Three Choirs Festival

views updated

Three Choirs Festival. An annual festival, originally termed ‘Music Meeting’, based in turn on the cathedrals of Gloucester, Hereford, and Worcester. The festival was inaugurated around 1716 in aid of charity and its early years were increasingly devoted to the music of Handel. It has done much to foster English choral music, especially the works of Elgar, often using choirs drawn from the three cathedrals and conducted by one of the three organists. Premières have included Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius and works by Parry, Vaughan Williams, Holst, Bliss, Bax, Howells, and Peter Maxwell Davies.

Eric Cross

More From encyclopedia.com