The Virtuoso Type: Cultural Representations of the Exceptional Musician

Abstract

This article explores cultural representations of musical virtuosity. In reference to a key figure in the historical development of the virtuoso as a cultural type –the Hungarian pianist and composer Franz Liszt (1811-1886)– the analysis demonstrates how cinematic representations of this figure construct and maintain the centrality of audio-visual impression in the discourse of Romantic aesthetics. By being a marker of an « exceptional » musician, the virtuoso’s potential to transcend ideologically determined systems of social ordering is rooted in their historical and aesthetic function. This highlights the fact that virtuosity –a concept rooted in 19^th-century European cultural history and aesthetics– is intimately associated with modern culture in both its economic and performative aspects, and was one of the most significant cultural figures to emerge from the Romantic period. By analysing various filmic representations of Liszt –including Letter from an Unknown Woman (1948), Song Without End (1960) and Lisztomania (1975)– this article will explore the virtuoso’s various cultural functions: from being an embodiment of the Romantic genius type –the unique and transgressive individual– to a space in which the sexual and public domains meet in order to work through cultural tensions regarding vision and power.