Virtuosity, Obviously

Abstract

This chapter employs a phenomenological framework to argue that virtuosity—often understood as individual musical excellence—is an intersubjective phenomenon that centers on skill made apparent and socially meaningful. Rather than locating virtuosity solely in a performer’s body, a piece’s demands, or a listener’s opinions, the author argues that it arises within the dynamic relationships—what Maurice Merleau-Ponty would call the “intentional threads”—that connect audiences, performers, and musical sound. Drawing on Edmund Husserl’s and Merleau-Ponty’s discussions of intersubjectivity, intercorporeality, and apperception, the author utilizes Ravi Shankar’s early reception in the United States as a case study in how audiences come to experience musical performances as virtuosic, despite their lack of background knowledge or musical understanding. A phenomenological approach to virtuosity reframes the issue not as one of objective measure or subjective opinion, but of intersubjective experience and value.