Information about virtuoso

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) <ref "brossard">Sebastien, de Brossard (1703). Dictionaire de Musique, 2nd Edition, Paris: Christophe Ballard. ^[3] 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

1. ^ Weiss, Piero; Taruskin, Richard (1984). Music in the Western World: A History in Documents. Schirmer, 430. ISBN 0-02-872900-5.
2. ^ Grove Music Online. Grove Music Online. Retrieved on 2006-03-14.
3. ^ Morton, Joëlle. Brossard. Joëlle Morton. Retrieved on 2006-08-24.

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Official language of: European Union
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Singing is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, which is often contrasted with speech. Contrary to common thought, air is not expelled with the diaphragm, but is inhaled using the diaphragm and exhaled or expelled, using the abdominal and lower pelvic muscles, as
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A musical instrument is a device constructed or modified with the purpose of making music. In principle anything that, produces sound, and can somehow be controlled by a person playing it, can serve as a musical instrument.
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Anglicisation or anglicization (see -ise vs -ize) is a process of making something English.^[1]

The term most often refers to the process of altering the pronunciation or spelling of a foreign word when it is borrowed into English.
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Composers are generally people who write music. In certain musical genres, such as popular and folk music, the term "songwriter" means someone who authors both music and lyrics, but such a person may also be properly called a
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Baroque music describes an era and a set of styles of European classical music which were in widespread use between approximately 1600 and 1750.^[1] This era is said to begin in music after the Renaissance and was followed by the Classical music era.
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Ballistics (gr. ba'llein, "throw") is the science of mechanics that deals with the motion, behavior, and effects of projectiles, especially bullets, gravity bombs, rockets, or the like; the science or art of designing and accelerating projectiles so as to achieve a
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engineer is someone who is trained or professionally engaged in a branch of engineering.^[1] Engineers use technology, mathematics, and scientific knowledge to solve practical problems.
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Gunpowder is a pyrotechnic composition, an explosive mixture of sulfur, charcoal and potassium nitrate that burns rapidly, producing volumes of hot gas which can be used as a propellant in firearms and fireworks.
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Fine art refers to arts that are concerned with a limited number of visual and performing art forms, including painting, sculpture, dance, theatre, architecture and printmaking.
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Ville de Paris

City flag City coat of arms

Motto: Fluctuat nec mergitur
(Latin: "Tossed by the waves, she does not sink")

The Eiffel Tower in Paris, as seen from the esplanade du Trocadéro.
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Johann Gottfried Walther (September 18, 1684 – March 23, 1748) was a German music theorist, organist, composer, and lexicographer of the Baroque era. Not only was his life almost exactly contemporaneous to that of Johann Sebastian Bach, he was the famous composer's cousin.
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Johann Kuhnau (April 6 1660 – June 5 1722), was a German composer, organist and harpsichordist.

Kuhnau was born in Geising. He preceded Johann Sebastian Bach as cantor of the Thomaskirche (St Thomas Church) in Leipzig.
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Franz Liszt (Hungarian: Liszt Ferenc; pronounced /lɪst/, in English: list) (October 22 1811 – July 31 1886) was a Hungarian ^[1] virtuoso pianist and composer of the Romantic period.
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Wilhelm Richard Wagner (22 May 1813 – 13 February 1883) was a German composer, conductor, music theorist, and essayist, primarily known for his operas (or "music dramas" as they were later called).
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