Virtuoso Composers

Rachmaninov's piano music is known for its virtuosity. Here are the first eight bars of his Piano Concerto No. 2.

The music begins in the key of F Minor, but by the end of bar 8, the full transition to the movement's true key of C Minor is now all but complete. From here, the music lashes out in C Minor like the onset of a storm. This is an effective way to establish the tonic because even before hearing the C Minor triad for the first time, the listener suspensefully anticipates it for a full bar.

Rachmaninov, besides being a composer, was one of the greatest piano virtuosos of his time. Other composers who were virtuosos at the keyboard include J.S. Bach and Franz Liszt. It seems obvious that being a virtuoso on an instrument would be an advantage for a composer. This is based on the idea that a greater mastery of an instrument makes it easier to explore the full expressive range of the instrument, thus expanding the composer's compositional palette.

As Liszt put it, "Virtuosity is not an outgrowth, but an indispensable element of music.

Richard Wagner, however, warns us that, "The real dignity of the virtuoso rests solely on the dignity he is able to preserve for creative art; if he trifles and toys with this, he casts his honor away. He is the intermediary of the artistic idea."

Having a composer's ear for music, Rachmaninov probably would have been the type of virtuoso of whom Wagner approved. Hence, virtuosity and composition truly go hand in hand.