A generic term, derived from the Latin festivitas, for a social gathering convened for the purpose of celebration or thanksgiving. Such occasions were originally of a ritual nature and were associated with mythological, religious and ethnic traditions. From the earliest times festivals have been distinguished by their use of music, often in association with drama. In modern times the music festival, frequently embracing other forms of art, has flourished as an independent cultural enterprise, but it is still often possible to discover some vestige of ancient ritual in its celebration of town or nation, political or religious philosophy, living or historical person. The competitive music festival has also retained combative features reminiscent of festival events of former times.
The present article is concerned with the evolution of the musical festival in Western Europe and North America, and with developments elsewhere in the world that have sprung from these traditions; discussions of individual festivals may also be found in the articles on the relevant towns and cities.
2. Court festivals of state, c1350–c1800.
3. Choral festivals in England, Germany and Austria, c1650–c1900.
4. Commemorative festivals, c1750–c1900.
5. North American festivals, c1850–c1900.
PERCY M. YOUNG/R (1, 3–6), EDMUND A. BOWLES (2), JENNIFER WILSON (7)
The earliest festivals were held to celebrate important points within the annual cycle of seasons, as well as family or tribal events. Their main purpose was to stimulate the unseen forces considered to be the arbiters of human destiny to give good crops and protection against natural disaster. The most famous early example of festival ritual was the Olympic Games, held on the plain of Olympus in Greece in honour of Zeus. These combined athletic competitions and religious observances with music and dancing, and were held at the time of the summer solstice. From 776 bc the games took place every fourth year until, in their original form, they were abolished at the end of the 4th century. In The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776–88; chap.15) Edward Gibbon gave a succinct account of the character of festivals, ‘artfully framed and disposed throughout the year’, that distinguished Roman civilization. In due course their influence coalesced with that of various Middle Eastern traditions subsumed in Hebraic culture to provide a foundation for the religious feasts of European Christianity. Lang (1884) pointed out, for example, that ‘in Catholic countries, to this day, we may watch, in Holy Week, the Adonis feast described by Theocritus (Idyll XV), and the procession and entombment of the old god of spring’.
Among the British people who withdrew into Wales under the impact of post-Roman invasions the art forms of the Druidic bards were retained in the Eisteddfod, a competition in poetry and music. The first for which there is reliable documentary evidence was in 1176, but an eisteddfod supervised by the famous bard Taliesin is reputed to have taken place as early as 517 at Ystum Llwdiarth in South Wales, and another about 20 years later near Conway in North Wales. Since the 12th century the institution has played an important role within the concept of Welsh nationhood. In the 16th century the highly competitive nature of the eisteddfod was emphasized by the presentation of silver models of bardic chair, tongue, harp and crwth to those who performed best in the main sections. The modern Royal National Eisteddfod is held each year in a different place in Wales and, being conducted entirely in Welsh, it has contributed much to the development of Welsh political consciousness as well as to Welsh culture. Since the late 19th century eisteddfods have been held among Welsh communities in the USA, Canada and Australia, and in 1947 an International Eisteddfod was inaugurated at Llangollen in North Wales.
In Ireland pagan and Christian practices met traditionally on St Bridget’s Day (the first day of spring), St Patrick’s Day (the first day of sowing), May Day, St John’s Eve, All Hallows Day and many more. The term ‘feis’, associated in the first place with an ancient gathering at Tara described in the 12th-century Book of Leinster, is now used to denote a cultural festival. The Feis Ceoil, inaugurated in Dublin in 1897 by the Irish National Literary Society and the Gaelic League, is, like the Welsh eisteddfod, intensely nationalist in content. Also in 1897 a purely Gaelic cultural festival, ’Oireachtas, was instituted under the presidency of Douglas Hyde.
An institution similar to the eisteddfod was the Puy, a competitive festival held from the 12th century to the early 17th in northern France by the literary–musical societies also known as puys. Around 1575 a musical puy dedicated to St Cecelia was established in Evreux; Giullaume Costeley was among its founders, and Orlande de Lassus among the prizewinners.
During the medieval period the festival absorbed elements of chivalry, popular dumb-shows, religious theatre and allegory. Its principal element was the procession with its religious overtones, mute pageants or tableaux vivants, and mystery plays. Depending on the context, a distinction was made between musical ensembles of loud and soft instruments; vocal music was either sung unaccompanied or combined with the latter.
With the start of the Renaissance, festivals began to be used as court propaganda, testaments to the power, wealth and prestige of the ruling houses of Europe. Elaborate festivities were planned in conjunction with events of state such as coronations, weddings, baptisms, ceremonies of allegiance, state visits or entries, peace treaties and funerals. They included processions, competitions such as dramatic tournaments or tilting, pageants, banquets, often with their own dramatic interludes, balls, masquerades, theatrical presentations, regattas and water shows, and fireworks with general illumination. They lasted from a few days to several months, offering innumerable occasions for music-making.
For his coronation in 1377, Richard II was welcomed by all of London. On a stage ‘were many [dressed as] angels, with dyvers melidiez and songe’. When Charles V of France entertained the Holy Roman Emperor in Paris, trumpet fanfares accompanied the march back to the city, where an ensemble of royal musicians played ‘virelais, chansons and other bergerettes’. When in 1461 the newly crowned Louis IX left Reims for Paris, no fewer than 54 trumpeters accompanied him; at one tableau on the route three pretty girls, nude, sang ‘little motets and bergerettes’, and next to them were many performers of bas instrumens. At one pageant for the visit of Charles VIII to Rouen in 1485, seated figures representing the 24 Old Men of the Apocalypse held portative organs, harps, lutes, rebecs, shawms, crumhorns and other instruments, while minstrels did the playing from behind. It was customary for the loud instruments to be placed on a scaffold or balcony, where they performed for banquets and dances such as the lively saltarello or alta danza. They were also featured at tournaments, where fanfares of penetrating sonority were called for. Soft instruments, on the other hand, often played or accompanied the singing of chansons for the slow, stately basse danse.
Renaissance festivals reflected the pervasive influence of classical antiquity in triumphal arches with inscriptions, pageant-wagons and theatre with humanistic or mythological themes. Both vocal and instrumental music encompassed the new style. This was most apparent in the long series of extravagant Medici festivals in Florence. The marriage of Cosimo I and Eleonora of Toledo in 1539 included a huge banquet with a comedy staged in the palace courtyard, its acts interspersed with intermedi featuring madrigals by such composers as Francesco Corteccia and Costanzo Festa. For the wedding celebrations of Cosimo's heir Francesco I and Joanna of Austria in 1566, the artist and art historian Giorgio Vasari designed the costumes and pageant-wagons. The bride was ushered into Florence ‘to the sounds of many trumpets and the roar of drums’. The birth of a daughter to Francesco was celebrated during the carnival season of 1567 with mock combats, masquerades, banquets, an allegorical pageant, a comedy and fireworks. A six-part madrigal by Corteccia was sung with the parts doubled by two cornetts, two crumhorns and two trombones. One of the jousts displayed ‘a great number of trumpets and shawms [as well as] Turkish-style kettledrums, all mounted’. At the second marriage of the duke in 1579, to Bianca Cappello of Venice, one of the six major events was a staged battle, with ‘diverse musicians with many voices and innumerable instruments’. Music by Vincenzo Galilei, Piero Strozzi and Alessandro Striggio were performed; one of the singers was Giulio Caccini.
The courts of northern Europe soon absorbed these new influences, examples including the numerous state visits of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V between 1515 and 1533, the coronation festivities for Anne Boleyn in 1533, ‘garnysshed with mynstralsy & chyldren syngyng’, with pageants featuring Apollo and the Nine Muses and the Judgement of Paris; and the French royal festivals, conceived by humanists ‘in the antique style’, during the reigns of Francois I and Henri II, who had married Catherine de' Medici. When Henri made a triumphal entry into Lyons in 1540, from the top of a classical edifice an ensemble of cornetts, shawms, crumhorns and dulcians was heard. A long series of festive entries (joyeuses entrées or blijde inkomsten) into Flemish cities celebrated the successive imperial governors: when Archduke Ernest arrived in Brussels and Antwerp in 1594, one of the staged tableaux represented the Nine Muses, six playing cornett, buisine, triangle, viola da braccio, flute and gamba, and three singing from partbooks. The elaborate celebrations for the marriage of Duke Wilhelm V of Bavaria and Renée of Lorraine in 1568 included processions, feasting, games of skill, dancing, dramatic performances and fireworks. The music was directed, and largely composed, by the Kapellmeister Orlande de Lassus. During the prenuptial banquet winds and strings alternated with vocal music. At the wedding service a six-part mass by Lassus was performed by chorus and instruments, while the banquet which followed included an organ composition by Annibale Padovano, a motet by Lassus played by cornetts and trombones, and all sorts of instrumental and vocal music between the various courses.
At the wedding of Archduke Johann Friedrich of Württemberg and Barbara Sophia of Brandenburg ‘there was a completely glorious musical performance’. Each of the noble guests brought along his own musical establishment, all participating in the dramatic processions and banquets. The skill of the ducal musicians was on display at the baptism of Prince Friedrich in 1616. Sacred works by Ludwig Daser and Gregor Aichinger were performed by voices accompanied by basoons, bombardes, cornetts and trombones. The rulers of Savoy in Turin were known for their lavish festivals. Marco da Gagliano's Dafne was performed at the wedding of Marguerite of Savoy and Francesco Gonzaga of Mantua in 1608. For the wedding of Princess Adelaide and Ferdinand Maria of Bavaria in 1650, an ensemble of 24 violins played throughout the banquet, and a dramatic horse-ballet included the court musical ensemble playing from the logia of a stage set representing the Palace of Love.
At his coronation in 1654 Louis XIV of France ‘was escorted to the cathedral [of Reims] preceded by a dozen trumpeters, drummers, fife players, oboists, flautists, bagpipers and trombonists’. Following the service, as soon as the doors were thrown open, ‘trumpets, fifes, drums and other instruments … blended their agreeable sounds with the voices of the populace, crying “vive le Roy”’. The king entertained his court at Versailles with elaborate festivities including ballets, theatre, banquets and grand balls. Lully's Alceste had its première at a divertissement in 1674 celebrating a military victory. As Charles II of England was welcomed on his way to his coronation in Westminster Abbey in 1660, he passed through four triumphal arches upon which dramatic performances were staged along with music: respectively, trumpets and drums, a wind band, string instruments and a mixed ensemble. Spread out along the route of march, other musicians played as the procession passed by.
Italian opera became a staple feature of these court festivals, especially at the imperial court in Vienna beginning with Ferdinand II. Antonio Cesti's Il pomo d'oro was first performed during birthday celebrations for Queen Margherita in 1668. In the same year, Antonio Draghi's Il fuoco eterno was commissioned for the birth of a daughter to Emperor Leopold I. The combination of opera, masked balls, theatre, ballets, parades and liturgical music with orchestral companiment added to the magnificence of these occasions. The carnival season at the Saxonian court in Dresden in 1695 included as its main event an 11-part dramatic procession of pagan gods and goddesses, the music for which was organized and directed by the Kapellmeister Nicolas Strungk. The entire musical ensemble, as well as those from other invited courts, was integrated into the affair, the choice of instruments being determined by the deity and dramatic context of each segment.
Full-scale, homogeneous instrumental and vocal performances were the norm in 18th-century court festivals. One of the most important political events was the marriage in 1719 of Friedrich August II of Saxony and Princess Maria Josepha of Austria. The famous Dresden court orchestra was on display; the evening's entertainment included work for 64 trumpets and eight timpani and the serenata La gara degli dei by the orchestra's director Johann David Heinichen, while the main feature was the performance of Antonio Lotti's opera, Teofane. Heinichen's serenata Diana sull'Elba was the highlight of an aquatic festival for which a large orchestra performed from a barge shaped like a seashell.
Oaths of allegiance and fidelity were festal occasions as well. When Emperor Charles VI was installed as Duke of Steyer in 1728 the ceremonial banquet included a concert by ensembles of instruments stationed in the various dining chambers. At the homage ceremony made by the Austrian nobles to Maria Theresa as Archduchess of Austria in 1740, the customary trumpets and kettledrums were employed in both sacred and secular music-making as a symbol of imperial power. Louis XV was welcomed by the cities of Strasbourg and Mets in 1744; at one ceremony the festivities included a Te Deum, the voices ‘intermingled with fanfares from trumpets and timpani and [the sounds of] oboes and bassoons’. In both royal and imperial processions throughout Europe, military regiments by then included wind bands or oboes, bassoons and sometimes even horns.
The coronation of Holy Roman Emperor Leopold II in 1790 took place in Frankfurt; the music, directed by Vincenzo Righini, Kapellmeister at Mainz, was performed by the archbishop's own ensemble, augmented by 15 members of the imperial orchestra from Vienna. This represented perhaps the apogee of festal performances of the period, combining fully concerted music with works commissioned especially for the occasion.
In England St Cecilia’s Day (22 November) received particular attention and musical celebration (see Cecilian festivals). In her honour performances were given by the choristers of the Sardinion Embassy Chapel (dedicated to her) and by the Musical Society at St Bride’s Church in Fleet Street. In 1683 Purcell dedicated the first of his St Cecilia odes, Welcome to all the pleasures, to the society. Other composers who provided substantial works for this festival included John Blow, G.B. Draghi, John Eccles and Handel; the most celebrated poem set was Dryden’s From Harmony, from Heav’nly Harmony. Various other bodies organized similar functions for different occasions; some, not least under the aegis of the Church of England, placed emphasis on charity. The Corporation of the Sons of the Clergy, founded in 1655, held an annual service to raise funds for the relief of distress among the families of clergy; from 1697 this was held each May in St Paul’s Cathedral. The best professional talent was employed, and for many years Purcell’s Te Deum and Jubilate in D was regularly performed. In later years Handel’s music took pride of place. Another festival came into being at about the same time to provide funds for children in the charity schools of London, with music performed by the children themselves. This also took place, in due course, in St Paul’s, and eventually as many as 6000 children participated. Both Haydn and Berlioz praised the standard of their performance.
No other composer, perhaps, stimulated as many festivals in England as Handel, reverence for whom rapidly overtook that previously done to St Cecilia. His large-scale choral works, fashioned to a considerable extent from the indigenous anthem, enjoyed so much popularity that arrangements for their regular performance were established in towns and villages throughout Britain. The example of the Sons of the Clergy and St Cecilia festivals stimulated an annual ‘Meeting’ of the cathedral choirs from Gloucester, Worcester and Hereford, the first of which took place about 1715. By 1752 the practice of diversifying the schedule of music with secular works in other buildings was well established. In either case Handel’s music, held in universal veneration, provided the mainstay of the programmes. The Three Choirs Festival, as it came to be known in the 19th century, developed into a major musical occasion which afforded increasing opportunity for performances of new works by the principal British composers, and of important works from Europe and North America.
Festival performances of Handel’s oratorios were given during the last years of his life and immediately after his death in many towns, of which the most important were Newcastle upon Tyne, Salisbury, Bristol, Bath, Coventry, Oxford and Cambridge In centres of industrial expansion such festivals were usually coupled with middle-class concern about social conditions, and important events were organized in Leeds (1767), Birmingham (1768), Norwich (1770), Chester (1772), Newcastle (1778), Liverpool (1784), Manchester (1785), Sheffield (1786) and York (1791) with the primary aim of raising funds to establish or support new hospitals.
In 1784 the ‘centenary’ commemoration of Handel in Westminster Abbey and the Pantheon, with some 500 performers from all parts of England, accelerated the formation of choral societies and charitable foundations. It also implanted the idea that excellence was somehow related to size. This found expression in the early 19th-century Handel performances held under the direction of George Smart, who controlled most of the principal festivals in the country between 1820 and 1850. He was followed by Michael Costa, who directed the Handel festival (1859) at the Crystal Palace, where similar festivals were held triennially until 1926. During the 19th century major festivals developed in the industrial centres of England, fuelled by a great expansion of amateur choral activity. The new concert and town halls erected in Birmingham, Bristol, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester and Norwich were used for large-scale musical festivals. While Handel remained central in programmes, Mendelssohn (whose Elijah was a Birmingham commission) enjoyed lasting popularity. Other European composers, including Dvořàk, Gounod, Massenet and Raff, received generous commissions. In 1874 a Tonic Solfa festival took place at the Crystal Palace in London, with 3000 children participating. This was the brainchild of John Curwen, who was also responsible for instituting competitions to stimulate high standards of musical literacy. These in turn inspired Mary Wakefield to hold a modest competitive festival in Westmorland in 1885. From this sprang the modern competitive movement which, since 1921, has been regulated in Britain by the British Federation of Music Festivals (since 1991 part of the British Federation of Festivals), to which over 300 festivals are affiliated. Non-competitive festivals for schools were promoted by Geoffrey Shaw and Cyril Winn, both Board of Education inspectors. Among composers contributing to such amateur music-making were Thomas Dunhill, Gerald Finzi, Gustav Holst, Gordon Jacob, Herbert Howells, John Ireland, Ralph Vaughan Williams and Peter Warlock.
In German-speaking countries, as in England, the oratorios of Handel and Haydn lent impetus to the formation of choirs and related associations. On 20–21 June 1810 G.F. Bischoff, Kantor of Frankenhausen, assembled singers and instrumentalists from neighbouring towns in Thuringia for a performance of Haydn’s The Creation and other works under Spohr’s direction. This was Germany’s first festival in the modern sense, and its success led to similar events in that town in 1812, 1815 and 1829. On 15–16 August 1811 Bischoff was constrained to organize a ‘Napoleon Festival’ in Erfurt. Although he probably disliked the reason for the festival, he provided an interesting and varied programme, including works by Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and Spohr. In 1820 the industrious Bischoff arranged a three-day festival in Helmstedt, and it was after his example that Johannes Schornstein, musical director at Elberfeld, combined singers from that town and from Düsseldorf for a Whitsuntide festival in 1817. From this developed the Niederrheinisches Musikfest, held in turn in Düsseldorf, Aachen, Wuppertal and Cologne, which Mendelssohn conducted from 1833 until his death in 1847.
That festivals should be directed by a distinguished guest conductor became an early principle, and one that usually delighted the amateur singers who took part. In 1829 J.F. Naue, musical director at Halle, engaged Spontini to conduct a festival in the city, and two years later he concentrated attention on Halle’s most famous son in a Handel festival. All these ventures were evidence of a zeal for choral music and for the ideals that went with it. The most obvious of these were concerned with nationalism and education; pioneers of the music festival as an educational resource included Hans Georg Nägeli and Friedrich Silcher, who founded a festival at Plochingen (Württemberg) in 1827. In Vienna large-scale festival performances of Handel’s Alexander’s Feast in 1812 contributed to the foundation of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde and thereafter annual music festivals, at which oratorios were given by a large number of performers in the Riding School.
Festivals to commemorate a great writer or musician seem to have originated in the second half of the 18th century. In 1769, even before the Handel Festival of 1784 (see §3 above), Stratford-on-Avon had marked the bicentenary of Shakespeare’s birth with pageantry for which music was composed by Thomas Arne. After the death of Beethoven the cult of the great artist became stronger in response to evolving nationalist urges. Handel festivals, designed to further a British or a German national heritage according to where they took place, continued to proliferate, but at the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th other important German-speaking composers, particularly of the Baroque and Classical periods, began to find support and adulation from societies and collateral festivals. On 23 April 1843, a year after a statue of Mozart had been placed in Salzburg, a monument to Bach was unveiled in Leipzig, with the performance of suitable music chosen by Mendelssohn. This occasion may be taken as the progenitor of all subsequent Bach festivals. In August 1845 the new statue of Beethoven in Bonn occasioned a much larger demonstration of devotion in a truly international festival, the forerunner of countless Beethoven festivals in many parts of the world. During the 1858 Handel Festival in Halle a statue of him was presented to the public. A Mozarteum was instituted in Salzburg, and the first of the great sequence of Mozart festivals took place there in 1877. This was appreciatively noticed by Mary Cowden-Clarke, not only on account of the excellence of the music but also because of the ‘gastronomical pleasures’ that are now taken to be a necessary concomitant to artistic enterprises designed to accommodate touristic interest. Wagner can be said to have instituted his own commemorative festival in 1876, when the Festspielhaus was opened at Bayreuth for the sole purpose of presenting his music dramas.
In the USA festivals had a particular appeal among German immigrant communities who had formed their own choirs, and they were furthered by the establishment of a ‘North German Bund’ in 1847. In 1857 and 1858 the Handel and Haydn Society of Boston organized ‘conventions’ (i.e. festivals) in Boston and Worcester. But it was Patrick S. Gilmore, a bandmaster styled ‘high priest of the colossal’, who brought the cult of bigness to its first climax in the National Peace Jubilee and Musical Festival held in Boston in 1869. Described at the time as ‘the grandest musical festival ever known in the history of the world’, it required a chorus of 10,000 and an orchestra of 1000. The conclusion of the Franco-Prussian War in 1871 so stimulated interest in German music in the USA that some 20,000 performers took part in Gilmore’s World Peace Jubilee in Boston in 1872. A prominent conductor in the USA at that time was the German-born Theodore Thomas. With his own orchestra, he had conspicuous success in organizing the Cincinnati May Festival of 1873 and the Philadelphia Centennial Concerts of 1876, and he was given control of those held in New York and Chicago in 1883.
Meanwhile music festivals were taking root in Canada; the first of any importance took place in Montreal on 24 October 1860, when the Prince of Wales opened the Victoria Bridge. British connections remained strong, and the choral tradition was cultivated by British-born musicians. One of the most active was Charles Harriss, who in 1903 invited Alexander Mackenzie to direct 18 festivals in five weeks, the programmes being almost entirely of works by British composers. In 1906 Harriss organized a successful British-Canadian Music Festival in London (England). A choir of multi-cultural character that sang in many festivals both in Canada and abroad was the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir, founded by the German A.S. Vogt (1894) and taken over after his retirement by H.A. Fricker, formerly chorus master for the Leeds Festival. The patriotic feelings of German Canadians led to a Friedensfest in Berlin (now Kitchener), Ontario, at the end of the Franco-Prussian War, and to a Sängerfest in the same place in 1875. This was a rallying point for such immigrant music groups as the Concordia of Berlin and the Germania of Hamilton. Nationalism of another kind was also evident in the Fête Nationale des Canadiens-Français held in Quebec in 1880, at which Calixa Lavallée’s O Canada was first sung.
As the century progressed there was an unprecedented proliferation of music festivals of all kinds. Modern communications ensured that those well established in the 19th century became increasingly international in character and that newly-established festivals were quickly able to find places on the international scene. Among the latter were the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino (inaugurated 1933), the Holland Festival (1948), and festivals at Lucerne (1938), Prague (1946) and Edinburgh (1947).
In Europe the music festival continued through the century to function as an embodiment of national or ideological aspirations. In 1905 it was claimed that there were some 50,000 amateur singers engaged in competitive choral festivals in England. In that year a festival primarily for rural choirs was founded in England at Leith Hill, where Vaughan Williams lived; he became closely associated with it and it remains a monument to his concern for amateur musicians. In Germany the Arbeiter Sängerbund, founded in 1928, held music festivals with political objectives, organizing an international Arbeiter Olympiade in Strasbourg in 1935. After the Yalta conference of 1945, the political climate affected Eastern European festivals for 50 years. Music at public festivals was meant to support the tenets of Marxism; in the German Democratic Republic in particular there was no shortage of suitable new texts from the pens of, among others, Berthold Brecht, Johannes R. Becher and Stephen Hermelin, and the composers Hanns Eisler and Ernst Hermann Meyer made effective use of this material. Central to the East German festival tradition were the Arbeiter-Festspiele, to which many composers contributed. Bach and Handel festivals were also continued. The Festival of Britain (1951), conceived as ‘a tonic for the nation’ in a time of austerity and marking the centenary of the Great Exhibition, included music as an important element. An ambitious range of concerts, opera and ballet was given in London, where the Royal Festival Hall remains as a monument, and music was included in local arts festivals throughout the country. The Arts Council of Great Britain provided financial support, promoted concert series of early music, and commissioned works by many British composers.
The festival organized by Benjamin Britten and others in Aldeburgh, Suffolk (from 1948), included other arts than music, particularly painting and literature; this became a popular practice for festivals established in the latter half of the century. Just as Britten’s initiative gave prominence to its locality, so did the festival at Kirkwall in the Orkney Islands, established by Peter Maxwell Davies in 1974. In both places local authorities, at first reluctant, discovered that such events could help the local economy as well as the community’s artistic reputation. By the end of the century there were few European towns associated with scenic beauty, distinguished architecture or a famous composer that did not have their own festivals, and few festivals could resist claiming ‘international’ status. The music festival has also become an international phenomenon taken up by major cities throughout the world. From the 1950s Rio de Janeiro was a centre of festivals and music competitions. Arts festivals in Tokyo (established 1948), Osaka (1958), Hong Kong (1972) and Seoul (1976) all include music as an important element.
Most of the large towns and many centres of tourism in Australia, Canada and the USA initiated music festivals of one kind or another during the 20th century, and festivals were organized around major orchestras. Among the most important North American events is the Tanglewood Festival in Massachusetts (first held in 1934 in Stockbridge), centred on concerts by the Boston SO. The Marlboro (Vermont) Music Festival (founded 1951) is devoted entirely to the performance of chamber music. Other well-established American festivals include those at Aspen, Colorado (founded 1949), Ravinia Park, near Chicago (1936), Wolf Trap Farm Park, near Washington, DC (1971), Ojai, near Los Angeles, and the Grant Park Concerts in Chicago (1934). One of the first festivals devoted to indigenous American music was the Old Time Fiddlers’ Convention, founded in 1924 in North Carolina. The National Folk Festival in the USA had its origins in St Louis in 1934; its permanent base from 1971 was Wolf Trap Farm Park. In Canada, festivals of traditional music were inaugurated in Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver and Winnipeg during the 1970s and 80s. The Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC, holds an American Folklife Festival; the Philadelphia Folk Festival was founded in 1962. Although a precursor of the jazz festival took place in Chicago in the form of the International Jazz Congress of 1926, the first true jazz festivals sprang up outside the USA: the Australian Jazz Convention was first held in 1946, and the Nice Jazz Festival, the first jazz festival of international importance, was in 1948, followed by the first Paris Jazz Fair in 1949. Among important and long-lived American jazz festivals are those at Newport, Rhode Island, in 1954 (moved to New York in 1972) and Monterey, California, in 1958. The jazz festival in Warsaw founded in 1959 also drew international attention. Such festivals provided unprecedented opportunities for internationally known jazz musicians to come together, and some musicians made careers travelling from one festival to another. Scores of jazz festivals were inaugurated throughout North America and Western Europe in the 1970s and 80s, reflecting the increasing interest in jazz as concert music.
The proliferation of festivals has led many organizers to look for a focal point for their concerts and recitals. Often a different anniversary or aspect of music is chosen each year. In other cases a festival may be built around a celebrated executant (e.g. Casals at the Prades Festival and in Puerto Rico, Menhuin in Bath and Windsor) or a famous composer (e.g. Britten at the Aldeburgh Festival, Villa-Lobos in Rio de Janeiro). Festivals wholly or partly devoted to opera, apart from Bayreuth, include those at Munich (dating in its present form from 1901), Zürich (1909), Glyndebourne (1934), Aix-en-Provence (1948), Wexford (1951) and Marseilles (1971, devoted to contemporary opera). The Haslemere Festival was founded in 1925 by Arnold Dolmetsch to give practical effect to his research in the performance of early music. In the second half of the century early music played an increasingly important role in many festivals, and several festivals devoted to it were established, among them those at Innsbruck (inaugurated 1972), Cervantes, Mexico (1972), York (1977), Boston (1981) and Glasgow (1990). Devotees of the organ are served by several specialist festivals; one of the best known, the biennial International Organ Festival, was established by Peter Hurford at St Albans, Hertfordshire, in 1963. The earliest 20th-century festival to focus on contemporary music was at Donaueschingen, initiated in 1921 by Prince Max Egon zu Fürstenberg. It was at first for chamber music, but this emphasis was abandoned when it was revived in 1950. The first of many important festivals organized by the ISCM (1923) was also given over to chamber music, but the scope soon widened to include many different genres. Festivals devoted to contemporary music were later established in Venice (1930), Witten (1936, chamber music), Cheltenham (1945, British music), Brussels (1958), Palermo (1960), Wrocław (1962), Royan and La Rochelle (1964), Brescia (1969), Huddersfield (1978) and San Francisco (1980). The Japanese Society of 20th-Century Music (founded in 1957) sponsors a summer festival, and the Japanisch-Deutsches Festival für Neue Musik was established in 1967.
A fashion for pop and rock festivals on a huge scale was set by the Monterey International Pop Festival held in 1967, which attracted an audience of 60,000; two years later the rock festival at Woodstock, New York, drew 300,000 people. Their mix of internationally famous performers, enthusiastic audience participation, drug use and social protest was imitated elsewhere in the USA and Europe during the 1970s. By the end of the 20th century popular music particular to the young, while owing much to American practice, had become international. The use of global communication media to promote pop festivals and performers, together with the increased availability of international travel, have allowed such festivals to reach unprecedentedly large and diverse audiences. This potential was exploited in the 1980s and 90s to raise money for charity, notably with Band Aid in Britain and Farm Aid in the USA; in both cases the performances and appeals for donations were broadcast internationally. The travelling Lollapalooza festival, founded in the early 1990s around grunge music, also used international media to publicize its annual season of tours.
The following is a selective list of non-competitive festivals that have achieved international significance. The list is organized alphabetically by country, and within that, by city and name of festival. Each entry is based on the following scheme:
National Folklore Festival of Gjirokastra [Festivali Folklorik Kombëtar i Gjirokastrës] (1968) O
National Children’s and Pioneers’ Festival [Festivali Kombëtar i Këngës për Fatosa dhe Pionierë] (1963) Y
Albanian Radio and Television Song Festival [Festivali i Këngës në Radiotelevizion] (1962) Y
Evenings of New Albanian Music [Mbremje e Muzikës së re Shqiptare], later Days [Ditë] of New Albanian Music (1992) Y
International Days for New Chamber Music [Ditë Ndërkombëtare të Muzikës se Re të Dhomës], from 1998 Tirana Autumn [Vjeshta e Tiranës] (1994)
Nikolla Zoraqi Festival of the Interpretation of Contemporary Music [Festivali i Interpretimit të Muzikës Bashkëkohore ‘Nikolla Zoraqi’] (1994, 1997, 1998)
Tonin Harapi Albanian Song Festival [Festival i Romancës Shqiptare ‘Tonin Harapi’] (1994) Y
Adelaide Festival of Arts (1960) B
Barossa Music Festival (1992)
Brisbane Biennial Arts Festival
Melbourne International Organ and Harpsichord Festival, Y
Melbourne Jazz Festival
Montsalvat Jazz Festival
Festival of Perth (1953)
International Haydn Festival (1987)
Styrian Autumn Festival [Festival Steirischer Herbst] (1968) Y
Festwochen der Alten Musik, also known as Innsbruck Festival of Early Music (1977)
Innsbrucker Orgelwochen (1958, Y from 1965)
Internationale Brucknerfest Linz, also known as Bruckner Festival (1974) Y
Linzer Klangwolke (1979)
Melk Summer Festivals (1960) Y
Organ Summers, later Organ and Soloists Concerts (1972–98)
Pentecostal Concert Series, from 1992 Internationale Barocktage (1979) Y
Easter Festival, also known as Osterfestspiele (1967)
Salzburg Festival (1920–23, 1925–43, Y from 1945)
Salzburg Mozart Week [Salzburger Mozart-Woche] (1956) Y
Vienna Festival [Wiener Festwochen] (1951) Y; earlier festivals 1927–37
Wien Modern (1988)
Slavyansky Bazar (1979) Y
Vlaams Nationaal Zangfest, Y
Ars Musica (1988) Y
Festival de la Guitare
Festival des Nuits de Septembre
Festival du Jazz de Comblain-au-Pont
Bienal de Música Brasileira Contemporânea (1975–97)
March Musical Days [Martenski Muzikalni Dni]
New Bulgarian Music [Nova Balgarska Muzika] Y
New Music [Muzika Nova] (1993) Y
Sofia Weeks of Music [Sofiyski Muzikalni Sedmitsi] Y
Young Bulgarian Music [Mladata Balgarska Muzika] Y
Varna Summer International Music Festival [Varnensko Lyato] (1926–c1939, Y from 1957)
Contemporary Music Week (1961)
Organ Festival of the Oratory of St Joseph (1971)
Festival Canada, from 1978 Festival Ottawa (1971–83, 1988–91)
Ottawa Chamber Music Festival (1994) Y
Ottawa Jazz International Festival (1981)
Fête Nationale des Canadiens-Français (1880 only)
Vancouver International Festival, from 1965 Vancouver Festival (1958–68)
Manitoba Musical Competition Festival, from 1983 Winnipeg Music Competition Festival (1919)
Chilean Music Festival (1948–69, 1979, 1998)
Dubrovnik International Summer Festival [Dubrovačke Ljetne Igre]: (1950)
Split Summer Festival [Splitske Ljetne Priredbe, later Splitsko Ljeto], (1954)
Music Biennial Zagreb [Muzički Biennale Zagreb] (1961) B
Festival de Guitarra de La Habana
Festival de Música Contemporánea de La Habana
International Jazz Festival Prague [Mezinárodní Jazzový Festival Praha] (1964) O
Prague Autumn [Pražskě Podzim] (c1989) Y
Prague Spring [Pražskě Jaro] (1946) Y
Week of New Works [Týden Nové Tvorby] (1956)
Nordic Music Days (c1950); held in Finland, Denmark, Iceland, Norway and Sweden
Baroque Music Festival [Barokkmuusika Festival]
Estonian Song Festival [Laulupidu]
Tallinn Organ Festival [Tallinna Orelifestival]
Young Nordic Music; held in Finland, Denmark, Iceland, Norway and Sweden
Contemporary Music Days [Nykymusiikin Päivä] (1960–c1980)
Helsinki Biennale (1981) B, from 1998 Musica Nova Helsinki, Y
Helsinki Festival [Helsingin Juhlaviikot] (1968) Y
Sibelius Week [Sibelius Viikko] (1951–65)
Savonlinna Opera Festival [Savonlinnan Ooperajuhlat] (1912–14, 1916, 1920, Y from 1967)
Turku Music Festival (1960); incl. Ruisrock from 1970
Festival d’Art Lyrique et de Musique d’Aix-en-Provence et l’Académie Européenne de Musique, informally Aix-en-Provence Festival (1948) Y
Festival International de Musique, also known as Besançon Festival (1948) Y
Festival Jazz en Franche-Comté (1981)
Rencontres Internationales d’Art Contemporain (1973–77); see also under Royan
Lyons Berlioz Festival, from 1991 Biennale de la Musique Française (1979) B
Le Printemps des Arts de Monte Carlo, Y
Festival des Musiques Actuelles
Journées de Musique Contemporaine (1970) Y
Semaines Musicales Internationales de Paris (1968)
Rencontres de Musique et Danse Contemporaines de Poitiers
Tournoi Européen d’Improvisation Musicale
Festival International d’Art Contemporain, also known as Royan Festival, in 1973 moved to La Rochelle as the Rencontres Internationales d’Art Contemporain (1964–77)
Fêtes Musicales en Touraine (1964) Y
Niederrheinisches Musikfest, also known as Lower Rhine Festival (1818); held alternately in Aachen, Cologne, Düsseldorf and Wuppertal
Ansbach Bach Festival (1948) B
Deutsche Kammermusik Baden-Baden (1927–9); see also under donaueschingen
Tonkünstlerfest des Allgemeinen Musikvereins (1880 only)
Bayreuther Festspiele (1876, Y from 1936–44, Y from 1951)
Ferienkurse für Internationale Neue Musik, later Internationale Ferienkurse für Neue Musik, informally Darmstadt summer courses (Y 1946–70, B from 1972)
Sommerspiele Kranichstein (1994)
Kammermusikaufführungen zur Förderung Zeitgenössischer Tonkunst, also known as Donaueschingen Festival, moved to Baden-Baden 1927–9 and Berlin 1930, revived in 1950 in Donaueschingen as Donaueschinger Musiktage für Zeitgenössiche Tonkunst, also known as Donaueschingen Festival of Contemporary Music, from 1969 Donaueschinger Musiktage (1921)
Westphalian Music Festival (1852) O
Dresdner Musikfestspiele (1978)
Dresdner Musiktage (1949–1960s)
Tage der Zeitgenössischen Musik (1987)
International Schumann Festival (1981)
Thüringer Bach-Wochen (1991); also held in other cities
Frankfurt Festival (1980s–1994)
Thüringisches Sängerfest (1845)
Göttinger Händel-Festspiele (1920–c1939; Y from 1946)
Handel Festival (1922, Y from 1952)
Reichs-Händel-Fest (1935 only):
Castle Festival [Schloss-Festspiele Heidelberg] (1973)
Handel Days, from 1985 Handel Festival (1978)
Contemporary Sacred Music Week (1966)
Kasseler Musiktage (1933–8, Y from 1952)
Kieler Herbstwochen für Kunst und Wissenschaft
Koblenzer Sommerspiele (1949–70) Y
Internationale Festtage Alter Musik, Y
Wittener Musiktage, from 1969 Wittener Tage für Neue Kammermusik (1936)
Würzburg Mozart Festival (1921) Y
Hellenic Weeks of Contemporary Music (1966–8, 1971, 1976)
World Music Festival (1979 only)
Musical August [Moussikos Avgoustos]
International Music Days [Dhiethnis Moussikes]
Young Artists’ Music Week [Moussiki Evdhomadha Neon Kallitechnon] (1969)
Budapest Spring Festival [Budapesti Tavaszi Fesztival] (1980s) Y; incl. Budapest Jazz Festival
Contemporary Hungarian Music Week [Mai Magyar Zene Hete], from 1990 Musical Week of Our Century’s Music [Zenei Hét Századunk Muzsikájából] (1970)
Szeged Chamber Music Days [Szegedi Kamarazenei Napok] (1978)
Szegedi Ünnepi Játékok (1931–9, 1959–)
Nordic Music Days (c1950); held in Finland, Denmark, Iceland, Norway and Sweden
Young Nordic Music; held in Finland, Denmark, Iceland, Norway and Sweden
Reykjavík Festival [Listahátid i Reykjavík] (1970) B
International Choral and Folk Dance Festival, Y
Dublin Festival of 20th-Century Music (1969) B
Dublin International Organ Festival (1981)
Ein Gev Music Weeks, from 1948 Ein Gev Festival (1943)
Abu Ghosh–Kiryat Yearim Music Festival (1957–71, 1992–)
Rassegna Internazionale di Musica Contemporanea (1969)
Settimana di Musica Barocca, B
Maggio Musicale Fiorentino (1933) Y
Festival Internazionale di Marlia (1978)
Autunno Musicale Napoletano (1958–66)
Tartini Festival, later Veneto Festival (1971) Y
Settimana Internazionale di Nuova Musica (1960–63, 1965, 1968)
Settimane Musicali Senesi (1939) Y
Festival dei Due Mondi, also known as Festival of Two Worlds (1958) Y; see also Charleston, SC, USA
Festival Internazionale di Musica Contemporanea, later Biennale Musica (1930–73) B
Summer International Music Festival (1980) Y
Osaka International Festival (1958) Y
Festival for Contemporary Music (1957–65)
Japanisch-Deutsches Festival für Neue Musik (1967–70)
Tokyo Summer Music Festival [Tōkyō no Natsu Ongakusai] (1985) Y
Printemps Musical de Luxembourg (1983)
Festival Internacional de Música de Morelia (1988) Y
Holland Festival (1948) Y [Amsterdam and other cities, from mid-1980s Amsterdam]; incl. Off-Holland (c1986)
Drei Choren Festival (1994) Y; takes place alternately in Breda, Haarlem and Worcester
Drei Choren Festival (1994) Y; takes place alternately in Breda, Haarlem and Worcester
Holland Festival of Early Music [Festival Oude Muziek] (1982) Y
International Chamber Music Festival and Competition, B
New Zealand International Festival of the Arts (1986) B
Nordic Music Days (c1950); held in Finland, Denmark, Iceland, Norway and Sweden
Young Nordic Music; held in Finland, Denmark, Iceland, Norway and Sweden
Oslo Chamber Music Festival (1989)
Ultima-Oslo Contemporary Music Festival
Olav Festival [Olavsfestdagene] (1963) Y
Bydgoszcz Music Festival (1963)
International Festival of Organ Music [Festiwal Muzyki Organowej w Oliwe]
Kraków Spring Festival [Krakowska Wiosna Muzyki] (1962)
Organ Music Days [Dni Muzyki Organowej] (1966)
Wawel Evenings [Wieczory Wawelskie] (1966)
International Jazz Jamboree Festival (1959)
Warsaw Autumn Festival, also known as International Festival of Contemporary Music [Warszawska Jesień, Międzynarodowy Festiwal Muzyki Współczesnej] (1956) Y
Breslau Organ Festival (by 1942)
Festival of Music of Composers from the Western Parts of Poland, from 1964 Festival of Contemporary Polish Music, later Musica Polonica Nova (1962)
Encontros Gulbenkian de Música Contemporánea (1977) Y
Puerto Rico Casals Festival (1957) Y
International George Enescu Festival [Festivalul şi Concursal Internaţional George Enescu] (1958) T
New Music Week [Săptămâna Muzicii Noi] (1991) Y
Evenings of Contemporary Music (1909)
Don Musical Spring [Donskaya Muzykal'naya Vesna] (1967)
From the Avant-Garde to the Present Day [Ot Avantgarda do Nashikh Dney] (1993)
Musical Spring in St Petersburg [Muzïkal'naya Vesna v Peterburge] (1965) Y
Sound Paths [Zvukovïye Puti] (1989)
White Nights Festival [Belïye Nochi], from 1993 Stars of the White Nights Festival [Zvyozdï Belïkh Nochey] Y
Genrikh Neygauz Russian Festival
L.V. Sobinov All-Russian Festival of Operatic Art (1986)
Bratislava Jazz Days [Slavokoncert]
International Organ Festival (1970) Y
Ko7ice Musical Spring Festival
Festivales de Música y Danza (1952) Y
Festival of Spanish and Latin American Music
Nordic Music Days (c1950); held in Finland, Denmark, Iceland, Norway and Sweden
Young Nordic Music; held in Finland, Denmark, Iceland, Norway and Sweden
Drottningholm Festival (1953) Y
Festival de Lausanne, also known as Lausanne International Festival (1956–84) Y
Lucerne International Music Festival, informally Lucerne Festival (1938, 1939, Y from 1941)
Montreux International Jazz Festival, also known as Montreux Jazz Festival (1967)
Septembre Musical, from 1954 Montreux Music Festival (1946) Y
Internationale Festspiele (1921–6)
Italienische Gastspiele (1916)
Jahrhundert-Festspiele (1934 only)
Junifestspiele, later Junifestwochen (1909–92, 1998–)
Tagung der Deutschen Tonkünstlerversammlung (1882 only)
International Youth Festival (1973)
Bath Assembly, later Bath International Music Festival (1948) Y (except 1956–7)
Belfast Musical Festival (1908)
Music Meetings, from 1790 Musical Festival, later Birmingham Festival (1768) O
Musical Festivals (1853, 1855, 1859)
Cambridge Folk Festival (1962)
Cardiff Festival of 20th Century Music (1967–87) Y
Vale of Glamorgan festival (1969)
Cheltenham Festival, from 1974 Cheltenham International Festival (1945) Y
Chester Summer Music (1977); earlier festivals 1772–1900, O
Southern Cathedrals Festival; see under Winchester
Leith Hill Musical Festival (1905)
Edinburgh International Festival of Music, Drama and the Visual Arts, also known as Edinburgh Festival (1947) Y; incl. Edinburgh International Jazz Festival (1979)
Glasgow International Early Music Festival (1990) B
Three Choirs Festival (c1715) Y; held alternately in Hereford, Gloucester and Worcester
Three Choirs Festival (c1715) Y; held alternately in Hereford, Gloucester and Worcester
Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival (1978) Y
Handel festivals (1769, 1784, 1793, 1795)
Leeds Musical Festival, also known as Leeds Festival (1858, 1874, T from 1880, B from 1970)
Glyndebourne Festival Opera (1934–c1939, Y from 1946)
Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod (1947) Y
English Bach Festival, see under Oxford
Festival of the Sons of the Clergy (1655, Y from 1697)
Handel Commemoration festival (1784 only)
Handel Festival (1857, T 1859–83, 1885–1912, 1920–26)
Orchestral Festival Concert, later Richter Concerts (1879)
Queen’s Hall Promenade Concerts, from 1944 BBC Henry Wood Promenade Concerts, also known as ‘the Proms’ (1895)
Spitalfields Festival, founded (1976) Y
Norfolk and Norwich Triennial Musical Festival (O 1824–1976, Y from 1989)
Norwich Festival of Contemporary Church Music (1981)
Nottingham General Hospital festival (1782): Y
Nottingham Music and Drama Festival (1902)
English Bach Festival (1963) Y; founded in Oxford, held in Oxford and London from 1968
Southern Cathedral Festival; see under Winchester
Sheffield Musical Festival (1895) O
North Staffordshire Festival (1888)
Swansea Festival of Music and the Arts (1948) Y
Hampshire Music Meeting, from 1808 Hampshire Musical Festival (by 1780)
Southern Cathedrals Festival (1904) Y; choirs of Salisbury, Chichester and Winchester Cathedrals
Drei Choren Festival (1994) Y; takes place alternately in Breda, Haarlem and Worcester
Elgar Choral Festival (1988) T
Three Choirs Festival (c1715) Y; held alternately in Hereford, Gloucester and Worcester
York Early Music Festival (1977) Y
York Festival (T 1951–69, T from 1973)
York Musical Festival (1910 only)
Yorkshire Grand Musical Festival (1823, 1825, 1828, 1835)
Ann Arbor May Festival (1894) Y
Aspen Music Festival and School (1949) Y
New Texas Festival, from 1999 Texas Music Works (1993) Y
Bethlehem Bach Festival (1900, 1901, 1903, 1905, Y from 1912)
Boston Early Music Festival and Exhibition (1981) B
National Peace Jubilee and Musical Festival (1869 only)
June in Buffalo Festival (1975) Y
North American New Music Festival (1983–96)
Central City Opera Festival (1932)
Charleston Baroque Festival (1997 only)
Festival of Two Worlds, later Spoleto Festival USA (1977) Y; see also Spoleto, Italy
Grant Park Concerts, from 1995 Grant Park Music Festival (1934)
Ravinia Festival (1936); incl. Jazz and Contemporary Music Series
May Festival (1873, 1875, B from 1878, Y from 1967)
May Festival (1880–86, 1895–7)
Sängerfest (1855, 1859, 1874, 1893, 1927)
Montreux-Detroit International Jazz Festival, from 1982 Montreux-Detroit Kool Jazz Festival (1980)
May Music Festival, also known as Grand Festival (1874–5, 1886–98)
Romantic Music Festival (1968–88) Y
Tanglewood Festival (1934) Y; incl. Festival of Contemporary Music (1964)
Sound Celebration (1987, 1992)
Marlboro Music School and Festival (1951) Y
New Music Festival, later Imagine Festival (1972)
Hispanic Heritage Month (1973) Y
Monterey International Pop Festival (1967 only)
New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival (1969) Y
Mostly Mozart Festival (1966) Y
Newport Jazz Festival, moved to New York, from 1981 Kool Jazz Festival (1972) Y
Ambler Festival at Temple University (1967–80)
American Music Theatre Festival (1984)
Philadelphia Folk Festival (1962)
Opera under the Stars Festival (1952–74)
International Festival-Institute at Round Top (1971)
National Ragtime Festival (1965)
(Summer) Verdi Festival (1978–82, 1985)
Stern Grove Midsummer Music Festival (1938)
Summer Opera Festival (1981–5)
Santa Fe Opera Festival (1957) Y
American Folklife Festival in the Smithsonian Institution
American Music Festival at the National Gallery of Art
Worcester Music Festival (1858) Y
Each festival is given under its full original name. Subsequent name changes are given in chronological order, with dates provided where known. Variations in name, or alternative names, are also indicated after the original name. Square brackets are used to indicate original language titles of festivals, or English translations of festivals that are used in this dictionary.
The date of foundation of the festival, where known, is shown in parentheses at the end of the entry.
This is indicated as follows: Y – yearly, B – biennially, T – triennially, O – occasionally or irregularly.
Other details are shown after a semicolon. Further information can be found in the appropriate country or city articles and, in some cases, in articles on the festival. Where only the country or state is mentioned instead of a city, the festival takes place in more than one location.
GroveA (D. Baily); GroveJ (B. Kernfeld, P.R. Laird); GroveO (J. Rosselli, S. Roberts, H. Finch)
E. Pilon and F. Saisset: Les fêtes en Europe au XVIIIe siècle (St Gratien, 1900)
J. Chartrou-Charbonel: Les entrés solennelles et triomphales à la Renaissance (Paris, 1928)
E. Magne: Les fêtes en Europe aux XVIIe siècle (Paris, 1930)
D.G. Stoll: Music Festivals of Europe (London, 1938)
Les fêtes de la Renaissance [I]: Royaumont 1954
A. Yorke-Long: Music at Court (London, 1954)
K. Sälze: ‘Die Barockfesten’, Das grosse Welttheater, ed. R. Alewyn (Hamburg, 1959, 2/1985)
G. Pietzsch: ‘Die beschreibungen deutscher Fürstenhochzeiten von der Mitte des 15. bis zum Beginn des 17. Jahrhunderts als musikgeschichtliche Quellen’, AnM, xv (1960), 21–62
H. Biehn, ed.: Feste und Feiern im alten Europa (Munich, 1962)
D.G. Stoll: Music Festivals of the World (Oxford, 1963)
C. Hogwood: Music at Court (London, 1977)
F. Walter and M. Dentan, eds.: Europäische Musik-Festspiele (Zürich, 1977; Fr. trans., 1977)
R. Strong: Art and Power: Renaissance Festivals, 1450–1650 (Woodbridge, 1984)
U. Schultz, ed.: Das Fest: eine Kulturgeschichte von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart (Munich, 1988)
E.A. Bowles: Musical Ensembles in Festival Books, 1500–1800: an Iconographical and Documentary Survey (Ann Arbor, 1989)
B.A. Hanawalt and K.L. Reyerson, eds.: City and Spectacle in Medieval Europe (Minneapolis, 1994)
T. Harkins, ed.: The Virgin Rock Year Book (London, 1994–5)
The History of … the Charitable Foundation at Church-Langton (London, 1767)
C. Burney: An Account of the Musical Performances … in Commemoration of Handel (London, 1785/R)
J. Crosse: An Account of the Grand Musical Festival, held in September, 1823, in the Cathedral Church of York (York, 1825)
‘'Festival of the Sons of the Clergy’, The Harmonicon, iv (1826), 132 only
L. Mason: Musical Letters from Abroad: including Detailed Accounts of the Birmingham, Norwich, and Düsseldorf Music Festivals of 1852 (New York, 1854/R)
W.H. Husk: An Account of the Musical Celebrations on St Cecilia’s Day in the Sixteenth, Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries (London, 1857)
J.B.T. Marsh, ed.: The Story of the Jubilee Singers (London, 1875, enlarged 3/1900)
F.R. Spark and J. Bennett: History of the Leeds Musical Festivals 1858–1889 (Leeds, 1892)
R.H. Legge and W.E. Hansell: Annals of the Norfolk and Norwich Triennial Musical Festivals, 1824–1893 (London, 1896)
E.H. Pearce: History of the Corporation of the Sons of the Clergy (London, 1904)
E. Welsford: The Court Masque: a Study in the Relationship between Poetry & the Revels (Cambridge, 1927)
R. Nettel: Music in the Five Towns, 1840–1934 (Oxford, 1944)
H.C. Colles: ‘The Delius Festival’, Essays and Lectures (London, 1945/R), 107–9
‘The Festival’, MT, lxxii (1951), 249–53 [editorial on the Festival of Britain]
P.M. Young: ‘Die Händel-Pflege in den englischen Provinzen’, HJb 1960, 31–49
D.J. Reid and B. Pritchard: ‘Some Festival Programmes of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries’, RMARC, no.5 (1965), 51–79; no.6 (1966), 3–23; no.7 (1969), l–27; no.8 (1970), 23–33; no.11 (1973), 138 only
D.I. Allsobrook: Music for Wales (Cardiff, 1992)
A. Boden: Three Choirs: a History of the Festival (Stroud, 1992)
A.J. Becher: Das niederrheinische Musikfest, ästhetisch und historisch betrachtet (Cologne, 1836)
P. Lemeke: Die thüringischen Musikfeste und die Erfurter Napoleonsfeste (Magdeburg, 1886)
K. Heckel: Die Bühnenfestspiele in Bayreuth (Leipzig, 1891)
A. Einstein: Introduction to Fünfzehntes Bachfest München (Munich, 1927)
H. Eberhardt: Die ersten deutschen Musikfeste in Frankenhausen am Kyffhäuser und Erfurt 1810, 1811, 1812 und 1815 (Greiz, 1934)
R. Tenschert: Salzburg und seine Festspiele (Vienna, 1947)
I.K. Becker-Glauch: Die Bedeutung der Musik für die Dresdener Hoffeste bis in die Zeit Augusts des Starken (Kassel, 1951)
Die Göttinger Händel-Festspiele (Göttingen, 1953)
Komponisten und Musickwissenschaftler der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik (Berlin, 1959, 2/1967)
N. Notowicz: Introduction to Musikfest aus Anlass des zehnjährigen Bestehens des Verbandes deutscher Komponisten und Musikwissenschaftler (Weimar, 1961)
E. Straub: Repraesentatio maiestatis oder churbayerische Freudenfeste: die höfischen Feste in der Münchner Residenz vom 16. bis zum Ende des 18. Jahrhunderts (Munich, 1969)
W. Meyerhoff ed.: 50 Jahre Göttinger Händelfestspiele: Festschrift (Kassel, 1970)
P. Guiomar: ‘La musique dans trois fêtes à la cour ducale de Wurtemberg en 1609, 1616, 1617’, Les fêtes de la Renaissance III: Tours 1972, ed. J. Jacquot and E. Konigson (Paris, 1975), 393–409
K. Vocelka: Habsburgischer Hochzeiten 1550–1600 (Vienna, 1976)
O. Biba: Die Unvergleichlichen: die Wiener Philharmoniker und Salzburg (Vienna, 1977)
L. Krapf and C. Wagenknecht, eds.: Stuttgarter Hoffeste: Texte und Materialien zur höfischen Repräsentation im frühen 17. Jahrhundert (Tübingen, 1979)
S. Holčík: Korunovačné slávnosti, Bratislava 1563–1830 (Bratislava, 1986; Ger. trans., 1988, as Krönungsfeierlichkeiten in Pressburg/Bratislava 1563–1830)
H. Seifert: Der Sig-pragende Hochzeit-Gott: Hochzeitsfeste am Wiener Kaiserhof 1622–1699 (Vienna, 1988)
R. Lindell: ‘The Wedding of Archduke Charles and Maria of Bavaria in 1571’, EMc, xvii (1989), 253–69
S. Smart: Doppelte Freude der Musen: Court Festivities in Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, 1642–1700 (Wiesbaden, 1989)
A. Sommer-Mathis: Tu felix Austria nube: Hochzeitsfeste der Habsburger im 18. Jahrhundert (Vienna, 1994)
M.R. Wade: Triumphus nuptialis danicus: German Court Culture and Denmark: the ‘Great Wedding’ of 1634 (Wiesbaden, 1996)
E.A. Bowles: ‘Musical Ensembles in Austrian Festivals of State’, Austria 996–1996. Music in a Changing Society: Ottawa 1996 (forthcoming)
V. Promis: ‘Feste alla corte di Savoia nel sec. XVII’, Curiosità e ricerche di storia subalpino, ii (1876), 186, 351
A. Solerti: ‘Feste musicali alla Corte di Savoia nella prima metà del secolo XVII’, RMI, xi (1904), 675–724
A. Solerti: Musica, ballo e drammatica alla corte Medicea dal 1600 al 1637 (Florence, 1905)
O. von Gerstenfeldt: Hochzeitsfeste der Renaissance in Italien (Esslingen, 1906)
F. Ghisi, ed.: Le feste musicale della Firenze Medicea (1480–1589) (Florence, 1939)
G. Gavazzeni: La feste musicali (Milan, 1944)
A.M. Nagler: Theatre Festivals of the Medici, 1539–1637 (New Haven, CT, 1964)
M. Viale Ferrero: Feste delle Madame Reali di Savoia (Turin, 1965)
A.C. Minor and B. Mitchell, eds.: A Renaissance Entertainment: Festivities for the Marriage of Cosimo I, Duke of Florence, in 1539 (Columbia, MO, 1968)
H.M. Brown: Sixteenth-Century Instrumentation: the Music for the Florentine Intermedi (Dallas, 1973)
C.-F. Menestrier: Repertorio di feste alla corte dei Savoia (1346–1669), ed. G. Rizzi (Turin, 1973)
B. Riederer-Grohs: Florentinischer Feste des Spätbarock (Frankfurt, 1978)
B. Mitchell: Italian Civic Pageantry in the High Renaissance (Florence, 1979)
G. Isgro: Feste barocche a Palermo (Palermo, 1981)
A.M. Cummings: The Politicized Muse: Music for Medici Festivals, 1512–1537 (Princeton, NJ, 1992)
F. Hammond: Music and Spectacle in Baroque Rome (New Haven, CT, 1994)
J.W. Hill: ‘Florence: Musical Spectacle and Drama, 1570–1650’, Man & Music: The Baroque Era, from the Late 16th Century to the 1660s, ed. C. Price (London, 1994), 121–45
J.M. Saslow: The Medici Wedding of 1589: Florentine Festival as Theatrum Mundi (New Haven, CT, 1996)
H. Prunières: Le ballet de cour en France avant Benserade et Lully (Paris, 1914)
W.A. Fisher: Music Festivals in the United States (Boston, 1934)
V. Alford: Pyrenean Festivals (London, 1937)
M.A. de W. Howe: The Tale of Tanglewood, Scene of the Berkshire Music Festivals (New York, 1946)
N. Boyer: Petite histoire des festivals de France (Paris, 1955)
J. Landwehr: Splendid Ceremonies: State Entries and Royal Funerals in the Low Countries, 1515–1791 (Niewkoop, 1971)
E. Southern: The Music of Black Americans (New York, 1971, 3/1997)
M.-C. Moine: Les fêtes de cour du Roi Soleil, 1653–1715 (Paris, 1984)