bowlin
Noel Brown
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