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Whitwell on Music
Essays 2023–2024
  • On Music
  • On Music Education
  • On Repertoire
  • On Composition
  • Rewinding the Film
  • A Short History of the Band
  • The Missing Link
  • Master Index

Category: Essays on Music

Essays on Music

11. On the Definition of Aesthetics in Music

Posted on July 19, 2023 by David Whitwell

In the Fall of 2017 I was returning to Milano and its famous cathedral for the purpose of finding a quiet place where I could gather my thoughts at the conclusi...

Essays on Music

12. What Is Music?

Posted on July 19, 2023 by David Whitwell

Music is a science of the phenomena of Love in application to harmony and rhythm. Plato (427–347 BC), Symposium, 187b Music does not exist. Sextus Empiric...

Essays on Music

13. Where are the Missing Notes?

Posted on July 19, 2023 by David Whitwell

All performing musicians, and especially conductors, must begin their study by keeping clearly in mind the fact that the score they are looking at is not the ar...

Essays on Music

14. Where is the missing Expression?

Posted on July 19, 2023 by David Whitwell

The great late 19th century composer, Johannes Brahms, was once invited to guest conduct one of his symphonies with the Meiningen Orchestra, one of the finest o...

Essays on Music

15. On the Purpose of the Rehearsal

Posted on July 21, 2023 by David Whitwell

In the academic year 1963–1964, I conducted my very first concert before the public. During the rehearsals for this concert, I followed the only model I had obs...

Essays on Music

16. The Whitwell Band Seating Plan for a Natural Sound

Posted on July 22, 2023 by David Whitwell

My Experience During my career I have performed in far more than one thousand concert halls. I have conducted in some of the best in the world and in some of th...

Essays on Music

17. On the Band’s Repertoire

Posted on July 23, 2023 by David Whitwell

What is Good Music? How can we then determine who is a good composer and what is good music? We must begin by avoiding the pitfalls of language. Because in Engl...

Essays on Music

18. What is our Obligation to the Listener?

Posted on July 24, 2023 by David Whitwell

Consider how different the formal setting that is required for Classical Music is versus Entertainment Music. First of all, we require the listener to sit in a ...

Essays on Music

19. Catharsis: The Listener’s Reward

Posted on September 16, 2023 by David Whitwell

Tragedy, then, is an imitation of an action that is serious, complete, and of a certain magnitude; in language embellished with each kind of artistic ornament, ...

Essays on Music

20. On the Music in Heaven

Posted on September 17, 2023 by David Whitwell

I began my school days in Hutchinson, Kansas. During my first year in school someone told the class how lucky we were to live in Hutchinson, because it is in th...

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