TRIENNIAL FESTIVALS.--The Birmingham Triennial Festivals are now universally acknowledged to be the most important Music meetings in the Kingdom. The first Festival was held in 1768. In 1799 the scale of the celebration was enlarged, and since then, with one exception, they have been held triennially. The management is in the hands of a small committee, appointed by the Governors of the General Hospital, and the whole of the proceeds go to the funds of that Institution; this has amounted to upwards of £120,000 since the foundation of the Festivals. During the period of more than a century over which the Festivals have now extended, they have attained European celebrity, and have been distinguished by the production of a large number of original works of the highest rank, among which may be mentioned: Mendelssohn’s Lob-gesang (1840), and Elijah which was specially written for the 1846 Festival; Costa’s Eli (1855), and Naaman (1864); Bennett’s Woman of Samaria (1867); Sullivan’s Kenilworth (1864), and Light of the World (1873); Smart’s Bride of Dunkerron (1864); Barnett’s Ancient Mariner (1867), and Paradise and the Peri (1870); Benedict’s St. Peter (1870); Macfarren’s Resurrection (1876); Gade’s Zion (1876) and Psyche (1882); Hiller’s Nala and Damayanti (1871); Randegger’s Fridolin (1873); Cowen’s Corsair (1876) and Sleeping Beauty (1885); Gounod’s Redemption (1882) and Mors et Vita (1885); Gaul’s Holy City (1882); Stanford’s Three Holy Children (1885); Dvorak’s Spectre’s Bride (1885). The next Festival will be held in 1888. Secretary, Mr. R. L. Impey, 26, Waterloo Street. FESTIVAL CHORAL SOCIETY.--The date of the foundation of the Birmingham Festival Choral Society, the premier society of the town, is unknown; in 1834, Mr. G. Hollins, the first Organist of the Town Hall was appointed conductor; upon his death in 1841, Mr. Stimpson was appointed to both offices, and the society was reorganised and established with a permanent relief fund to be employed in case of sickness among its members. In consequence of ill-health, Mr. Stimpson resigned the conductorship in 1855, and Mr. Stockley (the present conductor), was appointed; Mr. Stimpson continuing as organist of the town, the duties of which office he still faithfully discharges. Since 1846, the choruses of the Musical Festivals have been mainly composed of members of the Festival Choral Society. The society gives annually a series of high-class subscription concerts. The management is in the hands of a Committee of fifteen members. Secretary, Mr. S. V. Cornish, 55, Varna Road, Edgbaston. AMATEUR HARMONIC ASSOCIATION.--The Birmingham Amateur Harmonic Association was established in the year 1855, and, as its name implies, is a purely Amateur Association, more for the study and practice of choral music than for the public performance thereof.