Harvey Samuel Whistler
Harvey Samuel Whistler Jr. (September 7, 1907 – March 17, 1976) was an American violinist, editor, arranger, and composer of educational music studies for studio, homogenous, and heterogeneous class instrumental (strings and band) instruction.
[1] Around age 9, Harvey Jr. expressed an interest in violin and enrolled in lessons with George W. Hastings (c. 1916-1919), a renowned band and orchestra director from Santa Cruz.
[1] By age 18, he had developed considerable ability, performing the maestoso, larghetto, and andantino sections of Niccolò Paganini's Le Streghe (Witches’ Dance), Op.
[6][7] Personal records suggest Whistler used this period to study piano more seriously and to become better acquainted with woodwind, brass, and percussion instruments, eventually labeling himself a “legitimate” clarinetist.
Whistler directed the string and wind ensembles, managed student teachers, and assisted the Head of the Instrumental Department, Howard S. Monger.
[14][15][7] Whistler also remained active in the community running his own private violin studio and serving in the California-Western Division Chapter of the Music Educators National Conference (MENC) as a string clinician and administrative committee member.
[1] In summer 1933, Whistler enrolled part-time at the University of Southern California to study educational administration with additional coursework in sociology and psychology.
His master's thesis entitled, The Organization and Administration of Music Departments in Secondary Schools, provides a rare description of California's public-school instrumental program structure during the 1930s.
Whistler, in turn, assumed Nord's position as Instrumental Music Instructor at Charles W. Eliot Junior High School (EJHS), but only briefly.
[1][6] Around the same time Whistler left EJHS and enrolled in his Ph.D. program, both he and Hummel were hired by Rubank, Inc. to publish educational texts for school string and band ensembles.
All albums were progressive in sequence, keeping in mind the limitations of both beginning and intermediate chamber ensemble, and contain arrangements of marches, waltzes, classical, and traditional tunes.
By mid-1950, Whistler's and Hummel's texts had garnered significant praise among performers, studio teachers, supervisors of instrumental music, and collegiate faculty around the United States.
Gustave Rosseels, the original second violinist of the Paganini String Quartet, wrote Rubank saying, “A few days ago I received your sample of music comprising a violin method by Harvey S. Whistler .
15–16) further states: Other institutions such as St. Mary's Academy in Portland, Oregon; the Instrumental Music Program at Louisiana State University; Allegheny College in Meadville, Pennsylvania; and University of California in Santa Barbara all claimed to use Whistler's texts in some fashion, either in instrumental classrooms, applied studio studies, methods courses, or other preservice teacher-training programs.
Around the same time, Whistler began collaborating with Louis P. Thorpe, Professor of Secondary Education and Clinical Psychology at the University of Southern California.
[32]In the years that followed, Whistler turned his attention to a number of other hobbies he had entertained since the 1930s, namely academic writing, collecting instrument bows, and appraising antiquities.
[1] In 1962, he was invited to join the editorial board of the Music Journal where he published String Symposium,[33] a series of five reports “quot[ing] 127 teachers and performers of distinction .
Among the survey respondents were Rex Underwood, Frank W. Hill, and Paul Rolland, all key figures in the founding of ASTA, as well as renowned string pedagogue, Samuel Applebaum.
Dakon (2011) states "Whistler's family and friends remembered him most for his love of learning, his intense compassion toward others, an uncanny sense of humor, and his exuberant presence.
And from this his life reached fulfillment in the desire to serve to the betterment of fellowman and to his country, all of which he held deep responsibility, regard and warm, honest love and affection.
Dakon (2011) asserts that Whistler's methods exhibit three pedagogical characteristics: (1) most works were "retrospectively formatted," meaning they were made up of nineteenth-century etudes that were repurposed for homogenous and heterogeneous instrumental classrooms; (2) most methods used elastic scoring, meaning they were composed and arranged to meet the instrumentation needs of different classroom settings, and (3) they are written using the "C" or "Natural" key approach.
Examples include Whistler's "Modern Klose-Lazarus: Comprehensive Course for Clarinet: A compilation of two famous methods, entirely revised, re-edited, and re-styled."
First, he believed contemporary school string class methods could not address shifting and positional studies well enough to prepare students for technical demands of the standard orchestral repertoire.
Both volumes then end with a series of more advanced etudes employing each of the positions, as well as a virtuosic showpiece that demonstrates for students their progress upon completing the book.
Today, Introducing the Positions for Violin remain as relevant as ever in applied and group instructional spaces given its simple, but elegant pedagogical design.
The method can also be easily coordinated with analogous sections of Introducing the Positions, or paired with Josephine Trott's Melodious Double Stops for more melodic content.
Having developed technique in higher positions and double-stops, Preparing for Kreutzer provide students with a capstone series of nineteenth-century études that integrate all manner of left- and right-hand skills into a variety of rhythmic and tonal contexts.
The book begins with the same bowing variations applied to a different etude and ‘daily exercises’ that focus on trill development and higher-position arpeggios.
The collection consists of two parts: 1) transitional exercises to help violinists become familiar with the “intricacies” of the viola, and 2) a progressive course of etudes and melodies to reinforce those skills.
The progressive course of study is typical of Whistler's work, introducing first-position scales, etudes, duets, and melodies in a new major or minor key up to 3 sharps and flats.
