Virtue restored, virtue shared - Impett, Jonathan (London Routledge, 2023)
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.
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Keywords: Music, Thought and Technology