Glasgow bidding for another world title to add to its achievements, writes Phil Miller

Glasgow has been a mercurial city in its long life, with a number of titles bestowed throughout its history. A city of religion and a city of commerce. A city of industry and a city of Empire. A city of high-rises and a city of dreaming spires, a city of sport and a City of Culture. Today, Scotland's largest conurbation is to bid for another official title Unesco City of Music.

At 4.45pm, a delegation from Glasgow, led by Lord Provost Bob Winter, will make its case to the cultural wing of the United Nations in Paris.

The delegation from the city - home to the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Scottish Opera, the BBC's Scottish Symphony Orchestra, a rich tradition of rock and pop music, leading music venues and concert halls, Celtic Connections, and hundreds of other concerts a year - is confident it can persuade the body to grant Glasgow the title.

If successful in its bid to the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, Glasgow will join an exclusive group of world cities which have been inducted into its Creative Cities network. The City of Music title, like the City of Literature designation granted to Edinburgh in 2004, would be permanent and would acknowledge the city's musical heritage and its role as a leading centre of music-making, performance, and enjoyment.

The bid is being led by figures in the world of arts, academe, media, and business, including Baroness Ramsay of Cartvale, John Wallace, the principal of the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, James Boyle, the former head of BBC Radio 4, June Edgar, a senior manager at Scottish Enterprise, and Tom Thomson, chair of the RSNO, and will be backed in person by the Culture Minister Linda Fabiani.

They will be presenting their case to Unesco aided by the newly-published 50-page bid document which lays out the case for Glasgow's proposal and which has been seen by The Herald, the bid's media partner. The bid has also united Gordon Brown and Alex Salmond, who both added their written backing.

The dossier details the history, the present, and future of Glasgow's relationship with music, which it says is "central to the city's idea of itself".

From the opening of the City Halls in 1841 and the founding of the city's Choral Union, through the dominance of the Music Hall era, continuing with the contribution of Sir Alexander Gibson, renowned conductor of the RSNO and founder of Scottish Opera, through the emergence of many Scottish rock bands and the folk and traditional music revival, the city's love affair with melody, lyrics, and rhythm, is writy large.

The document makes clear that from Glasgow's earliest recorded history, the playing of music and its enjoyment by audiences has always been "an integral part" of city life. From folk song sessions in the pub, to sing-songs at nursery, from music lessons at the city's great schools, to formal concerts and gigs, it has been a "matter of civic pride".

As the dossier points out, song has had many uses over the years: as a tool of defiance by marching bands or political groups, as hymns of praise in churches of all denominations, as tribal chants for sports fans, as a badge of identity for social groupings and clubs, as consolation for the desperate and outcast, for immigrants as well as for those remembering emigrants, and as a constant educational tool.

"In looking over Glasgow's musical history, the sense of the entire city being in dialogue with music is impossible to ignore," it says. "In the past 40 years this dialogue has taken on new and exciting meanings as Glasgow has climbed out of the depression that demoralised the city for so many decades."

Unesco has seen a draft of the city's bid and sources suggest that it finds it "impressive". However, it is expected that the body will take six to nine months to make its decision. The title, already granted to Seville and Bologna, is not certain to be given, as Unesco has a list of exacting criteria to be met to earn it.

The Glasgow party would be delighted if they experienced the same night in the City of Light as their counterparts from Edinburgh did four years ago: the delegation which pitched to Unesco its plan to be the first City of Literature heard the result that night. However, that is unlikely to happen this time.

Baroness Ramsay of Cartvale said: "That would be lovely but we cannot expect that to happen. We have been told it will take several months for Unesco to make their decision, so we will not get our hopes up for an immediate reaction."

She added: "I think we have an excellent case, a good solid case which is impressive. I think this title is not just about what has happened in the city, or what is happening, but what we can do with it in the future. It is not just about classical music or orchestras, of course, it is much broader than that. I've been amazed to see in the document how varied the musical experiences in the city are."

Glasgow certainly has the numbers on its side, in more ways than one.

In the process of putting together the bid, the Glasgow City of Music Database was established to offer a comprehensive statistical background to the bid. Although some of the statistics have thrown up some curious facts - the busiest musical venue in the city is found to be the Merchant City nightclub Arta - the weight of numerical evidence is impressive.

The document states that, in an average week, 127 musical events take place in the city. These range from piano recitals, to DJ sets, major rock gigs in -venues such as Barrowland or King Tut's, to classical performances at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall and the City Halls, to amateur choirs entertaining their friends and families in community halls.

But the city not only play host to performances; the performers live in the city. Not surprising, some might say, given that Glasgow is Scotland's biggest city, but the data is instructive - 123 rock and pop bands are based in the city, as well as 44 folk bands, and nearly 80 classical music composers and arrangers, 27 singer-songwriters and hundreds of people who enjoy singing the city's 49 choirs or playing in the city's 38 orchestras. In all, according to the bid document, 2922 people are estimated to be employed in the music sector in the city.

But today's bid is about the future as much as it is about the past. If successful, a charitable trust, called Glasgow Unesco City of Music would be established in the city to realise the aims and objectives of the bid. It would "catalyse, influence, broker, negotiate, promote, and facilitate initiatives and projects that benefit music in Glasgow both at home and internationally".

It would seek funding over three to five years, which could come from the Scottish Government or Creative Scotland, or a number of sources.

The trust has at least three possible plans if the bid is successful. A series of travel scholarships to allow young people to travel to Seville and Bologna has been discussed, and it would invite "distinguished and prominent figures" in the music world to act as music champions. They would help with fund-raising, with the creation of special music projects, and act as figureheads for the city's new designation.

Finally, there would be a major concert in Glasgow to celebrate the title, and what it could mean to the city, provisionally titled Free The Music. So the status of today's bid presentation is clear - it is the overture to a much larger body of work that has yet to be written.