PAGANINI, Nicolo (1784-1840), the most extraordinary of executants on the violin, past or present, was born at Genoa, February 18, 1784. His father, a clever amateur, imbued him with a taste for music at a very early age. He first appeared in public at Genoa, in 1793, with triumphant success. In 1795 he visited Parma for the purpose of taking lessons from A. Rolla, who, however, said that he had nothing to teach him. On returning home, he studied more diligently than ever, practising single passages for ten hours at a time, and publishing compositions so difficult that he alone could play them. After spending some years in close retirement, he started, in 1805, on a tour through Europe, astonishing the world with his matchless performances on the fourth string alone. In 1827 the pope honoured him with the Order of the Golden Spur.; and, in the following year, he extended his travels to Germany, beginning with Vienna, where he created a profound sensation. He first appeared in Paris in 1831; and on June 3 in that year he played in London, at the King’s Theatre. His visit to England was preluded by the most absurd and romantic stories. He was described as a political victim who had been immured for twenty years in a dungeon, where he played all day long upon· an old broken violin with one string, and thus gained his wonderful mechanical dexterity. The result of this and other foolish reports was that he could not walk the streets without being mobbed. Here, as in other countries, he amassed a princely fortune, notwithstanding enormous losses caused by his unhappy propensity for speculation. In 1834 Berlioz composed for him his beautiful symphony, Harold en Italie. He was then at the zenith of his fame; but his health, long since ruined by excessive study, declined ...