The UK Government has announced that it will – at last – adhere to the 2003 UNESCO Convention on intangible heritage, the world inventory of cultural traditions and practices.
It has now launched a consultation on the process of how to recognise British customs, traditions and other intangible heritage for possible inscription on the register.
Pipe Up has been calling for this move ever since we were formed in 2022, and for Britain's outstanding pipe organ music tradition to be put on the register. This is in two inseparable parts: pipe organ building, and the composition and performance of organ music.
The DCMS web site is here... https://www.gov.uk/government/news/oh-no-it-isnt-panto-set-to-be-formally-recognised-as-uk-joins-unesco-convention
Inscription on the register confers no immediate benefits such as extra money or protection, but is a recognition that the heritage is part of the nation’s, and hence, the world’s heritage.
Pipe Up will first be responding to the consultation and, when the time comes, mount a spirited campaign to get Britain's organ music tradition registered, and will ask its members and all the leading organ institutions of the UK to support it.
Germany has already put its organ music tradition on the register and the UNESCO web site has an excellent video explaining why...