A virtuoso (from Italian virtuoso, late Latin virtuosus, Latin virtus meaning: skill, manliness, excellence) is an individual who possesses
outstanding technical ability at singing or playing a musical instrument. The plural form is either virtuosi or the Anglicisation, virtuosos, and the feminine form sometimes used is virtuosa. Virtuosi are
often musical composers as well. During the age of Baroque music many, if not most, composers were also virtuosi on their respective instruments.
Virtuosity defined
In Music in the Western World by Piero Weiss and Richard Taruskin we find the following definition of virtuoso:[1]
- "...a virtuoso was, originally, a highly accomplished musician, but by the nineteenth century the term had become
restricted to performers, both vocal and instrumental, whose technical accomplishments were so pronounced as to dazzle the
public."
The defining element of virtuosity is the performance ability of the musician in question, who is capable of displaying feats
of skill well above the average performer. Musicians focused on virtuosity are commonly criticized for overlooking substance and
emotion in favor of raw technical prowess. Despite the mechanical aspects of virtuosity, many virtuosi successfully avoid such
labels, focusing simultaneously on other musical aspects while writing and performing music.
The Italian term of "virtuoso" was also commonly used to describe the group of emerging ballistic experts, engineers, artillerists, and specialists in mechanics
and dynamics that arose during the late 17th century in response to the spreading use of gunpowder in Europe.
In other contexts, virtuosity can be generalized to define a person who excels technically in some area of human knowledge,
although its use is more commonly applied in the context of the fine arts.
History
The meaning of virtuoso has its roots in the Italian usage of the 16th and 17th centuries, signifying an honorific term
reserved for a person distinguished in any intellectual or artistic field. The term evolved with time, simultaneously broadening
and narrowing in scope as interpretations went in and out of fashion and debates unravel. Originally a musician was honored the
classification by being a composer, theorist or famous maestro, more importantly than being a skilled performer. [2]
The 17th and 18th centuries saw a bastardization of the term, which started being self indulged by a great number of
musicians, without considerations of merit. Sebastien de Brossard in his Dictionaire de Musique (Paris, 1703) [3] [4] approached the word virtuoso by its Latin
root virtu emphasizing exceptional training, especially in theory. This position was also defended in Johann Gottfried Walther's Musicalisches Lexicon (1732) favoring the theorist over the
performer. Johan Matthenson's Der brauchbare Virtuoso [1] (1720)
maintained the respect for the traditional "theoretische Virtuosen" (virtuoso theoretical) but also paid tribute to the
"virtuosi prattici" (performer virtuoso).
Johann Kuhnau in his Der musikalische Quack-Salber (1700) defined the "true
virtuoso" once again emphasizing theory ("der wahre Virtuose") describing the "highly gifted musician" ("der
glückselige Musicus") or "performer virtuoso" as having nothing more than practical facility.
In the late 18th century the term started to be used to describe the musician, instrumentalist or vocalist, who pursued a
career as a soloist. The tension about the merit of practical virtuosity started to grow at the same time and intensified in the
19th century, only to remain an open debate since then. Franz Liszt declared that
"virtuosity is not an outgrowth, but an indispensable element of music" (Gesammelte Schriften, iv, 1855–9).
Richard Wagner opposed the triviality and exhibitionist talents of the performer
voicing his opinion strongly: "The real dignity of the virtuoso rests solely on the dignity he is able to preserve for
creative art; if he trifles and toys with this, he casts his honour away. He is the intermediary of the artistic idea"
(Gesammelte Schriften; English translation, vii, 1894–9, p.112). Pejorative connotations started in this epoch exemplified
by new German expressions such as "Virtuosenmachwerk" (piece of routine display) and "Pultvirtuoso" (orchestral
player of virtuoso temperament).
References
- ^ Weiss, Piero; Taruskin, Richard (1984). Music in the Western World: A History in Documents. Schirmer,
430. ISBN 0-02-872900-5.
- ^ Grove Music Online. Grove Music Online. Retrieved on 2006-03-14.
- ^ Sebastien, de Brossard (1703).
Dictionaire de Musique, 2nd Edition, Paris: Christophe Ballard.
- ^ Morton, Joëlle. Brossard. Joëlle Morton. Retrieved on
2006-08-24.
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