Are virtuosos a different order, separate from proficient and even excellent musicians? Is virtuosity admirable, or a quality only a philistine would venerate? Perhaps something in between? In this course, we will broach these and other questions in the context of the nineteenth century. In its broadest iteration, the objective of this course is to historicize the different guises of virtuosity, and thus to encourage you to develop your own critical apparatus for reading, writing, and thinking about issues of virtuosity. This course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Historical Consciousness, Writing-Intensive Course.