Our Values
The artwhistling movement is founded upon:
Art. We believe in the importance of art as an integral facet of human experience and civilisation. Through standards of excellence evolved over time-honoured tradition, art challenges people to appreciate and reach greater potentials, thereby enriching the lives of both performer and audience. In contributing to art, each individual becomes part of an immortal tradition.
Music. The world's collective traditions of art music represent one of the pinnacle achievements of human civilisation. We believe that everyone can and should have the opportunity to enjoy and experience art music, not only as listeners, but through active participation as well.
Education. We believe that education promotes understanding, respect, and human development; and that education should be accessible to everyone. We also believe that art experience and creativity, including music, are an integral part of a general education ; and that formal music study is an asset to becoming broadly informed about music.
Research. Ours is the first society committed to research in human whistling, including acoustic, physiological, and musical aspects. Our society includes scientists, medical professionals, linguists, and musicologists whose combined research and experiments yield the newest discoveries in a remarkably unexplored field. These contributions (discussed in our Members Forum, published in Siffleur, and collected in our Archives) make our society the most complete and authoritative source of information on human whistling anywhere in the world.
Standards & Artistic Integrity. We believe that good music is more important than whistling. We do not promote whistling simply because it is whistling. Our approach to whistling emphasises musical value; not novelty, media exposure, or 'world' contests. Artwhistling results when the same artistic standards expected of all instruments are extended to include human whistling. At the same time, we understand that standards reflect our ideals and direction, not our current ability. If we have low standards, anything we do can be called 'art'. This may generate publicity, if that is our goal; but it does not make us better musicians, nor does it serve art. The total scope of good music is not bound to any one person's lifetime, but spans the entirety of human civilisation, both past and future. We look to musical traditions for standards because we grow from the accomplishments of those who came before us, because great accomplishments are timeless, and because art makes music a better experience for performer, listener, and student alike.