Jazz

John Halle john.halle at yale.edu
Thu Jan 18 21:52:52 PST 2001



>
> Date: Thu, 18 Jan 2001 19:24:44 -0500 (EST)
> From: Michael Pollak <mpollak at panix.com>
> Subject: Re: Jazz
>
> On Thu, 18 Jan 2001, John Halle wrote:
>
> > In what sense was Stravinsky not a virtuouso?
>
> Virtuoso is term that chiefly applied to one's skills on an
> instrument.
>

Not to quibble, but one frequently hear of literary, mathematical, scientific or other conceptual/cognitive/artistic achievements described as virtuousic, no? It seems unreasonable not to allow for composers being described as virtuousi along the same lines. (Bach's composing a six-part fugue on the "royal theme", Mozart turning random melodies derived from rolling dice into perfectly formed minuets or completing the Linz Symphony in three days, or Bartok finishing the Divertimento seem like pretty good examples to me.)

John



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