The History and Literature of the Wind Band and Wind Ensemble

The Wind Band and Wind Ensem-ble Before 1500 is the first vol-ume in Dr. David Whitwell's ground break-ing thir-teen vol-ume His-tory and Lit-er-a-ture of the Wind Band and Wind Ensem-ble series. Whitwell's metic-u-lous schol-ar-ship reveals the con-tin-u-ous his-tory of the wind ensem-ble, from its ear-li-est roots to the nine-teenth cen-tury - an unbro-ken tra-di-tion of wind music that music schol-ars have never been fully able to appre-ci-ate until now. This vol-ume includes: 1] court wind music devel-op-ing form crude cer-e-mo-nial instru-ments into the real wind bands of the fif-teenth century 2] the ancient tra-di-tion of civic wind music, cen-ter-ing on 'watch' duty and the grad-ual devel-op-ment of more aes-thetic func-tions includ-ing real concerts 3] the com-plete pro-hi-bi-tion of wind music in the early Chris-t-ian church and its grad-ual accep-tance into the ser-vice through the medieval church drama and the bands that accom-pa-nied nobles in their pri-vate church ceremonies. Updated with the inclu-sion of rel-e-vant iconog-ra-phy, this sec-ond edi-tion belongs in music libraries and con-ser-va-toires around the world.