[pp 1500-1501 from Cubbon - Bibliography, Vol 2, 1939]

MANX MUSIC FESTIVAL.
[Class L 14]

The Music Festival was inaugurated in the year 1892, on December 8th, as one of the activities of the Fine Arts and Industrial Guild. It was launched on the proposition of Miss M. L. Wood, the date of the decision being May 7th, 1892. The first secretaries of the Music Section were Miss Wood and Mrs. Trevithick. Miss Laughton and Miss Goldie-Taubman acted as secretaries in 1893, and Miss Gell and Miss Laughton in the following year.

The history of the Music Section is briefly recounted in the Coming of Age Programme of 1912, and has also been recorded by the late Speaker, Mr. G. F. Clucas.

The Fine Arts and Industrial Guild was itself founded in 1888. The catalogues of the Annual Exhibition are kept in the Library, also several smaller publications and the second Minute Book, from March 8th, 1892, to November 17th, 1894.

The first publications of the Music Section comprised the prospectuses and programmes and time-tables of the competitions. The size was uniformly large post quarto, and ranged from 4 pp. in 1893 - the first year of issue - to 8 pp. in 1899, 18 pp. in 1903, and 40 pp. in 1912. The cover design by Frank S. Graves has been used since 1909. The 'Coming of Age' issue in 1912 was printed by Brown and Sons.

The 'List of Awards' with the Adjudicators' Remarks was first issued in 1904 and continued, with a few years only excepted, until 1930. Some of these contain addresses by eminent musicians, notably those of 1909 (Manx Folk Song by Dr. J. Lyon) ; 1910 (The Pianoforte Competitions by Dr. F. Radcliffe) ; 1927 (Sea-Shanties by Sir Richard Terry) ; and 1928 (The Art of the Singer, by Dr. Freer). The number of pages range from 24 to 72, and several issues were incorporated with the Manx Quarterly, 1907-22.

Syllabuses, printed some months prior to the date of the competitions, have been regularly issued. In recent years they have been demi-octavo in size, pp. 28, and have had the Frank S. Graves cover.

1907. Owen, R. Vocal Music in the Isle of Man. Manx Quarterly, i 138.
1907. Laughton, Mrs. F. H. Music Festivals: Paper given to the Association of Musical Competition Festivals, 3rd Conference. Manx Quarterly, i 170.
1910. Rathbone, George. Manx Music Competitions: A Judge's Compliment. Manx Quarterly, i 768.
1924. Craine, W. A. The 33rd Annual Music Festival. Ellan Vannin, no. 2, p. 72.
1924. Wood, Miss M. L. Music in the I.M. in the Sixties and Seventies. Ellan Vannin, no. 3, p. 129.
1926. Laughton, Mrs. F. H. Impressions of the 35th Annual Music Festival. Ellan Vannin, no. 6, p. 230.
1928. Clucas, G. Frederick. Manx Worthies - Florence Holford Laughton. Ellan Vannin, no. 9, p. 375.

Any comments, errors or omissions gratefully received The Editor HTML Transcription © F.Coakley , 2011