1914 in British music

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This is a summary of 1914 in music in the United Kingdom.

Events

• 21 January – Edward Elgar makes the first recordings of his music, including the miniature "Carissima" prior to its public premiere. ^[1]
• February – Regal Recordings issues its first records.
• 2 February – The restrictions on performances of Wagner's opera Parsifal outside of Bayreuth having been withdrawn, the first staged British performance opens at London's Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. ^[2]
• 27 February – George Butterworth's The Banks of Green Willow is premièred at West Kirby, Liverpool, conducted by Adrian Boult.
• 16 March – A new concert hall, the Usher Hall, opens in Edinburgh.
• c. June – First publication of Orchestration, the classic book by Cecil Forsyth.
• 26 August – Rutland Boughton's "fairy opera" The Immortal Hour is premièred at Glastonbury Assembly Rooms as part of the inaugural Glastonbury Festival, co-founded by the socialist composer. ^[3] On 5 August the first concert concluded with the choral song "The Last Post" by Charles Villiers Stanford in lieu of the Grail Dance from Parsifal "owing to the outbreak of war." ^[4]
• 24 October – Italian-born Welsh-resident operatic soparano Adelina Patti gives her final public performance, in a Red Cross concert for the benefit of First World War veterans, at London's Royal Albert Hall. ^[5]
• 31 December – English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams, aged 42, volunteers for war service, initially as a private with the Royal Army Medical Corps. ^[6]

Popular music

• Paul Rubens – "Your King and Country Want You"

Classical music: new works

• Kenneth J. Alford – Colonel Bogey March
• Granville Bantock – The Song of Liberty
• Frederick Delius – Violin Sonata No. 1
• Edward Elgar – "The Shower" and "The Fountain", SATB unacc., words by Henry Vaughan, Op. 71 Nos.1 and 2
• Herbert Howells – Piano Concerto No. 1
• Roger Quilter – A Children's Overture
• Ralph Vaughan Williams
  • The Lark Ascending (original version completed)
  • Symphony No. 2, A London Symphony

Opera

• Rutland Boughton – The Immortal Hour (see Events)

Musical theatre

• 4 November – Revival of The Earl and the Girl by Seymour Hicks, with lyrics by Percy Greenbank and music by Ivan Caryll, at the Aldwych Theatre. ^[7]

Births

• 11 March – William Lloyd Webber, organist and composer (died 1982)
• 24 May – Harry Parr Davies, composer and songwriter (died 1955)
• 23 August – Harold Truscott, composer, pianist, broadcaster and writer on music (died 1992)
• 14 December – Rosalyn Tureck, pianist (died 2003)

Deaths

• 7 January – Patrick Weston Joyce, historian and musicologist, 86
• 23 July – Harry Evans, conductor and composer, 41
• 13 September – Robert Hope-Jones, inventor of the theatre organ, 55 (suicide) ^[8]

See also

• 1914 in the United Kingdom

References

1. James, Quentin (17 January 2012). "Feature Review: Elgar conducts Elgar – The complete recordings, 1914-1925". Classical Source. Retrieved 2022-12-28.
2. "Parsifal at Covent Garden in 1914". Monsalvat. Retrieved 2023-05-21.
3. Hurd, Michael (1983). "Rutland Boughton (1878–1960), The Immortal Hour". Hyperion . Retrieved 2014-09-01.
4. "Glastonbury Musical Festival". Central Somerset Gazette. Glastonbury. 7 August 1914. p. 5.
5. "Metropolitan Gossip – The King and Queen at a Patriotic Concert". The Grantham Journal. 31 October 1914. p. 5.
6. Connock, Stephen (October 1999). "The Edge of Beyond". Journal of the RVW Society (16): 3–6.
7. "The Theatrical Week", The Times, 8 February 1915, p. 10
8. "Death of Robert Hope-Jones" (19 September 1914) Music Trade Review