City in the English East Midlands. Records in the Corporation Archives beginning in 1464 show town waits, numbering three to seven men, appearing regularly (except during 164753 and 16721704) until 1836, when the office was discontinued. The records of the chamberlains of Nottingham for 155892 and 161440 show payments to the waits of 35 other towns for visits to Nottingham. Local patrons of music included Sir Henry Pierrepont (15461615) and Sir Francis Willoughby (c154796), who built Wollaton Hall near Nottingham, and whose Lute Book, compiled 156085, contains mostly anonymous English music. The Wollaton Hall organ was probably built in the second half of the 17th century. Records of music at the parish church of St Mary the Virgin date back to the late 16th century, and its musicians continue to play an active role in the city's musical life.
The earliest known public concerts were held during race week in 1707, 1709 and 1726. A theatre founded on St Mary's Gate in the early 1760s, also known as the Musick Hall, was a venue for concerts and musical entertainments. During the 1760s musical societies gave winter seasons of subscription concerts. William Hanbury promoted a music festival in 1763; the Nottingham General Hospital held an annual benefit festival from 1782, the year it opened. Samuel Wise (?17301801) was organist of St Mary's from 1755 and also a composer. From 1756 to 1787 he promoted annual concerts at the Ladies' Assembly Rooms on Low Pavement and in 1772 organized a music festival at the St Mary's Gate Hall. A cantata by Henry Hargrave, On Wedlock, addressed to the ladies of Nottingham, was performed in 1763.
The composer, violinist and conductor Henry Farmer (181991), author of popular violin tutors, published and sold music in the High Street from about 1840. Mary Bowman-Hart's Musical Guild offered singing classes to working-class men and women in the 1880s and had 400 members in 1886. The Nottingham Empire Theatre of Varieties, opened in 1898, featured leading music-hall performers and was open until 1958; it was demolished in 1969. The Albert Hall (cap. 2550) opened in 1876 as a concert hall and in 1902 became the Albert Hall Methodist Mission. It burnt down in 1906 and was rebuilt in 1909 (cap. 1400), then altered and refurbished in 19878 to form a Great Hall (cap. 700) and two smaller rooms. The Royal Concert Hall (cap. 2496), opened in 1983, is the northern base of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra; the adjacent Theatre Royal, opened in 1876, houses Opera North's touring productions. The Midland Sinfonia (renamed the English Sinfonia in 1966), was founded in 1961 by Neville Dilkes, and was based in Nottingham until 1984 when it moved to Sandy in Bedfordshire. Formed in 1979, the Holme Pierrepont Opera Trust produced early English operas at the nearby Holme Pierrepont Hall, becoming in 1985 the touring company Opera Restor'd.
In 1846 the Mechanics Institution formed a Vocal Music Club, later the Sacred Harmonic Society. The present Nottingham Harmonic Society was established in 1856 by Alfred Lowe and was conducted from 1897 to 1902 by Henry Wood. The Nottingham Music Club (founded 1923) presents an annual chamber music season, and the Nottingham Bach Society (founded 1954) regularly performs large-scale choral works. The Nottingham Sinfonietta was founded in 1974, and renamed the Nottingham PO in 1985. There are two annual festivals: the Nottingham Festival (founded 1970) and the competitive Nottingham Music and Drama Festival (established 1902). BBC Radio Nottingham (established 1968) broadcasts a wide range of music. The University department of music, originally part of the department of education, became separate in 1925. From 1956 to 1982 the Nottingham University Opera Group produced a series of lesser-known operas, including the British premiθres of Dvořαk's Dimitrij (1979) and Berwald's Drottningen av Golconda (1982). In 1994 the department moved to the University Arts Centre which includes the Djanogly Recital Hall.
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ROSEMARY WILLIAMSON