Leith Hill Musical Festival

The tradition & historical record

The Leith Hill Music Festival (LHMF) was founded in 1905 by Margaret Vaughan Williams, sister of the composer Ralph Vaughan Williams, and Lady (Evangeline) Farrer, wife of Lord Farrer of Abinger Hall. Ralph Vaughan Williams was the festival conductor from 1905 to 1953. The present festival conductor is Neil Ferris (appointed in 2024). The musical festival consists of various independent choral societies or choirs who are member choirs and therefore comes together under the organisation of the Festival to perform the concerts and competition for each season. A season starts in mid March and includes the mid-March concert of J. S. Bach's St Matthew, St John Passion or Handel's Messiah (latest addition), then a Youth Competition and the main Festival usually in first week of April but definitely avoiding Easter if it falls in April. Currently (as of 2017), there are 12 choirs in the group which is split in 3 divisions for competitions and concerts over the Festival. The festival is competitive, lasting three days, each day with a different division of choirs; each evening the choirs who have competed during the day combine to give a concert of the main works which form the subject of the competitions. Following the tradition established by Vaughan Williams, the festival performs a mid-March concert of the Passions by J.S. Bach alternate years as a taster and build up to the main festival and competition in early April. ¹

In 1905, Margaret Vaughan Williams (known as Meggie, b. 1870), the older sister of the English composer, Ralph Vaughan Williams and her friend, Lady Evangeline (Eva, b. 1871) Farrer, the wife of Lord Farrer of Abinger Hall formed the Leith Musical Festival. This was a time musical festivals were like a movement, following in the line of Mary Wakefield having founded one of the earliest in Cumbria in 1885. At its founding, the two ladies named it Leith Hill Musical Competitions, a name it bore until 1950. Meggie was brought up in Leith Hill Place, her mother's family home after their father died. She was schooled at home. Eva (Lady Farrer, born Evangeline Knox) belonged to an Irish family who were often abroad. She was born in Florence and grew up in a sound knowledge of European languages. Through her own entrepreneur life, she arrived in Abinger Hall, the home of the Farrers to teach music to the child of Thomas Farrer after his wife died. She later became Farrer's [second] wife. How the two ladies met is unclear. But records show that Meggie was visiting Abinger Hall since 1892 and supposedly was acquainted with Ida Darwin (née Farrer). This, however, is not accidental since the Vaughan Williamses (through their mother Margaret Wedgewood) were great nephews of Charles Darwin. Regardless the circumstances, Meggie and Eva, being nearly of the same age and young, struck up a friendship after Eva came to teach music in Abinger Hall and subsequently became the wife of Lord Farrer. ¹

Currently, the festival is run by a general committee led by a chairman and the secretary who also doubles as the festival organiser. All the conductors of the independent choirs making up the Festival are also members of the committee by default as well as the festival conductor. Other key officers include the vice chairman, honorary treasurer, etc. There is also an executive committee and a music committee. In addition, the festival appoints a president, festival conductor, chorus master, principal festival accompanist and festival accompanist. Many other volunteers play a role in the general committee which the main backbone of the festival and the roles includes box office, choral librarians, fundraising organiser, archivist, etc. The festival is a registered charity in England and Wales and entirely run by volunteers most of whom are members of participating choirs as well as other locals who do not sing at all. After the death of Vaughan Williams in 1958, the festival committee commissioned David McFall to design two identical bronze reliefs with a likeness of the composer: one was placed in St Martin's Church and one in the Dorking Halls. ¹

At the time of the founding of the festival, Ralph Vaughan Williams was not yet a great composer or celebrated in any way. However, with the Vaughan Williamses and the Farrers being of a liberal ideology, Ralph also saw the opportunity to use the competition as a way to include and reach more people with music. The festival has been wholly founded for amateur singers and with a goal of encouraging both music and participation. Secondly, Lady Farrer had been a fellow student with Vaughan Williams under Parry. So joining the two ladies would have been easier. Thus Ralph Vaughan Williams became the festival conductor while the ladies organised, managed and set everything about the festival, with Eva as president and Meggie as secretary. Ralph Vaughan Williams was also to hold this position until 1953, a term which remains the longest in the conductorship of the festival to date. Since founding the group, there have been 6 conductors, as follows: ¹

Ralph Vaughan Williams - 1905–1953 Dr William Cole - 1953–1977 Christopher Robinson - 1978–1980 William Llewellyn - 1981–1995 Brian Kay - 1996–2015 Jonathan Willcocks - 2016–2024 Neil Ferris - 2024 – ¹

The style of the festival has remained largely the same as when founded: one change being to do away with 'male voices' and 'female voice' and replace them with 'lower' and 'upper' voices respectively in reflection of the fact that women are now found singing the lower range (tenor and bass). Generally, the style of the festival is a competition in the morning followed by full concert in the evening. The morning competition involves choirs singing different choral music subtypes or classes. ¹

Madrigal Lower voices Upper voices Part song (full choir) Full chorus Ensembles Open class (choirs' own choice) Marks are awarded by adjudicators on the above and prizes won with the last two classes not forming part of the aggregate mark which also attracts a prize. Each participating choir is conducted by its Conductor while the Festival Conductor is known to sit in a corner and watch without making any input or interference. Adjudicators are independently sought and invited. The appointment as adjudicator to the Festival is highly regarded by music professionals due to the quality of the competition, despite the fact that all the choirs are amateur. After the competitions, the choirs come together for a combined rehearsal which is taken by the Festival Conductor who then gives his own interpretation of the works sung in the competition. In the evening, the main festival chorus is joined by a professional orchestra and soloists to perform concerts of a usually above amateur standard. ¹

Initially started by the LHMC as Children's Day, the day is currently known as Youth Competition and happens one week after the mid March Concert of Passion or Messiah. ¹

The text above is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Leith Hill Musical Festival”, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 licence. ¹

Leith Hill Musical Festival is chroal festival in Dorking, England, according to the structured record cited below. This entry was generated automatically from that record and has not yet been reviewed by a person familiar with the tradition. ²

The source record links this tradition to 1 external register, which can be verified through the citation. ²