Whether used for personal reference or as a text for a class in the history of the wind band this book is the most comprehensive single-volume history of the wind band ever written. This volume draws on the author's multi-volume History and Literature of the Wind Band and follows the development of the wind band through the civic, court, church and military performances of the Ancient World through the nineteenth century.

In this book the reader will find the dramatic story of how the early Roman Church sought to end the general education of the public and how knowledge struggled to survive the Dark Ages. During the Renaissance new forces, including the Crusades and the rediscovery of the works of Aristotle and others, coincided with the birth of the modern universities and secular thought began a long contest with the Church. Only with the Enlightenment of the seventeenth century could education begin to look at man and his world free of dogma. This book will give the reader a new perspective for judging...

This book traces the history of music education from the ancient civilizations of Egypt, Greece and Rome to the modern era. The reader will see the most natural concepts of the ancient music education as it then passes through the Dark Ages when the Church made music a branch of mathematics and then through the Renaissance when formal music education meant only theoretical teaching. The search for how music communicates emotion during the Baroque Period began the path back toward teaching music rather than teaching about music.

In the ancient civilizations music education was based on principles which seemed to them obvious and natural, that there was something universal about how people heard and understood music and that music seemed to have a role in the development of character. Beginning with the Christian Era music education was forced to move from the experiential to the rational and it has never recovered its natural state. In this book the reader will find an argument for restoring music education to a natural relationship between music and man. In the process this book will provide the reader with a new...

This book by Dr. David Whitwell is destined to be regarded as one of the most important works on the subject. It emphasizes the philosophic and aesthetic concepts of conducting and will cause ensemble directors to re-examine their ideas about the way they look at music making.

The Longy Club was a large chamber wind ensemble made up entirely of members of the Boston Symphony and founded by the principal oboist, Georges Longy. Longy and several of the other players had been students of the musicians of the famous Societe de Musique de Chambre pour Instruments a Vent in Paris which had commissioned the well-known Petite Symphonie by Gounod. Repertoire lists--This book includes a complete repertoire list of both the Longy Club and the Societe de Musique de Chambre pour Instruments a Vent. The numerous reviews of several Boston newspapers provide a fascinating view of...

The Wind Band and Wind Ensemble Before 1500 is the first volume in Dr. David Whitwell's ground breaking thirteen volume History and Literature of the Wind Band and Wind Ensemble series. Whitwell's meticulous scholarship reveals the continuous history of the wind ensemble, from its earliest roots to the nineteenth century - an unbroken tradition of wind music that music scholars have never been fully able to appreciate until now. This volume includes: 1] court wind music developing form crude ceremonial instruments into the real wind bands of the fifteenth century 2] the ancient tradition of...

Classical Period Wind Band and Wind Ensemble Repertoire is the eighth volume in Dr. David Whitwell's ground breaking thirteen-volume History and Literature of the Wind Band and Wind Ensemble series. This volume is a companion to the fourth volume in this series, The Wind Band and Wind Ensemble of the Classical Period. Beginning in October 1969, with his series of articles on 'The Incredible Vienna Octet School, ' David Whitwell became the first scholar to introduce to readers everywhere the long forgotten repertoire called Harmoniemusik. This repertoire was associated with the highest levels...

David Whitwell has drawn together a valuable collection of Mendelssohn's own intimate revelations on his personality, his character and his health. Here as well the reader will find Mendelssohn's personal insights on his own musical studies, his creative process and on some of his compositions. Mendelssohn has also left fascinating first-hand observations on other pianists, composers and personalities whom he knew.

The Renaissance Wind Band and Wind Ensemble is the second volume in Dr. David Whitwell's ground breaking thirteen volume History and Literature of the Wind Band and Wind Ensemble series. Whitwell's meticulous scholarship reveals the continuous history of the wind ensemble, from its earliest roots to the nineteenth century - an unbroken tradition of wind music that music scholars have never been fully able to appreciate until now. This volume includes: court wind music that left important bodies of literature, especially in France and England larger civic wind bands, with extant literature,...