ABSTRACT
In the nineteenth century, performers such as Nicolò Paganini and Franz Liszt came to embody creativity. As musicians of not only renowned physical skill but inimitable artistic insight, they were typically viewed as either divinely or diabolically inspired, offering normal mortals rare glimpses of another world (Johnson, 1995). Their feats of accomplishment – or at least the legends surrounding those feats – have set an imperative for originality that persists to this day, not only in the arts but across every facet of human endeavour. Within Western musical traditions (and indeed all traditions that recognise broad stratifications of musical competence), “eminence” in performance is defined with reference to those who go beyond the accomplishments of their peers and teachers to offer novel insight in their particular field (Ericsson, Krampe, & Tesch-Römer, 1993). Today’s most distinguished performing musicians – be they in classical, jazz, rock, pop, folk, or other genres – are people who offer new musical possibilities to their audiences. Yet, although innovative performances are typically seen as treasured events, there seems to be a limit to audiences’ acceptance of novelty before it is rejected as unmusical, inappropriate, or tasteless. Bound by cultural traditions and stylistic norms, innovative musicians must tread a fine line between the unique and the downright outrageous.
