David Dodge Boyden (
Westport, Connecticut
Westport is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States, along the Long Island Sound within Connecticut's Gold Coast. It is northeast of New York City. The town had a population of 27,141 according to the 2020 U.S. Census.
History
...
, December 10, 1910
Berkeley, California
Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland and Emer ...
– September 18, 1986) was an American musicologist and violinist specializing in organology and performance practice.
Education
Boyden received a BA (1932) and MA (1938) from
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
; he also studied at
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
and
Hartt School of Music
The Hartt School is the comprehensive performing arts conservatory of the University of Hartford located in West Hartford, Connecticut, United States, that offers degree programs in music, dance, and theatre. Founded in 1920 by Julius Hartt and ...
(the latter awarding him an honorary Ph.D. in 1957).
Career
After teaching for a year at Mills College, Boyden joined the faculty at the
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...
in 1939; he taught at UC Berkeley until 1975 as assistant professor (1943-9), associate professor (1949–55), full professor (1955-75), and also served as chairman of the music department (1955–61). Boyden played an important role in the development of the UC Berkeley music department in his position as chair. He was instrumental not only in building up the musicology department, but also in promoting the ethnomusicology, composition, and performance sectors.
Boyden was twice president of the
American Musicological Society
The American Musicological Society (AMS) is a musicological organization which researches, promotes and produces publications on music. Founded in 1934, the AMS was begun by leading American musicologists of the time, and was crucial in legitim ...
(1954–56, 1960–62), and a member of the executive board in 1958, 1966, and 1978-79. He was also involved with the International Musicological Society, the Royal Musical Association (England), the Galpin Society (London), and the Stradivari Society. After a long struggle with Parkinson’s disease, Boyden died on September 18, 1986.
Awards
Boyden was awarded a Fulbright to teach at Oxford University (1963), and thrice received a
Guggenheim fellowship
Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...
(1954, 1967, 1970). The University of California, Berkeley honored him with the Berkeley Citation in 1980.
Publications
Boyden published in many journals, including ''The Musical Quarterly'', ''The Journal of the American Musicological Society'', and ''The Strad''. Boyden published three textbooks, including the widely read ''An Introduction to Music''.
Boyden's focal scholarly research, however, was his innovative work on string instruments and performance practice; this culminated in the publication ''A History of Violin Playing from its Origins to 1761''. This book, first published in 1965, and later translated into German and Polish, was a seminal work in both organology and performance studies. It has been influential not only for scholars, but also for generations of string players.
''A History of Violin Playing from its Origins to 1761''
This work follows a chronology divided into four parts: “I. The Formative Period, 1520-1600”; “II. The Development of an Idiomatic Technique, 1600-1650”; “III. National School of the Late Seventeenth Century. The Rise of Virtuosity”; and “IV. The Culmination of the Early History of Violin Playing, 1700-1761.” In each of these sections Boyden utilizes musical analyses of relevant works, organological studies, and iconographical studies, as well as critical examinations of treatises and contemporary accounts to elucidate the development of the violin, its performance and technique.
Boyden also adeptly infuses personal insight from his broad experience and knowledge as a scholar of musical objects and performance. Boyden started a sequel to ''A History of Violin Playing from its Origins to 1761'', but it was never completed.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Boyden, David Dodge
1910 births
1986 deaths
American male violinists
University of Hartford Hartt School alumni
Harvard University alumni
Columbia University alumni
University of California, Berkeley College of Letters and Science faculty
20th-century American violinists
20th-century American musicologists
20th-century American male musicians