A Pact with the Devil
Most musicians work for years to master their instruments, with no guarantee of success. To what lengths will humans go for the sake of genius? What wouldn’t we give to be talented? To be famous? To be the best in the world? In this episode, we meet four musicians rumored to have paid the ultimate price for their art.
Researched, written, and produced by Corinne Wieben with the voice talent of Jack Krause and original music by Purple Planet.
Giuseppe Tartini's "Devil's Trill Sonata"
Niccolò Paganini's "Capriccio N. 24"
Tommy Johnson's "Canned Heat"
Robert Johnson's "Me and the Devil Blues"
Music
Purple Planet - Space Journey
Giuseppe Tartini - Violin Sonata in G minor, B.g5 (“Devil’s Trill”), arr. by Corinne Wieben
Niccolò Paganini - 24 Caprices for Solo Violin, Op. 1 - XX. Caprice in D Major, performed by Jonathan Vered
justkiddink - ST Slide Guitar Blues Riff 4
justkiddink - ST Slide Guitar Blues Riff 2
Purple Planet - Sense of Loss
Purple Planet - Shadowlands
Sources
Primary
Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von. Faust. Minneapolis: Lerner Publishing Group, 2018.
Lalande, Joseph Jérôme de. Voyage d’un François en Italie, fait dans les années 1765 et 1766. Paris: Desaint, 1769.
Secondary
Alluri, Vinoo, Petri Toiviainen, Iiro P. Jääskeläinen, Enrico Glerean, Mikko Sams, and Elvira Brattico. “Large-Scale Brain Networks Emerge from Dynamic Processing of Musical Timbre, Key and Rhythm.” NeuroImage 59, no. 4 (2012): 3677–3689.
Angus, B. (2020). “Going Down to the Crossroads: Popular Music and Transformative Magic.” Popular Music, 39, no. 2, 257–269.
Bodley, Lorraine Byrne. “Introduction.: Rhapsody and Rebuke: Goethe’s Faust in Music.” In Music in Goethe’s Faust: Goethe’s Faust in Music, edited by Lorraine Byrne Bodley, 1–20. Woodbridge: Boydell & Brewer, 2017.
Kawabata, Maiko. “Virtuosity, the Violin, the Devil . . . What Really Made Paganini ‘Demonic’?” Current Musicology 83: 85-108,189-190.
van der Laan, J. M. and Andre Weeks (eds)., The Faustian Century: German Literature and Culture in the Age of Luther and Faustus. Rochester, NY: Camden House, 2013.
Polyphonic. “The Dark History of Robert Johnson and the Crossroads.” YouTube. October 26, 2017.
Polyphonic. “Deals with the Devil: A Brief Musical History.” YouTube. October 29, 2020.
Russell, Tony. The Blues: From Robert Johnson to Robert Cray. Dubai: Carlton Books, 1997.
Thomas, James G. and Charles Reagan Wilson. “Johnson, Tommy: (1896–1956) Blues Singer.” In The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture: Volume 12: Music, edited by Bill C. Malone, 262–63. University of North Carolina Press, 2008.
Wald, Elijah. Escaping the Delta: Robert Johnson and the Invention of the Blues. New York: Amistad, 2004.
