Paganini: 24 Caprices (arr. for solo guitar) - Eliot Fisk

paganini 24 caprices v1

Like almost every aspect of the life of Paganini his relation to the guitar has been a subject of controversy, speculation and legend. A (probably) very fine guitar by Guadagnini was among the instruments listed in Paganini's possession upon his death. In the autobiographical sketch Paganini prepared for Schottky he describes one of his several retirements from public life as follows: "From Parma I returned to Genoa where for a long time I played the dilettante rather than the virtuoso. I played a good deal but for the most part at private affairs. On the other hand I busied myself with composition and also wrote a great deal for the guitar." However, in another passage in Schottky's Paganinis Leben und Treiben als Kunst/er und als Mensch (Prague, 1830) we experience the contradictions chat have kept Paganini the artist and the man an object of debate and discussion more than a century and a half after his death: "During my first visit to Paganini," Schottky writes, "I saw a guitar lying on the bed, and, since much had been said about his guitar playing, I asked him if he ever performed on this instrument. 'No,' he replied. 'I do not love this instrument but use it rather as a spur to my thoughts (Gedankenleiter); I pick it up in order to stimulate my musical fantasy for composition or to bring out a harmony I cannot play on the violin; otherwise it is, in my opinion, worthless. By the way, I have composed a lot for the guitar: Sonatas, Variations, Concertos; but it is all still in manuscript and scattered about here and there."' Schottky continues, "Paganini is about the same on the guitar as he is on the violin, although he does not have the technique (Spielmethode) of the most skillful artist of our time, Giuliani." What is one to make of these contradictions? A "worthless" instrument is used as a "Gedankenleiter" to inspire musical composition; sonatas, variations and concertos (probably Paganini means "chamber music" rather than concertos for guitar and orchestra) are composed for the same "worthless" thing; a showman second to none refuses to have anything to do with an instrument on which he is second only to one.