A virtuoso is generally defined as a person technically proficient on an instrument or in a field. While a technically sufficient definition, it is as unsatisfying as a birthday cake with white paste frosting. While I may be technically proficient at walking and could possibly qualify, John Cleese would be correctly considered an ambulatory virtuoso. They have an entire Ministry devoted to his locomotive abilities after all.
Coined in 16th century Italy, the term was generally restricted to describing musical or fine arts skill, although with the spreading use of gunpowder in Europe, engineers, ballistic experts and artillerists were commonly tagged with the honorific. I assume that’s because one should do everything possible to be nice to folks that can blow stuff up.
Inherently, when we think of virtuosity it involves people garbed in formal finery and hanging about in concert halls playing classical tinkly stuff written by guys who snooted around in puffy wigs way back even before Abe Vigoda was assembled from zombie parts left over from the French Revolution. (I’m pretty sure that’s how the Poodle originated too, but I digress…)
Forward to the 1970’s and, with the groundwork laid by such folks as Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, and Jimi Hendrix, the age of the guitar virtuoso dawned. Eddie Van Halen, Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, and Dream Theater’s John Petrucci (to name a very few) brought technical perfection and lightning fast licks into the mainstream. Like virtuosi of the past (yes, there is a proper plural form of the word), many of them came from classically trained backgrounds. The Great Kat (Katherine Thomas), for instance, was a classical violinist before picking up the guitar and it’s reflected in her enthusiastic application of shredding to Beethoven, Liszt, and Wagner.
These days, however, the virtuoso moniker has been all but relegated back to the classical shelf and even then is most often pinned onto someone’s third-grader after an orchestra recital. (Been there, heard that, no t-shirts for sale though.)
With that in mind, I think that it is well past time to compile an inadequate and incomplete list of those folks that deserve their due, yet because of instrument or inattention, they don’t cross the line of sight of that nebulous virtuosic awards committee. In Part II we’ll meet a few of those folks. ~ Jay F.
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