Alessandro Rolla

Alessandro Rolla (April 22, 1757 - September 15, 1841) is one of those examples of a today neglected musician who nevertheless was widely acknowledged in his time as a violin and, especially, viola virtuoso, composer and teacher and whose contribution to technique, repertoire and history of music is greatly underestimated. Still unknown to the majority of musicians and concert-goers, if remembered, it’s always due to his fame as “teacher of the great Paganini”, yet his role was very important in the development of violin and viola technique.

Alessandro Rolla (April 22, 1757 - September 15, 1841) is one of those examples of a today neglected musician who nevertheless was widely acknowledged in his time as a violin and, especially, viola virtuoso, composer and teacher and whose contribution to technique, repertoire and history of music is greatly underestimated. Still unknown to the majority of musicians and concert-goers, if remembered, it’s always due to his fame as “teacher of the great Paganini”, yet his role was very important in the development of violin and viola technique. Some of the technical innovations that Paganini later used largely, such as left-hand pizzicato, chromatic ascending and descending scales, the use of very high positions on violin and viola, octave passages, were first introduced by Rolla. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License and may also be available under the GNU FDL..