False Portrait of D.B. as Niccolò Paganini

Those who have lived here since before time are gone while the ones who must replace them have not yet arrived. The streets are wet with a recent rain yet you continue to count first minutes and hours then trees rocks, windows, mailboxes, streetlights and pictographs refusing to rest even for the brief span it would take to dry off, change clothes and reemerge grotesque yet oddly attractive like Paganini whose mother was visited by a seraph in Genoa not long before his birth and who is thought now to have acquired much of his technical wizardry as a result of Marfan’s syndrome a quite common anomaly of the connective tissues which may well account for the tall and angular body, muscular underdevelopment as well as the hypermobile joints that eventuated on the stage in a peculiar stance, a spectacular bowing technique and an awesome mastery of the fingerboard. He would bring his left hip forward to support his body’s weight. His left shoulder, thrust forward also, would enable him to rest his left elbow on his chest, a buttress against the stress of forceful bowing along with debilitating muscle fatigue. The looseness of the right wrist and shoulder gave pliancy leading to broad acrobatic bowing. The ‘spider’ fingers of his left hand permitted a range on the fingerboard which many attributed to black magic for Paganini was said to have signed a pact with Lucifer to acquire virtuosity as a small child. After his death perhaps due in part to this tale in part also to rumours of gambling and wild debauchery the Church refused to allow him burial on hallowed ground. In consequence his body was moved furtively from place to place until after many years and for reasons still mysterious the Church finally relented. A few paradoxes should be noted as an afterward. Though accused of charlatanism he was rewarded for his skill like no one before him. He loved his violin above all yet once he gambled it away at cards. He accepted wealth and renown from his worshipping admirers but tripled the admission price to his concerts in the face of adverse reviews. While openly irreverent of tradition he still took a princess as his lover and let nations strike medals in his name.