The Three Choirs Festival : a history / Anthony Boden and Paul Hedley.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Boden, Anthony, author.

Hedley, Paul, 1978- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Three Choirs Festival.

Song festivals--England--Gloucester--History.

Song festivals.

History.

England--Gloucester.

Physical Description:

xix, 475 pages, 56 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 24 cm

Edition:

New and revised edition.

Place of Publication:

Woodbridge : The Boydell Press, 2017.

Summary:

Described in the Radio Times (27 July 2015) as 'A remarkable, unique institution lying at the heart of British life', the Three Choirs Festival celebrated its three-hundred-year anniversary in 2015. Rotating each summer between the English cathedral cities of Hereford, Gloucester and Worcester, the Festival is a week-long programme of choral and orchestral concerts, cathedral services, solo and chamber music recitals, master classes, talks, theatre and exhibitions. At the heart of the modern festival are the daily services of Choral Evensong, representing the tradition of Anglican music and liturgy, and the large-scale evening concerts featuring established favourites of the British classical choral tradition with works drawn from a broader, more international musical canvas. Many special commissions and other works, including compositions by British composers such as Jonathan Harvey, James Macmillan, Judith Bingham and John McCabe, and composers from abroad, such as Gerard Schurmann, Jackson Hill and Torsten Rasch, have received their first performances at Three Choirs. Originally published in 1992, this revised edition brings the history of the oldest surviving non-competitive music festival in Britain thoroughly up to date. It traces the development of the Festival from its origins in the early eighteenth century to its tercentenary in 2015, along the way touching on many musical milestones - premieres by Parry, Elgar, Vaughan Williams, Saint-Saëns, Holst, and Howells, among others - and luminaries - Sullivan, Stanford, Dvorák, Delius, Bax, and Britten, to name but a few - associated with it. British music enthusiasts especially will find this new edition invaluable.

Contents:

1 Origins 1

2 A Fortuitous and Friendly Proposal 15

3 A Numerous Appearance of Gentry 28

4 'The Musick of my Admiration Handel' 40

5 The Gentlemen and the Players 56

6 Avoiding Shipwreck 87

7 Prima voce 103

8 Favourites and Flops 120

9 Sacred and Profane 130

10 Froissart 144

11 The Unreasonable Man 153

12 The Dream 161

13 Beyond these Voices 179

14 An Essentially English Institution 192

15 The Elgar Festivals 198

16 Dona nobis pacem 221

17 Recovery 227

18 Association 243

19 A New Epoch 254

20 Jubilee 269

21 Theme with Variations 278

22 Houses of the Mind 301

23 'A Gold-Plated Orchestra' 336

24 A New Millennium 357

25 Reorganisation 389

26 An Invitation to the Palace 430.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1783272090

9781783272099

OCLC:

965737564