'Music in Christchurch during the 1882 Exhibition'

Abstract

Large-scale exhibitions in the nineteenth-century sprang from the Victorian desire to showcase industrial development, and most of them had an element of cultural display such as a concert series or music competitions. An international exhibition was held in Christchurch, New Zealand, for fourteen weeks in 1882. While not on the same scale as other international exhibitions throughout the world, this exhibition offers the opportunity to study what progress music had made in a recently colonized country. This mainly narrative study reveals a wide range of musical activity, with opera, choral concerts, musical competitions, and performances by an internationally-renowned chamber group.