Birmingham-born composers of classical music

[semloh]

It seems like a rather impressive list for an industrial city in that part of the world, and over a quite short time span. Was Birmingham really such a hub of musical life around the turn of the century?  I wonder what happened to them, and why their music was neglected.  Maybe it was performed in Birmngham but never got any further? It all seems a bit odd to me, but maybe similar lists could be constructed (not a prompt to do so!! ) for other big cities in the UK?

[giles.enders]

The sad fact is that Birmingham has trashed its culture, architecture and history during the last sixty years and with the exception of the concert hall, the council itself has done very little to encourage anything Birmingham based which might be construed as of great artistic merit.

[Alan Howe]

...and so back to the composers. Anyone?

[eschiss1]

An interesting Wikipedia article on J Leopold Smith, by the way - here.

[semloh]

The sad fact is that Birmingham has trashed its culture, architecture and history during the last sixty years and with the exception of the concert hall, the council itself has done very little to encourage anything Birmingham based which might be construed as of great artistic merit.

We really seem to know very little about these UCs and why they are indeed UCs! Maybe it's another example of not nurturing or valuing the home-grown product. So often on UC we are dismayed by this lack of respect for one's own composers, musicians or orchestras, and the assumption that 'outsiders' must be better.  As to their music, we generally know even less, unless we can access their scores or concert reviews. Pity! 

[eschiss1]

As with similar works by several American composers of around the same time or somewhat earlier, while a string quartet and cello sonata by Smith were mentioned @ Wikipedia, they were of the "posthumously-published" (1996, then again in the 2000s) variety- the works published in his lifetime were generally of the more obviously useful kind (liturgical, vocal, piano, etc.)