Three Choirs Festival
The Three Choirs Festival is a music festival held each August alternately at the cathedrals of the Three Counties (Hereford, Gloucester and Worcester) and originally featuring their three choirs, which remain central to the week-long programme. The large-scale choral repertoire is now performed by the Festival Chorus, but the festival also features other major ensembles and international soloists.[1] The 2011 festival took place in Worcester from 6 to 13 August. The 2012 festival in Hereford will take place earlier than usual, from 21 to 28 July, in order to avoid clashing with the 2012 Summer Olympics.[2]
The festival is closely identified with the musical careers of British composers Edward Elgar and Ralph Vaughan Williams. The organists of the three cathedrals (who act as artistic director and festival conductor when it is their cathedral's turn to host the festival) are Geraint Bowen (Hereford), Adrian Partington (Gloucester) and Adrian Lucas (Worcester). From Easter 2012, Peter Nardone will take up the post of director of music at Worcester Cathedral.[3]
History
The festival, originally held over two days in September, is one of the world’s oldest classical choral music festivals.[4] Publicity for it in 1719 addressed "Members of the yearly Musical Assembly in these parts". Its music obviously tended towards the ecclesiastical. In early gatherings, Purcell's setting of the Te Deum and Jubilate was a regular part of the repertoire until 1784, and Handel dominated 18th-century programmes with oratorios such as Alexander's Feast, Samson, Judas Maccabaeus and Messiah. Sir Samuel Hellier, guardian of the Hellier Stradivarius, was a "prominent figure".[5] Haydn's The Creation was heard first in the festival of 1800. From 1840, Mendelssohn's Elijah was performed every year until 1930.
The 19th century saw the introduction of Rossini, Mozart and Beethoven, and the festival's fortunes were enhanced by the arrival of the railways. However, these also brought crowds, a phenomenon not always pleasing to the church authorities, although full seats uplifted the finances. In the 1870s, the festival was reduced to the three cathedral choirs, ending for a while the era of the visiting celebrity singer as a faction in the church sought to stress the "appropriate" nature of activities allowed in cathedrals. However, the civil authorities took issue with the ecclesiastical and the festival revived. Interestingly, works by J. S. Bach were not heard until the 1870s, soon to be followed by local composer Elgar, who began to be featured around the turn of the century and whose works dominated the festival for much of the 20th century as its emphasis shifted toward British musicians. Herbert Sumsion, organist at Gloucester between 1928 and 1967, particularly helped to promote the works of native composers, including premiering works of Howells, Finzi, and others. Parry's compositions were also performed regularly. His De Profundis was one of the earliest works to be commissioned especially for the festival and performed in 1891.
Delius in 1901 was another composer who introduced or conducted new works, with his Dance Rhapsody No. 1. Another was Ralph Vaughan Williams, whose Tallis Fantasia was premiered there in 1910, followed by the Five Mystical Songs in 1911 and the Fantasia on Christmas Carols in 1912, after which he co-featured with Elgar as a central prop to the musical repertoire. Sumsion fostered a relationship with Hungarian composer Zoltan Kodaly and programmed Kodaly's works at six Gloucester festivals. Other names include Holst, Arthur Sullivan, Herbert Howells, Gerald Finzi, Walton, Bliss and Britten and recently, Lennox Berkeley, John McCabe, William Mathias, Paul Patterson and James MacMillan.
A timeline of some of the more significant events in the festival's history from 1709 until the present day has been compiled by Anthony Boden: Three Choirs Festival timeline
In 1995, a Festival Society was established to provide a means for enthusiasts to actively participate in support for the Three Choirs Festival.[4] The festival is funded by ticket sales, donations and sponsorships.
In 2010, the Three Choirs Festival Youth Choir was formed. Made up of singers aged 16-25, it has performed at the 2010 and 2011 festivals.[6]
The Philharmonia Orchestra will begin a three-year formal residency at the festival in 2012.[7]
See also
- List of music festivals in the United Kingdom
- Percy Hull, who revived the festival after World War II
References
- ^ Hereford web pages: History
- ^ "Hereford 2012". Three Choirs Festival. Retrieved 20 December 2011.
- ^ "New Organist and Director of Music". Worcester Cathedral. Retrieved 20 December 2011.
- ^ a b Three Choirs web site Retrieved 15 August 2009
- ^ The British Institute of Organ Studies ISSN 0309-8052. BIOS Reporter Volume 28, number 4, page 15. October 2004.
- ^ "Three Choirs Festival Youth Choir". Three Choirs Festival. Retrieved 20 December 2011.
- ^ "The Philharmonia Orchestra & the Three Choirs Festival". Three Choirs Festival. Retrieved 20 December 2011.
Further reading
- Boden, Anthony (1992) Three Choirs: A History of the Festival (Stroud: Alan Sutton Publishing Ltd).
- Hunt, Donald (1999) Elgar and the Three Choirs Festival (Worcester: Osborne Books).
- Watkins Shaw, H. (1954) The Three Choirs Festival (Worcester: Ebenezer Baylis and Son Ltd).