Easy sonatas for violin and guitar by Paganini

January 5, 2013 at 07:51 PM · Jean, Paganini composed a large number of duets for violin and guitar. They vary in difficulty, the ones on IMSLP being towards the top end, whereas the ones you refer to are much easier.

What you have is apparently Set 1 of the 36 "Lucca" sonatas that Paganini composed for his pupils/lady friends at the Court of Lucca during his sojourn there. The Lucca sonatas are usually referred to unambiguously by their MS Catalog numbers, and don't seem to have reliable opus numbers. Set 1 (6 sonatas) is MS9, which you will see on the title page.

Referring to them as Opus 1 is, I agree, misleading, but what I suggest is that the publisher, not being able to find an opus number, decided to call Set 1 "Opus 1", forgetting, or perhaps being unaware, that there is already an official Opus 1 (the Caprices).

The Lucca sonatas are among the most approachable of Paganini works for the non-professional player, so you may be interested in a 9-CD set of Paganini's output for violin and guitar by two outstanding musicians, Luigi Bianchi and Maurizio Preda. The Luccas take up 3 CD's of the collection. They are all downloadable from Amazon in mp3, either as a set or as individual tracks (the more expensive option).

Paganini liked to use popular tunes of his day for the second movements of the Luccas. In fact, I know of two instances where he used old folk tunes from England and Southern France in the sonatas.

January 6, 2013 at 01:25 PM · thank you Trevor, much appreciated!

January 6, 2013 at 08:32 PM · Jean, as I expect you are aware, many of Paganini's compositions are difficult to track down in print, eg the Lucca sonatas and many of the eighteen Centone sonatas (of which IMSLP have only the first six). I wonder if Luigi Bianchi and Maurizio Preda, when they made their 9 CD set, had to search out some of their material in manuscript collections.

Last year I did an on-line search in the British Library database and found that out of the thirty-six Lucca sonatas they had the eighteen of catalog nos. MS11, MS12 and MS13. I was able to borrow this sheet music through my local public library in Bristol. It took a few months for the music to come through (I suspect the delay was because of the British Library digitization project), and I was allowed to keep it for only three weeks. But that was long enough ;)

The British Library had a couple more Paganini items in its database, but it turned out I would only be able to view them in the BL Reading Room, and they would not be available for loan.

PS I've just found a catalog of Paganini's compositions arranged by MS Number: http://www.paganiniana.org.uk/Comps.htm#MSNo

January 7, 2013 at 08:26 PM · many thanks again Trevor! from the list of composition by MS number it is now clear what the publisher meant by "Op.1", that is, "Opera I". I'll definitely try to get my hands on some more "Operas".

EDIT: I now found out that the sonatas are available from the Italian Institute for History of Music:

Edizione Nazionale delle Opere di Niccolò Paganini

Although not explicitly mentioned there, volume IV of that series contains M.S. 9 through 13, plus M.S. 110 as well, something I found out through the catalog of the Belgian Royal Library...

January 7, 2013 at 09:56 PM · Jean, Many thanks for the link, and for finding out the correct meaning of "Op" as used by Virtual Sheet Music in a particular context.

That Italian edition looks intriguing - perhaps it is indeed the source for the Bianchi-Preda recordings.

January 8, 2013 at 05:23 AM · "Opera" is the Latin plural of "opus."