Modern music and musicians : [Encyclopedic] . us of the traditions ofPaganinis art and of his means of impres-sion. He made immense drains upon hisown vitality in the feat of gaining ascend-ancy over his audience. After having per-formed a concerto, his symptoms are thoseof a man under an attack of epilepsy; hislivid and cold skin is covered with a profuseperspiration; his pulse is scarcely felt; andwhen questioned on any subject he answersonly in monosyllables. The night after hisconcert he never sleeps, and continues in anagitation which sometimes lasts for two orthree days. (These facts hav
Modern music and musicians : [Encyclopedic] . us of the traditions ofPaganinis art and of his means of impres-sion. He made immense drains upon hisown vitality in the feat of gaining ascend-ancy over his audience. After having per-formed a concerto, his symptoms are thoseof a man under an attack of epilepsy; hislivid and cold skin is covered with a profuseperspiration; his pulse is scarcely felt; andwhen questioned on any subject he answersonly in monosyllables. The night after hisconcert he never sleeps, and continues in anagitation which sometimes lasts for two orthree days. (These facts have been com-municated by Dr. Bennett, who attendedPaganini during his stay in Vienna.) Com- . 1-1,1 i • • i j_ From an old lithograph. pare this with the newspaper clippings about Eleanora Duse, after one of her magnetic evenings—the accounts tallyexactly. There was, moreover, in Paganinis artistic expression the samedeliberate calm which characterizes artistic power that is conspicuousin Duse. I recur again to Abraham Mendelssohn :. PAGANINI. THE TORCH OF ROMANTICISM 189 k Talking of fascination, I was fascinated last night by Taglioni. Itis something quite new. You all remember that what most delighted usin both Sontag and Paganini was the placidity, calmness, and composureof their execution. Taglionis dancing has the same merits. Her move-ments are never rapid, never violent. With perfect self-possession, andwithout thinking at all about the public, she follows the dictates of herown grace and humor, seeking nothing and finding everything, nevermaking an effort and accomplishing impossibilities. We may therefore place the beginning of the second quarter of thenineteenth century as the date on which the histrionic artist stepped be-yond the limits of the drama into the confines of art and music; the artof Taglioni contemporary with that of Paganini and Malibran, the art ofgesture which had accompanied the drama down the whole course ofcivilization, thereupon lapsed fr
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, bookidmode, booksubjectmusicians
