1924 in British music

This is a summary of 1924 in music in the United Kingdom.

Events

• 13 May – Edward Elgar is appointed Master of the King's Musick in succession to Sir Walter Parratt. ^[1]
• date unknown
  • Richard Runciman Terry resigns as organist of Westminster Cathedral because of criticism of his choice of music, "erratic behaviour" and "neglect of duty". ^[2]
  • The London Labour Choral Union is launched by Rutland Boughton. ^[3]

Popular music

• "The Bristol Pageant", w. Frederic Weatherly, m. Hubert Hunt
• "There's Life In The Old Girl Yet" w.m. Noël Coward
• "Will You Forgive?", m. Albert Ketèlbey

Classical music: new works

• Gustav Holst – Choral Symphony (premiered in 1925)
• William Walton – Bucolic Comedies (lost), with words by Edith Sitwell
• Arthur Wood – My Native Heath (orchestral suite, including the maypole dance "Barwick Green", now famous as the theme to The Archers ) ^[4]

Opera

• Ralph Vaughan Williams – Hugh the Drover , with libretto by Harold Child ^[5]

Musical theatre

• Primrose , written for the London stage by Guy Bolton and George Grossmith Jr., with lyrics by Desmond Carter and Ira Gershwin, and music by George Gershwin. ^[6]
• Puppets, revue with music by Ivor Novello and others, starring Binnie Hale and Stanley Lupino ^[7]

Births

• 8 January – Ron Moody, actor, singer and composer (died 2015) ^[8]
• 21 January – Benny Hill, comedian, actor and singer (died 1992)
• 9 February – George Guest, organist and choirmaster of St John's College, Cambridge (died 2002)
• 27 February – Trevor Duncan, composer (died 2005)
• 8 March – Alan Dell, BBC radio DJ (died 1995)
• 15 April – Sir Neville Marriner, conductor and violinist (died 2016) ^[9]
• 18 April – Buxton Orr, composer (died 1997)
• 6 May – Denny Wright, jazz guitarist (died 1992)^{[ citation needed ]}
• 19 May – Sandy Wilson, composer of The Boyfriend (died 2014)
• 20 May – Syd Dale, composer and arranger of big band, easy listening and library music (died 1994)
• 1 June – John Tooley, opera director and manager (died 2020)
• 19 September – Ernest Tomlinson, light music composer (died 2015)

Deaths

• 2 January – Sabine Baring-Gould, hymn-writer and collector of folk songs, 89 ^[10]
• 15 February – Lionel Monckton, composer, 62 ^[11]
• 18 March – Frederick Bridge, organist and composer, 79 ^[12]
• 27 March – Sir Walter Parratt, composer, Master of the King's Musick, 83 ^[13]
• 29 March – Sir Charles Villiers Stanford, composer, 71
• 5 April – Rosalind Ellicott, composer, 66 ^[14]
• 23 June – Cecil Sharp, folk song and dance revivalist, 64
• 6 August – John Roberts (Pencerdd Gwynedd), organist and composer, 76 ^[15]
• 26 November – Rose Hersee, operatic soprano, 78 ^[16]

See also

• 1924 in the United Kingdom
• List of British films of 1924

References

1. The London Gazette, no. 32935, p. 3841, 13 May 1924. Accessed 27 October 2010.
2. Peter Doyle, Westminster Cathedral 1895–1995, London, 1995, p.53
3. Maria Kiladi. "The London Labour Choral Union,1924–1940: A Musical Institution of the Left". Royal Holloway University of London. Retrieved 16 April 2018.
4. "Feedback". Autumn 2007. 2007-10-05. BBC Radio 4.
5. Michael Kennedy, Liner notes to Hyperion recording of Hugh the Drover. Hyperion Records, 1994.
6. Clive Barker; Simon Trussler (26 May 1994). New Theatre Quarterly 37: Volume 10. Cambridge University Press. p. 33. ISBN   978-0-521-46656-1.
7. "Chronology of London Shows". The Guide to Musical Theatre. Retrieved 16 August 2017.
8. Barker, Dennis (11 June 2015). "Ron Moody obituary". The Guardian . Retrieved 14 June 2015.
9. Potter, Tully; Amis, John (2 October 2016). "Sir Neville Marriner obituary". The Guardian . Retrieved 2 October 2016..
10. Sabine Baring-Gould (1978). Curious Myths of the Middle Ages. Oxford University Press. ISBN   978-0-19-520078-2.
11. Brompton Cemetery website Archived 23 August 2006 at the Wayback Machine
12. Maggie Humphreys; Robert Evans (1 January 1997). Dictionary of Composers for the Church in Great Britain and Ireland. A&C Black. p. 42. ISBN   978-0-7201-2330-2.
13. Stanley Sadie (1980). The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Macmillan Publishers. p. 241. ISBN   978-0-333-23111-1.
14. Dr Pippa Drummond (2013). Provincial Music Festival in England, 1784–1914. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. ISBN   9781409494614.
15. Robert David Griffith. "Roberts, John Henry (Pencerdd Gwynedd; 1848-1924), musician". Dictionary of Welsh Biography. National Library of Wales . Retrieved 6 January 2019.
16. Rosenthal, Harold. "Hersee, Rose", Grove Music Online accessed 25 May 2009