2.  Virtuoso: A musician that is among the most skilled at performing on their instrument; especially one that leaves people in awe of their playing.  Virtuoso is an Italian word that comes from the Latin word virtus. It is the source of our word “virtue,” but back then it meant excellence or being really good at what you do. (Greek “arete”) During the Renaissance it came to be used for musicians.

3.  Virtuosos were very popular during the Romantic Period. (Why?) ..  Virtuosos are (obviously) individualistic  Virtuosos’ skills seem magical  Virtuosos made themselves seem even more magical by putting on “rockstar” personas.  People (especially young ladies) went crazy in the audiences, fainted, scrambled to grab a piece of their clothes for a souvenir.

4.  Niccolo Paganini was an Italian violin virtuoso and composer who lived 1782 -1840.  Because of his astounding ability, it was rumored that he sold his soul to the devil in order to play so well.  Paganini encouraged this rumor by acting mysterious on stage & performing “tricks” on his violin.  He played incredibly fast, high, and with wide interval jumps.  He would purposefully break strings while playing and play the rest of the piece on one string.

5.  Considered one of the hardest songs ever written for violin.  Theme & Variation form.  It requires many highly advanced techniques such as parallel octaves and rapid shifting covering many intervals, extremely fast scales and arpeggios including minor scales in thirds and tenths, left hand pizzicato, high positions, and quick string crossing.  http://youtu.be/PZ307sM0t-0 http://youtu.be/PZ307sM0t-0

6.  Franz Liszt (1811-1886) was born in Hungary, but lived many places including Paris, Rome, & Germany.  He was already a prodigy, but after watching Paganini he decided to become the best pianist in the world.  He traveled around Europe performing for sold-out audiences Women would literally faint with ecstasy over his playing and fight over handkerchiefs he tossed out into the audience.

7.  Written as one of his “Paganini Etudes ” theoretically the piece was written to help a pianist improve their dexterity and accuracy at large jumps.  It is used by virtuoso pianists (beginning with Liszt himself) to show off their amazing skills.  Its melody comes from one of Paganini Violin Concertos.  http://youtu.be/0-czNkyPQDA http://youtu.be/0-czNkyPQDA