Classical music of Birmingham

The first sign of this transformation was the opening of the baroque St Philip's Church in 1715, which had a fine organ that attracted gifted musicians to the town.

Music was written for the festival by Mendelssohn, Gounod, Sullivan, Dvořák, Bantock, and Elgar, who wrote four choral pieces for Birmingham.

[5] Birmingham's economy boomed in the years following the Restoration of the Monarchy in 1660, and over the course of the following century the town's huge growth in size and wealth came to be reflected in the self-conscious awakening of scientific and cultural activity now known as the Midlands Enlightenment.

[6] The first outward sign of this coming cultural transformation was the opening of the baroque St Philip's Church in 1715, a building of exceptional sophistication for what was still a modestly-sized town.

[9] St Phillips' first organist was Barnabas Gunn, who was also notable as a composer, producing sonatas and solos for harpsichord, violin and cello, and Two Cantatas and Six Songs of 1736 that included George Frederick Handel among its subscribers.

[10] Gunn promoted the first organised series of concerts in the town, at Holte Bridgman's Apollo Gardens, Sawyer's Assembly Rooms and the Moor Street Theatre, building a programme that featured leading international musicians from continental Europe, of a standard associated with the Three Choirs Festival or Chapel Royal, Windsor.

Three-day festivals of oratorio, featuring 40-piece orchestras, choirs of 24 singers and nationally known soloists, are recorded taking place at the town's theatres from the 1740s.

[17] During the winter the tradition of subscription concert series at Sawyer's Assembly Rooms in Old Square, started by Barnabas Gunn, was continued through the 1760s by John Eversman, his successor as organist at St Philips.

[21] The success of this, together with that of a three-day festival of oratorio held by Richard Hobbs and Capel Bond in 1767, led to Kempson's suggestion that large-scale musical performances "upon similar principles to those at St. Bartholemew's" might be used to raise money to support the Birmingham General Hospital, which was then lying half-built for lack of funds.

Oratorios were performed at St Philip's and at the King Street Theatre to a "brilliant and crowded audience" including a "concourse of Nobility and Gentry from this and the neighbouring counties", with an orchestra of 25 conducted by Bond and a chorus of 45 from the Musical and Amicable Society trained by Kempson, raising a total of £200 (the equivalent of £10,000 in late 20th century terms) for the hospital.

[23] A second Music Meeting like that of 1768 was held in 1774 to raise money for the building of St. Mary's Chapel in Whittal Street,[24] and with building work on the General Hospital again paused for lack of funds, in 1778 Kempson suggested a similar event be held for the joint benefit of the hospital and St Paul's Church in the Jewellery Quarter, where was newly installed as choirmaster.

[26] The festival attracted soloists with national or – increasingly – European profiles,[27] with performers in the late 18th century including the sopranos Charlotte Brent, Gertrud Elisabeth Mara and Elizabeth Billington;[28] the instrumentalists Wilhelm Cramer, Giacobbe Cervetto, John Crosdill, John Mahon and Robert Lindley;[29] and the conductors Thomas Greatorex, William Crotch and Samuel Wesley.

[36] Notable late 18th century Birmingham composers included John Alcock, who wrote numerous religious compositions while organist at Sutton Coldfield,[14] and Joseph Harris, who was born in Birmingham and returned as organist of St Martin in the Bull Ring, and is thought to be the composer of the one act pastoral Menalcas,[10] in addition to two books of songs and six keyboard quartets that are notable for giving melodic parts to the strings, and for having slow movements of an unusually ornamental style.

Music was written for the festival by Mendelssohn, Gounod, Sullivan, Dvořák, Bantock and most notably Elgar, who wrote four of his most famous choral pieces for Birmingham.