David Dodge Boyden 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

Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...

; he also studied at Columbia University

Columbia University

Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...

 and Hartt School of Music (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

University of California, Berkeley

The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...

 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

American Musicological Society

The American Musicological Society is a membership-based musicological organization founded in 1934 to advance scholarly research in the various fields of music as a branch of learning and scholarship; it grew out of a small contingent of the Music Teachers National Association and, more directly,...

 (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 Fellowship

Guggenheim Fellowships are American grants that have been awarded annually since 1925 by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts." Each year, the foundation makes...

(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.