The Devil, the Violin, and Paganini: The Myth of the Violin as Satan’s Instrument

Robert W. Berger

6 citations0/0 files storedReligion and the Arts

No readable copy stored yet — this record is metadata only.

No open-access location is known for this record yet.

Literature note Cite in a project Citation map

Musicology and Musical Analysis Folklore, Mythology, and Literature Studies Cultural and Mythological Studies

Abstract

Abstract Stringed instruments are included in Psalm 150 among those appropriate for music-making in praise of the Lord. For that reason, angels frequently appear in medieval and Renaissance art playing bowed and plucked instruments. The later association of the violin and the Devil is therefore a departure from the religious tradition. This paper traces the appearance of this notion in eastern European folklore, Shakespeare and his contemporaries, reactions to instrumental virtuosity in the Baroque period, Tartini’s dream, and the career of Paganini, in whom the myth reached its apogee.

Paper brief

Loading…

Cite this work

Citation unavailable for this work.

BibTeX RIS CSL-JSON

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Citations in this library

Citation map →

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 6 citations exist upstream.

References

2001The New Grove dictionary of music and musicians 2003New Catholic Encyclopedia 1983The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Stanley Sadie 1966Images in the Margins of Gothic Manuscripts 1951A Dictionary of the Proverbs in England in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries 1981Shakespeare’s Proverbial Language 1952A Dictionary of the Proverbs in England in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries.1950The Oxford Dictionary of English Proverbs

Explore the map →

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.

Imported from OpenAlex (CC0) — nothing here is generated.