Beskrivelse
In the thirty years leading up to the First World War, the competition festival was an important feature in the musical life of the country, particularly in the North of England. Thousands of people, including children, took part, and as standards improved, the leading composers of the day wrote test pieces, and often attended to adjudicate and to conduct their own works. For the first decade of the 20th century the leading festival was undoubtedly that which took place at Morecambe in Lancashire. Its success can be attributed to four men: Rev Canon Charles Gorton, Rector of Morecambe, and the Festival’s founder and President; Robert Howson, a talented local musician, who formed and conducted the local choir, and chose the test pieces; Arthur Johnstone, music critic of the Manchester Guardian; and Edward Elgar, England’s most eminent composer. Initially Elgar attended the festival reluctantly, but was surprised and delighted with the high standards he found there, and said that the living centre of music in England was not London, but “somewhere further north”. Making use of previously unpublished material, including correspondence and contemporary press reports, this book traces the development of the Morecambe Festival, Elgar’s association with it, and his friendship with Canon Gorton. It also deals with contentious issues within the competition movement, including the choice of test pieces, the vexed question of “singing-off”, and the performance of larger works by combined choirs. The book is published to mark the 100th Morecambe Festival in 2004.
