Virtuoso

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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. 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 on page 430:

"...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 performatic 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 critized 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. A well respected example of the latter is Poland´s Frédéric Chopin, whose style emphasizes poetry, nuance, and expressive depth rather than mere technical display.

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 late 17th century in response to the introduction of gunpowder in Europe from China.

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.

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