ABSTRACT
Over the course of the long nineteenth century the provincial music festivals vividly reflected the ongoing changes in English society. The power of the aristocracy, though still strong, was waning and, as civic authorities grew in importance, they began to exercise their own form of patronage, fostering cultural events in their cities and lending support to their local festivals. In this they were aided by major economic changes which had led to the creation of an urbanized society with the means to support large-scale artistic ventures. The widespread economic changes attendant on the Industrial Revolution were manifest in the creation of new wealth and, in particular, in the emergence of factory owners, entrepreneurs and businessmen as civic leaders. The whole nineteenth century was, of course, marked by unprecedented technological achievement. Without doubt, the most important technological advance to affect the festivals in the nineteenth century was the construction of a railway network linking the major urban centres.
