The Roget’s dictionary describes the denotation of virtuoso as “A musician with masterly ability, technique, or personal style.” To me, virtuoso means someone with musical ability that goes beyond the technical aspect of his trade, and excels at conveying emotion in his music. There are a lot of musicians out there who can sing and play really well, and even some that write their own songs. Most of them, however, either perform songs that have already been sung, or try to copy the techniques of someone else. There is a growing number of musicians that try to fit as many notes as possible into a space where others would use only one tone (no names-Christina Aguilera). I tend to prefer musicians that do not rely on blaring guitars and drums loud enough to cover up their cracking voices. I am fascinated by a capella music – there is no loud instruments to block out the singing. You cannot hide when there is only harmonious blending of your voices. One group comes to mind when I think of virtuoso. Although they are mainly a comedy group, and use simple instruments like accordians and tin whistles, they still have good stage presense, sharp wit, and tight harmonies that get their message across.

Moxy Fruvous was formed in the 1990 by four young college graduates that realized that a degree did not equal a job. They had had a band called the Chia Pets in the mid-eighties, and had played new-age music at weddings, but finally decided this was not enough. They came up with the name and performed at the Bloor St Cinema on the weekends. A producer from CBC invited them to perform on a show titled “Later the Same Day”, and for it, they wrote and performed the “Gulf War Song” (on the accompanied CD). The song, although somewhat humorous in nature, is a political message about war, and how people take things too seriously. Most wars are started by a disagreement of something.

Despite their great music, there are few people who have even heard of Moxy Fruvous. Just because they aren’t played on popular radio stations doesn’t mean they’re not “cool”. In fact I’m sure that if anybody in our school would listen to this song or any others, they would be able to at least appreciate the music, if not actually like it. I think that is what really defines a virtuoso. Not how many people listen to their music on a day to day basis, but rather somebody who creates music that people can appreciate the difficulty of and the technicality of the song.

Bibliography

The Moxy Fruvous Band Bio. http://www.fruvous.com/band.html

http://www.dictionary.com

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