Over the last forty years music festivals have emerged as a significant leisure phenomenon. From humble and amateurish beginnings the music festival industry is now an important part of the economy, with several major players dominating the organisation of the large music festival within the UK. Music festivals are economically successful because the spaces within them enable people to engage with practices and performances that are far different from those experienced within the everyday world. However, whilst the role of music festivals has become of increasing importance, both economically and culturally, they remain wholly neglected within academic research. As a result little is known about why music festivals are successful and how people use the spaces within them. Furthermore, there has been no substantial research that has attempted to understand just how music festivals are put together and organised. This research addresses this lacuna through substantial ethnographically informed research that documents how the processes of production, consumption and performance come together at the music festival. It is the first attempt within human geography to document the important spaces and places, practices and performances that constitute just what a music festival is. The challenge for this research has been to show why music festivals are successful for both the festival organiser and the festival participants. Three specific areas are explored using a variety of methods. Firstly this research explores how the spaces within the music festival are produced as economically successful spaces, highlighting how decisions by festival organisers are often taken to encourage particular forms of consumption by festival participants. Secondly, this research explores how festival participants use the music festival, and pays particular attention to the lived experiences of those involved as a means to understanding why people enjoy the spaces within the music festival. Thirdly, this research looks at the creative tensions that emerge within the festival as a result of the differing expectations between the festival organiser and the festival participants over how the festival should take shape

Since the creation of the British nation in 1707, scholars have traditionally assumed an Anglo-centric bias to British culture. However, in terms of music it has long been acknowledged that throughout the eighteenth century, England experienced a dearth of native compositional innovation. This thesis instead presents Scotland, and in particular Scottish music, as the cultural power-base of eighteenth-century Britain, its influence extending to the early years of the nineteenth century. It contends that the promotion of Scotland's culture, particularly in the period between 1760-1800, was a conscious attempt on the part of Scotland's intellectual classes to provide their homeland with the strongest possible profile within the emergent British national identity. Achieved through the introduction of a number of significant texts in the fields of literature, philosophy and music; the importance of Scottish music in the cultivation of a British national musical culture is demonstrated through an examination of the representation of national identity in, and the political context of, music; its philosophical ideology, status and reception history; and, as far as is possible, the intentions of the composers and editors who created it. As a result, this study demonstrates that British, and in particular London audiences accepted Scottish music as representative of their national musical culture. The popularisation of Scottish music was accomplished at the instigation of a core, interrelated group of individuals - notably including the philosopher James Beattie, and the editor and publisher George Thomson - but resulted in a transformation of the performing practice of music incorporating Scottish melodies. In creating an acceptable compromise between European and Scottish compositional styles, composers such as J C Bach, Pleyel and Kozeluch evolved what was to become known as 'the Scotch style' - a collection of fundamental Scottish characteristics which captured, but did not necessarily replicate, Scotland's native compositional style. As can be heard on the accompanying CD, the accompanied sonata epitomises the sound world of these pseudo-Scots arrangements, whose song-like qualities succeeded in capturing the imagination and attention of Scottish and English audiences alike.

This thesis explores how the reception of Kathleen Ferrier, Alfred Deller and Peter Pears’s voices gave new insights into the constructions of national musical identity in midtwentieth century Britain. I highlight how an exploration of the ‘national voice’ constitutes both an idealisation of musical sound and national belonging. Through voice, I offer not only a new methodological approach to the question of musical nationalism, but also an understanding of its embodiment through concepts of gender and sexuality. In my first chapter, I identify how the drive for a distinct English musical identity is ultimately a manifestation of the need for a ‘national voice’. This figures prominently in the midtwentieth century where the musical careers of Ferrier and Deller were built on precedents of the past: Ferrier on Clara Butt and Deller on Purcell. The second chapter addresses how both Ferrier’s and Deller’s voices embodied gender and sexual mismatches between their onstage roles and offstage bodies in performances of opera. In the third chapter, reviews of both Deller’s and Pears’s performances highlighted discrepancies between ideals of sexuality with their voices, that pointed to underlying tensions of homosexuality and effeminacy in the broader national and cultural landscape. The last chapter demonstrates that the BBC’s broadcasts of these singers’ voices were done in promotion of a collective sense of national aural identity. These three singers’ voices navigated the stratification of tastes evident during the BBC’s early years. Pears and Deller characterised the emergence of elitist ideals that were clearly advocated in the Third Programme, while Ferrier’s voice challenged the classification of highbrow/lowbrow distinctions in broadcast culture. Through analysis of the national tropes and claims written about their voices, I offer a new approach to music history and a chance of national vocal redress for Britain’s musical future.

This thesis focuses on the musical contribution of David Munrow and his Early Music Consort of London (EMC) to the so-called early music revival of the 1960s and 1970s. By exploring the notion of shared cultural space in performances of medieval music by leading ensembles of the time, this thesis seeks to isolate aspects of performance practice unique to the EMC. An assessment of literary sources documenting the early music revival reveals clear nodes of discussion around Munrow’s methods of presenting early music in concert performance which are frequently classified as ‘showmanship’ with a focus on more scholarly performance practice decisions only evident in the post-Munrow period. Close readings of these sources are undertaken which are, in turn, weighed against Munrow’s early biography to map out the web of influences contributing to his musical life. Having established David Munrow’s intentions in performance, this thesis uses techniques of performance analysis to question whether he and the EMC achieved such stated aims in performance, and identifies how different approaches are made manifest in recordings by other ensembles. The findings, which seek to marry sonic analysis with reception history, are interpreted in the light of the New Cultural History of Music and reposition David Munrow, often seen as a showman who evangelized early music, as a musician who profoundly influenced the modern aesthetics and surface details of performance for subsequent generations of early musicians.

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Live music promoters have hitherto been academically neglected (and often publicly maligned) individuals and organisations. This thesis, then, shifts the academic focus from the recording industries towards live music and towards the figures behind-the-scenes who connect artist, audience and venue in the live music environment. To do so, this work explores the practices and experiences of promoters in the UK; it focuses on Glasgow, Sheffield, and Bristol, and is based on ethnographic research at case study venues. The thesis offers a phenomenological perspective on what promoters do and why, and their role as mediator with key figures such as artists and agents, as well as their relationships with the state. It argues that promoters are cultural investors (and exploiters), importers and innovators who both shape and are shaped by the live music ecology within which they operate. Finally, the thesis examines the three stages of the promotional process – planning, publicity, production – to argue that promoters are key figures not only in the construction of the musical lives of contemporary British citizens, but also in the rich cultural (and economic) ecology of cities, towns and villages in the UK.