For the first time, Dr. David Whitwell presents a thor-ough study of the per-for-mance of music in soci-ety together with the philo-soph-i-cal views on art ver-sus enter-tain-ment, the role of per-for-mance in edu-ca-tion and char-ac-ter for-ma-tion and how ear-lier philoso-phers viewed the inter-play among Rea-son, Emo-tions, expe-ri-ence and the senses. The present vol-ume stud-ies these ques-tions and more dur-ing the first two cen-turies of the Renais-sance. While the Church con-tin-ued to spon-sor impor-tant music, the spot-light had clearly turned to the grow-ing cul-ti-va-tion of the arts in the indi-vid-ual courts and the pub-lic at large, as is doc-u-mented by a num-ber of great writ-ers, among them Petrarch, Boc-cac-cio and Chaucer. It should be no sur-prise that some friends of Leonardo da Vinci con-sid-ered him the great-est musi-cian known to them, a fact almost entirely for-got-ten today. This wide inter-est in the per-for-mance of music caused the music the-o-rists to begin to aban-don the old Church dogma about music being a branch of math-e-mat-ics and to recon-sider music as an expres-sion of man.
About the Author: Dr. David Whitwell is a graduate ('with distinction') of the University of Michigan and the Catholic University of America, Washington DC (PhD, Musicology, Distinguished Alumni Award, 2000) and has done post-graduate study at the University of Vienna and has studied conducting with Eugene Ormandy and at the Akademie fur Musik, Vienna. Prior to coming to Northridge, Dr. Whitwell participated in concerts throughout the United States and Asia as Associate First Horn in the USAF Band and Orchestra in Washington DC, and in recitals throughout South America in cooperation with the United States State Department. He is a past president of the College Band Directors National Association, a member of the Prasidium of the International Society for the Promotion of Band Music, and was a member of the founding board of directors of the World Association for Symphonic Bands and Ensembles (WASBE). In 1964 he was made an honorary life member of Kappa Kappa Psi, a national professional music fraternity. In September, 2001, he was a delegate to the UNESCO Conference on Global Music in Tokyo. He has been knighted by sovereign organizations in France, Portugal and Scotland and has been awarded the gold medal of Kerkrade, The Netherlands, and the silver medal of Wangen, Germany, the highest honor given wind conductors in the United States, the medal of the Academy of Wind and Percussion Arts (National Band Association) and the highest honor given wind conductors in Austria, the gold medal of the Austrian Band Association. He is a member of the Hall of Fame of the California Music Educators Association. Dr. Whitwell's publications include more than 127 articles on wind literature including publications in Music and Letters (London), the London Musical Times, the Mozart-Jahrbuch (Salzburg), and 39 books, among which is his 13-volume History and Literature of the Wind Band and Wind Ensemble and an 8-volume series on Aesthetics in Music. In addition to numerous modern editions of early wind band music his original compositions include 5 symphonies. David Whitwell was named as one of six men who have determined the course of American bands during the second half of the 20th century, in the definitive history, The Twentieth Century American Wind Band (Meredith Music). David Whitwell is one of nine men described by Paula A. Crider in The Conductor's Legacy (Chicago: GIA, 2010) as 'the legendary conductors' of the 20th century.