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What is virtuosity? It isn’t just about the sound itself, but who makes the sound and how they make it.
Today’s episode is the third in our series on virtuosity. In the last two episodes, Joshua Busman and I both considered whether virtuosity is or isn’t acceptable—and why—in evangelical worship music and in fundamentalist Christianity.
But today’s guest, Dr. David VanderHamm, flips this question around. Instead of researching a church or denomination, and then sometimes focusing on virtuosity in that context, David starts with virtuosity.
One particular examples of virtuosity that he has studied is the ministry of guitarist Tony Melendez. Melendez was born without arms and was blessed by Pope John Paul II to share his music with other Christians. His ministry is inspirational, but his conversation with David complicates that narrative, noting that “There still has to be the time, the practice. It’s not like overnight I could just do it—I had to take the time to learn the instrument.”
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Resources We Mentioned
- Tony Melendez’s official website
- Video of Tony Melendez singing for Pope John Paul II in 1987
- Virtuosity can make something very difficult look like play—something we discussed in Ep. 16 with Ashley Danyew
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