“The Fiddler’s Fee” (Weird Tales, July 1940)

Bloch, Robert. “The Fiddler’s Fee.” Weird Tales, July 1940, pp. 23-35.
archive.org/details/Weird_Tales_v35n04_1940-07/page/n23/mode/2up

Signor Paganini is the greatest violin virtuoso in the world and yet he is feared, even reviled, because of his fiery disposition and alarmingly demonic appearance. That doesn’t bother young Nicolo, himself a very good violin player, who is lucky enough to meet the maestro and to ask to become his student. Paganini asks for a performance and tells young Nicolo that he is good but will never be great unless he comes with him to meet Paganini’s teacher. They agree to meet late at night at the Cave of Fools, a place reputed to be a cavern that leads to hell itself. Nicolo agrees to sell his soul in exchange for transcendent skill with the violin. His musical rival, Carlo, continues to go about learning the instrument with hard work. Nicolo quickly surpasses Carlo in reputation, but at the cost of friends and respect. People begin to fear and shun Nicolo, as they have done Paganini. Nicolo falls for Carlo’s new girlfriend, Elissa, but she is not at all interested in the strangely obsessed and frightening Nicolo. Nicolo complains to Paganini that his brilliant playing comes from elsewhere, that he can take no satisfaction in it. Meanwhile Carlo plays with the joy of accomplishment, albeit not as well as Nicolo. 

When a violin duel between Carlo and Nicolo is announced, Nicolo is excited to end the rivalry once and for all. Instead of the competition, however, Carlo announces both his retirement and his marriage to Elissa. In a rage, Nicolo improvises a brilliant piece that draws a standing ovation. He does not enjoy the adulation; he has eyes only for Elissa. Nicolo complains to Paganini about his love for Elissa. Paganini teaches him two new pieces: the first will make Elissa love him and the second will drive Carlo insane. Nicolo masters the two pieces. He visits Elissa and plays the love song. She is enraptured and they become intimate. Day after day this goes on until it is time for Nicolo to go on tour with his music, it is also the ate that his soul is due to the Cave of Fools. When they are surprised by Carlo’s unexpected return home Nicolo plays the song of insanity in a panic. Carlo responds by shattering Nicolo’s violin and then collapsing in a gibbering heap. Nicolo plays the song to great effect; however, he has forgotten that Elissa is also in the room. They are both horrified to discover that the song has killed her. Nicolo tells Carlo that the Devil has killed Elissa and that he should go to the Cave of Fools to confront him. Nicolo is pleased with himself thinking that the Devil will accept Carlo’s soul in exchange for his own. He leaves for his tour. The first night arrives, and he remembers that he has no violin, The concert master provides him with one that reminds him of Elissa in uncanny ways. His playing lurched quickly toward madness. he could feel Elissa’s soul inside the violin, and he realized that it was her body parts—her hair, her teeth, her blood—and wood from her coffin were used to build this violin. Nicolo collapses and dies on stage.

A deal with the devil where art is the currency! We will be seeing this kind of thing again in other stories, most notably in “The Devil’s Ticket” (1944), the story of a painter who sells his soul for skill and fame. Bloch had very little time for what was popular in music. He missed Elvis, the Beatles, and most of the musical innovations that occurred during his twentieth-century life. Instead, he loved classical music. “Mr. Steinway” (1954) drops readers into the life of a classical musician—with, er, surprising results. Poking through a few of the stories I have already blogged about brought me to an interesting note. In the original version of “Shambler from the Stars” (Weird Tales 1935), Bloch makes note of the classical tastes of the narrator to include “the symphonic strains of Danse Macabre” (368). For The Opener of the Way (1945), his first short story collection of note, he revised the sentence to say, “the symphonic strains of the Planets Suite.” I know Stephen King’s use of Danse Macabre as a title for his nonfiction book about the horror genre, and I also know the recent album by the UK band, Duran Duran, that shares the name. But I did not know the musical reference Bloch have had in mind. Could it be the tone poem by Camille Saint Saëns that was first performed in 1875? If so, then Bloch made a good choice. It was not well received when it premiered because audiences mostly found it haunting, jarring, discordant, and disturbing. In the decades since it has become well-loved and popular among concert-going audiences. The Planets by Gustav Holst, which was written between 1914 and 1917, has seven movements, one for each planet save Earth. Audiences at first found it difficult to understand, but it soon became a favorite. It is now revered. I still don’t know why Bloch chose to change the story’s allusion form one to the other. If anyone has a theory, I’ll see you in the comments section!