nicolo paganini & ancient roman creation beliefs

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nicolo paganini (1782-1840) - "saint or sinner?"

in all probability, the greatest violinist that the world has ever known, nicolo paganini created a wave of enthusiasm like no other before or after him. his glorious march through europe lasted only six years, but in that short amount of time he plunged the music world into a state of frenzy. his rise to fame was meteoric. the technique of paganini was fascinating and his appearance was, at the time, as well. some called him demoniacal. his lean, withered-looking figure with a deathly pale face caused the poet heirich heine to remark: "on the stage appeared a dark figure which seemed to rise up from the world below." legends soon began to be told about his life and bizarre rumors circulated. for example, his contemporaries accused his work of being diabolically inspired since they could not play them and the many subsequent treatments by various composers makes one wonder how any human could have conceived such great works of art on his own. another reason that people claimed paganini to be of a sinister nature was due to the frequent appearance of his secretary harris who was thought to be a mephistopheles watching over his faust. paganini denied any association with the devil and, in fact, told of an angelic visitation to his mother foretelling of his birth and genius. the composer schubert even claimed to have heard an angel sing during one of paganini's concerts so it is impossible to say whether he was "good" or "evil". paganini was born in genoa in 1782 and was first taught the violin by his father, an amateur, and then by a violinist in the theatre orchestra and by giacomo costa. under costa's tuition he gave his first public performance in 1794 and the following year he played to the violinist/teacher alessandro rolla in parma. he later studied composition there under paer. after returning to and then leaving genoa during the napoleonic invasion, he settled in lucca in 1801, where, after 1805, he became solo violinist to the new ruler of lucca, princess elisa baciocchi, sister of napoleon. in 1809 he left to travel italy for a period of eighteen years and became very popular. in 1828 he made his first concert tour abroad which caused an outbreak of ecstatic emotions among the many europeans who attended his performances. his career as a virtuoso ended in 1834 and, after an unsuccessful business venture, he retired to nice, where he died in 1840.

"ancient roman creation beliefs"

in the beginning, all was chaos. the elements were all in a state of confusion until god and nature stepped in to bring order. fire, being the lightest of the elements, formed the heavens, beneath it came air, followed by earth and then, because it was heaviest, came water. the earth was covered with rivers, valleys, hills, mountains, and fields. wildlife was introduced and a race born of gaia (earth) and uranus (heaven) known as titans arrived. the titan prometheus gathered some of the earth and molded it into the shape of the gods, creating man. all of the animals thus far walked on four legs and gazed downward, but this one walked on two and gazed at the heavens. prometheus and his brother epimetheus were ordered to hand out the skills of life, but epimetheus was overly generous with the four-legged animals and devoid of any skills that would benefit man. minerva, goddess of arts and crafts, remedied the situation by stealing fire from the heavens and bringing it back to earth. man was now able to tools and weapons and to begin trade. there were no women thus far, but jupiter, chief of the gods, was furious at minerva for giving the unauthorized gift of fire and sent pandora. she was the most beautiful of all creatures and was given by each of the deities a particular skill or art. however, she found within the possessions of epimetheus a box that she was forbidden to look into. overcome by curiosity, pandora opened the box and unleashed the horrors of war, plague, famine, and so on upon the world. initially the world existed in the golden age. mankind had no need of law because right prevailed and nature provided. warfare was not heard of and the rivers contained many benefits. next came the silver age, where the seasons first appeared and there were changes in temperature which required the usage of clothing and housing. the crops no longer grew automatically and man had to learn how to cultivate the ground. then the bronze age emerged, bringing the first threats of war and the introduction of crime, causing the planet to be divided amongst the races. the final stage, the iron age, saw the beginning of actual conflict caused by greed. disgusted, the gods left the world to human follies. jupiter, enraged, summoned the gods to a council whose path is identifiable by the milky way. it was decided that the current inhabitants would be erased and and a more meritorious race would be created. jupiter and neptune obliterated the earth by sea and storm with the exception of mount parnassus. only the titans deucalion and his wife pyrrha were allowed to live due to the fact that they were not at all responsible for the decline of the former inhabitants of earth. they made their way to a temple where an oracle told them how to bring about the birth of a new race by casting stones upon the earth. from these stones would arise the new mankind.