employment
of harmonics, single and double, the simultaneous pizzicato and bow
passages, the various staccato effects, the use of double and even
triple notes, a prodigious facility in executing wide intervals with
unerring precision, together with an extraordinary knowledge of all
styles of bowing--such were the principal features of Paganini's talent,
rendered all the more perfect by his great execution, exquisitely
nervous sensibility, and his deep musical feeling." In a word, Paganini
possessed the most remarkable creative power in the technical treatment
of an instrument ever given to a player. Franz Liszt as a pianist
approaches him more nearly in this respect than any other virtuoso,
but the field open to the violinist was far greater and wider than
that offered to the great Hungarian pianist. It was not, however, mere
perfection of technical power that threw Europe into such paroxysms of
admiration; it was the irresistible power of a genius which has never
been matched, and which almost justified the vulgar conclusion that none
but one possessed with a demon could do such things. Paganini possessed
the oft-quoted attribute of genius, "the power of taking infinite
pains," but behind this there lay superlative gifts of mind, physique,
and temperament. He completely dazzled the greatest musical artists as
well as the masses. "His constant and daring flights," writes
Moscheles, "his newly discovered flageolet tones, his gift of fusing
and beautifying objects of the most diverse kinds--all these phases
of genius so completely bewilder my musical perceptions that for days
afterward my head is on fire and my brain reels." His tone lacked
roundness and volume. His use of very thin strings, made necessary by
his double harmonics and other specialties, necessarily prevented a
broad, rich tone. But he more than compensated for this defect by the
intense expression, "soft and melting as that of an Italian singer," to
use the language of Moscheles again, which characterized the quality of
sound he drew from his instrument. Spohr, a very great player, but,
with all his polish, precision, and classical beauty of style, somewhat
phlegmatic and conventional withal, critcised Paganini as lacking
in good taste. He could never get in sympathy with the bent of
individuality, the Southern passion and fire, and the exceptional gifts
of temperament which made Paganini's idiosyncrasies of style as a player
consummate beauties, where imit