The
Birmingham Triennial Musical Festival, in
BirminghamBirmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands county of England. Birmingham is the second-most populous British city, with a population of 1,006,500 ....
,
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, founded in 1784, was the longest-running classical music
festivalA festival is an event, usually and ordinarily staged by a local community, which centers on some unique aspect of that community.Among many religions, a feast or festival is a set of celebrations in honour of God or gods. A feast and a festival are historically interchangeable...
of its kind. Its last performance was in 1912.
The first music festival, over three days in September 1768, was to help raise funds to complete the new General Hospital on Summer Lane. It proved to be very popular and successful, but it took another event in 1778 to achieve the funds required.
The
Birmingham Triennial Musical Festival, in
BirminghamBirmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands county of England. Birmingham is the second-most populous British city, with a population of 1,006,500 ....
,
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, founded in 1784, was the longest-running classical music
festivalA festival is an event, usually and ordinarily staged by a local community, which centers on some unique aspect of that community.Among many religions, a feast or festival is a set of celebrations in honour of God or gods. A feast and a festival are historically interchangeable...
of its kind. Its last performance was in 1912.
History
The first music festival, over three days in September 1768, was to help raise funds to complete the new General Hospital on Summer Lane. It proved to be very popular and successful, but it took another event in 1778 to achieve the funds required. The hospital opened September 1779.
From September 1784 the performances became a permanent feature and ran every three years, becoming the Birmingham Triennial Musical Festival, still with the aim of raising funds for the hospital.
Originally hosted in
St Philip's ChurchThe Cathedral Church of Saint Philip is a Church of England cathedral and the seat of the Bishop of Birmingham. Built as a parish church and consecrated in 1715, St Philip's became the cathedral of the newly-formed Diocese of Birmingham in the West Midlands in 1905...
(later to become the Cathedral) or the Theatre Royale on
New StreetNew Street is a street in central Birmingham, England . It is one of the city's principal thoroughfares and shopping streets. Named after it is Birmingham New Street Station, although that does not have an entrance on New Street except through the Pallasades Shopping Centre.-History:New Street...
the available venues became too small for the festival. As a result, the
Birmingham Town HallBirmingham Town Hall is a Grade I listed concert and meeting venue in Victoria Square, Birmingham, England. It was created as a home for the Birmingham Triennial Music Festival established in 1784, the purpose of which was to raise funds for the General Hospital, after St Philip's Church became...
was built, and opened in 1834 to house it. The festival for 1832 was delayed by two years during its erection.
Vocal works were generally sung in English.
Hans RichterHans Richter was an Austrian conductor.Richter was born in Raab , Hungary, and studied at the Vienna Conservatory. He had a particular interest in the horn, and developed his conducting career at several opera-houses in the Austro-Hungarian Empire...
was appointed principal conductor in 1885.
Mendelssohn
In 1837
Felix MendelssohnJakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, born, and generally known in English-speaking countries, as Felix Mendelssohn was a German composer, pianist, organist and conductor of the early Romantic period....
conducted a performance of his
St Paul oratorio, played the organ, and played the piano part in the premiere of his second piano concerto, specially commissioned by the Festival. He appeared in the following festival, playing his first piano concerto.
For the 1846 festival he composed and conducted the premiere of his oratorio
ElijahElijah is an oratorio written by Felix Mendelssohn in 1846 for the Birmingham Festival. It depicts various events in the life of the Biblical prophet Elijah, taken from the books 1 Kings and 2 Kings in the Old Testament.-The music and its style:...
, another new work commissioned by the Festival. He was paid 200 guineas.
Elijah was played at every successive festival. Mendelssohn died a year later.
More commissions
In 1873 the Festival commissioned
Arthur SullivanSir Arthur Seymour Sullivan MVO was an English composer, of Irish and Italian descent, best known for his operatic collaborations with librettist W. S. Gilbert, including such continually-popular works as H.M.S. Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance, and The Mikado...
who composed his
oratorioAn oratorio is a large musical composition including an orchestra, a choir, and soloists. The oratorio was somewhat modeled after the opera. Their similarities include the use of a choir, soloists, an ensemble, various distinguishable characters, and arias...
The Light of the WorldThe Light of the World is an oratorio composed in 1873 by Arthur Sullivan. Sullivan wrote the libretto with the assistance of George Grove, based on the New Testament. The story of the oratorio narrates the whole life of Christ, focusing on his deeds on Earth as preacher, healer and prophet...
.
The 1879 Festival commissioned a work from
Max BruchMax Christian Friedrich Bruch , also known as Max Karl August Bruch, was a German Romantic composer and conductor who wrote over 200 works, including three violin concertos, one of which is a staple of the violin repertoire.-Life:Bruch was born in Cologne, Rhine Province, where he received his...
,
Das Lied von der Glocke.
In 1882
Charles GounodCharles-François Gounod was a French composer, best known for his Ave Maria as well as his operas Faust and Roméo et Juliette.-Biography:...
was commissioned and produced
Redemption, which was performed twice.
In 1885
Antonín DvořákAntonín Leopold Dvořák was a Czech composer of Romantic music, who employed the idioms and melodies of the folk music of Moravia and his native Bohemia. His works include operas, symphonic, choral and chamber music...
provided
The Spectre's Bride and Gounod provided
Mors et Vita.
In 1891 Dvořák's commission delivered his
RequiemAntonín Dvořák's Requiem in B-flat minor, Op. 89, B. 165, is a funeral mass for soloists, choir and orchestra.- Background :Antonín Dvořák composed the Requiem in 1890, which was in the beginning of his peak creative period. This composition is one great reflexion on generally alarming questions of...
for £650.
1900 saw the commission
The Dream of GerontiusThe Dream of Gerontius, popularly called just Gerontius, is an oratorio in two parts composed by Edward Elgar in 1900, to text from the poem by Cardinal Newman. It relates the journey of a pious man's soul from his deathbed to his judgment before God and settling into Purgatory. It is widely...
from
Edward ElgarSir Edward William Elgar, 1st Baronet, OM, GCVO was an English composer. Several of his first major orchestral works, including the Enigma Variations and the Pomp and Circumstance Marches, were greeted with acclaim. He also composed oratorios, chamber music, symphonies, instrumental concertos,...
. The chorus master had died suddenly four months before the concert was due, and with ten works in hand and only one copy of the score, rehearsal started only a few days before the performance date. It was not sung well but was strongly applauded and well reviewed as a composition. He returned in 1903 with
The ApostlesThe Apostles, op. 49, is an oratorio for soloists, chorus and orchestra composed by Edward Elgar. It was first performed on 14 October 1903.-Overview:...
, and 1906 with
The KingdomThe Kingdom, op. 51, is an oratorio for soloists, chorus and orchestra composed by Edward Elgar.It was first performed at the Birmingham Music Festival on October 3, 1906, with the orchestra conducted by the composer, and soloists Agnes Nicholls, Muriel Foster, John Coates and William Higley. The...
. His commission for 1912 created
The Music Makers, incorporating themes from the
Enigma VariationsVariations on an Original Theme for orchestra, Op. 36 , commonly referred to as the Enigma Variations, is a set of a theme and its fourteen variations written for orchestra by Edward Elgar in 1898–1899. It is Elgar's best-known large-scale composition, for both the music itself and the...
,
Gerontius, his violin concerto, and
The Apostles. The principal conductor for 1912 was
Henry WoodSir Henry Joseph Wood, CH was an English conductor, forever associated with The Proms which he conducted for half a century. Founded in 1895, they became known after his death as the "Henry Wood Promenade Concerts" and are now the "BBC Proms"...
.
The end
The 1909 and 1912 festivals ran at a loss, providing no donation to the General Hospital.
World War IWorld War I , also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All Wars, was a global military conflict which involved most of the world's great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances: the Triple Entente and the Triple Alliance...
marked the end of the Triennial Festivals.
Sources
- The Music Makers - a Brief History of the Birmingham Triennial Music Festivals 1784 - 1912, Anne Elliott, Birmingham City Council
Birmingham City Council is the metropolitan borough council for the City of Birmingham in England. It is the largest local authority in Europe with, following a reorganisation of boundaries in June 2004, 121 Birmingham City councillors representing over one million people, in 40 wards. The council...
, ISBN 0-7093-0224-X
- All About Victoria Square, Joe Holyoak, The Victorian Society Birmingham Group, ISBN 0-901657-14-X
- A History of Birmingham, Chris Upton, 1993, ISBN 0-85033-870-0