The Provincial Music Festival in England, 1784û1914

A history of the English music festival in the nineteenth century is long overdue. Here Dr Pippa Drummond argues that the two or three day festivals represented the most important social and cultural events in provincial England during the nineteenth century. Based on primary sources such as surviving accounts, committee records, programmes, contemporary pamphlets and press reports, Drummond shows how the festivals responded to and reflected the changing social and economic conditions of their day. Coverage includes: venues and funding; performances; personnel and programming - including the reception of seminal works - the composition of festival choirs and orchestras; the promotion of new works; publication; the role of the press and social topics including the effects of improved transport, sacred and secular conflicts, gender issues and the changing social status of patrons and audiences. Throughout, the focus is on the way in which festivals responded to local and national events and how they provide a fascinating insight into a rapidly changing social and economic environment.The book will be of interest to social, economic and local historians, as well as music historians.