The government intends to invite communities this summer to include valued traditions in the UK living heritage listing – Making Music encourages members to put their own musical traditions forward.
The UK has a rich tradition of music making of many kinds and later this year, the Government will begin to catalogue these traditions, as one category in an inventory of living heritage. They are inviting those who practise this living heritage – from Brass Banding, to Eisteddfodau, to Notting Hill Carnival – to put these forward for listing. At Making Music, we see the wide variety of musical heritage that our members represent, and we want to encourage and support groups and networks to get involved with the process so their traditions – whether centuries old or newer forms – can be recognised.
This process was started in 2024, when the UK government ratified the UNESCO Convention on the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage, which recognises and works to preserve traditions and living expressions of culture. The convention requires each member state to compile their own inventory of living heritage practiced by communities in their country, and the Department of Culture Media and Sport (DCMS) has been consulting on how to go about doing that.
The Government’s response to the consultation – which you can read in full via GOV.UK – sets out how the Government and Devolved Governments will create inventories across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Importantly, these will be compiled from submissions by the communities and groups practising living heritage themselves, which includes traditions brought to the UK by immigrant communities. There will be seven categories – including crafts, sports and games, festivals and customs – and music comes under the category of performing arts.
The inventory process is an important step in recognising the value of music making as a fundamental part of our heritage, its role in telling our national story and making people feel proud of where they live. The UNESCO convention was passed so that not only our physical heritage – buildings and artefacts – but our cultural practices, skills and knowledge are recognised and preserved where they are under threat. For the inventory process to be meaningful, it needs to be driven by the people that practise these traditions and so the DCMS will invite the public to submit later this year. The Heritage Minister Baroness Twycross said:
'I would encourage everyone to think about what traditions they value so that we can continue to celebrate them, tell our national story to the rest of the world and safeguard the traditions that make us who we are.'
Making Music is speaking to the DCMS team leading the inventory process about the mechanisms, and how we can support our members to get involved. Later this year we’ll push out the call for submissions, and look out for resources and events that will support you to put together your submission. There will be a deadline for this year’s submissions, but the inventory will be permanent and evolving, so there will be future opportunities to submit and update entries, probably annually.
If you’re wondering if your music making would be counted as ‘living heritage’, the criteria are in the DCMS’s response to the consultation, including that it must be currently practised and that it can originate from anywhere and be from anytime, but information about the history and transmission within the community will be required. But the criteria are loose and if you are able to make a case that your type of music making should be listed, then we want to encourage and support you to do so.
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