a| eng

a| Impett, Jonathan 1| https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6525-2095 4| First Author 9| 16357

a| Virtue restored, virtue shared

a| London b| Routledge c| 2023

a| Book Chapter

b| 2023-01-01

a| Closed

a| FRIS

a| Setting out from an eighteenth-century portrait of ‘virtuosis’, this chapter considers how some historical understandings of the notion of virtuosity might inform a relevant contemporary concept. A view based on pure technique or charlatanism has been criticised as banal almost since the term ‘virtuoso’ has been understood principally to refer to a musical performer. Instead, we attempt to synthesise a new formulation derived from usage in art history and the natural sciences, as well as notions of virtue from historical and recent philosophy; virtuosi might be seen as explorers, as plotting paths to ‘speculative knowledge’. While technique remains an important vehicle, cultural vision and social empathy are shown to be crucial, particularly in a moment of fragmentation such as our own. The expertise most crucial to the contemporary virtuoso is that of understanding, articulating and performing new potentialities that inhere in a particular moment and space.

a| 1

a| Music, Thought and Technology 9| 26934

g| 14-28 t| Contemporary Virtuosities z| 9781003307969

3| DOI u| 10.4324/9781003307969-2

c| CHA

a| hoofdstuk

d| 21972