1926 in British music

This is a summary of 1926 in music in the United Kingdom.

Events

• c. May – Socialist composer Rutland Boughton stages a performance of his Nativity opera Bethlehem (1915) at Church House, Westminster, in a staging explicitly referencing the 1926 United Kingdom general strike. ^[1]
• 6 May – In the midst of the General Strike, a concert of Leos Janácek's work is held at the Wigmore Hall, attended by the composer himself. ^[2]
• 20 October – Ethel Smyth's opera Entente Cordiale receives its first public stage performance in Bristol, having been premièred by students at the Royal College of Music the previous year. ^[3]
• November – Gertrude Lawrence becomes the first British performer to star in a US musical on Broadway, starring in Oh, Kay! . ^[4]
• 8 December – The premiere of Dame Ethel Smyth's Sonata in A minor for cello and piano is held in London, nearly 40 years after the work was composed. ^[2]
• 14 December – The mother of teenage composer Benjamin Britten brings his work to the attention of Charles Macpherson. ^[2]
• 17 December – Composer John Ireland marries Dorothy Phillips, thirty years his junior, at Chelsea Register Office. ^[2]
• 26 December – Granville Bantock's incidental music for Macbeth is used for the first time, in a production at the Prince Theatre, London, starring Sybil Thorndike.
• date unknown
  • Operatic baritone Leslie Rands marries his D'Oyly Carte co-star Marjorie Eyre.
  • Eugène Goossens, fils, joins the British National Opera Company as a conductor. ^[5]
  • Sir Walford Davies resigns his professorship at University College, Aberystwyth. ^[6]
  • The Webber Douglas School of Singing and Dramatic Art is founded by Walter Johnstone Douglas and Amherst Webber in London. ^[7]
  • Organist and composer Herbert Brewer receives a knighthood. ^[8]

Popular music

• Eric Coates – "By The Tamarisk"

Classical music: new works

• Arnold Bax – Symphony No. 2 in E minor and C major
• Rutland Boughton – The Queen of Cornwall , overture
• John Ireland – Three Songs, 1926 ^[9]
• Ralph Vaughan Williams
  • On Christmas Night (ballet)
  • Piano Concerto in C (movements 1 and 2) ^[10]
• Six Studies in English Folk Song ^[11]
• Gerald Tyrwhitt – The Triumph of Neptune (ballet)
• Peter Warlock – Capriol Suite

Opera

• Ernest Bryson – The Leper’s Flute, with libretto by Ian Colvin ^[12]

Musical theatre

• May – Yvonne by Percy Greenbank, Jean Gilbert and Vernon Dukelsky, ^[13] opens at Daly's Theatre, London.

Births

• 3 January – Sir George Martin, record producer (died 2016) ^[14]
• 21 January – Brian Brockless, organist, composer, and conductor (died 1995)
• 11 February – Alexander Gibson, conductor and founder of the Scottish Opera (died 1995) ^[15]
• 20 February – Gillian Lynne, choreographer (died 2018) ^[16]
• 14 March – Lita Roza, singer (died 2006) ^[17]
• 31 May — Duncan Campbell, trumpeter (died 2013)
• 2 July – Morag Beaton, operatic soprano (died 2010) ^[18]
• 18 July – Bryan Johnson, singer (died 1995)
• 17 August – George Melly, jazz singer (died 2007) ^[19]
• 17 November – Robert Earl, singer
• 30 December – Stan Tracey, jazz pianist and composer (died 2013) ^[20]

Deaths

• 8 June – John Hornsey Casson, hymn-tune composer, 82 ^[21]
• 12 July – Charles Wood, composer, 60 ^[22]
• 17 October – Horton Claridge Allison, pianist and composer, 80
• 2 November – John Le Hay, Irish-born musical comedy performer, 72
• 4 November – Robert Newman, co-founder of the Proms, 68

See also

• 1926 in the United Kingdom
• List of British films of 1926

References

1. Hurd, Michael (1983). "Rutland Boughton (1878–1960), The Immortal Hour". Hyperion . Retrieved 2014-09-01.
2. Music and History: 1926 Archived 2012-08-28 at the Wayback Machine . Accessed 28 January 2016
3. Smyth, Ethel (1987). The Memoirs of Ethel Smyth (abridged, edited and annotated by Richard Crichton), p. 290. Viking. ISBN   0670806552
4. Morley, Sheridan, Gertrude Lawrence. New York, New York: McGraw-Hill 1981; ISBN   978-0-07-043149-2. p. 61
5. The Times obituary, 2 August 1958, p. 8
6. Dibble, Jeremy. "Davies, Sir (Henry) Walford (1869–1941)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, online edition, January 2011, retrieved 6 December 2015 (subscription, Wikipedia Library access or UK public library membership required)
7. "Central and Webber Douglas to Merge." The Stage . 20 April 2004.
8. H. D., "Alfred Herbert Brewer, 1865–1928", The Musical Times, Vol. 69, No. 1022 (Apr. 1, 1928), pp. 315–316
9. "List of works – T to Y". The John Ireland Trust. Archived from the original on July 27, 2012. Retrieved 29 April 2015.
10. Achenbach, Andrew, Notes for EMI 75983, Vaughan Williams: Piano Concerto; Delius: Piano Concerto; Finzi: Eclogue; Piers Lane, piano; Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Vernon Handley.
11. "6 Studies in English Folk Song, for cello and piano". Ralph Vaughan Williams: Chamber Works. Classical Archives. 2008. Retrieved 2011-02-24.
12. Harvard Library Archived 2017-12-13 at the Wayback Machine . Accessed 27 January 2016
13. PBS: Vernon Duke Archived 2012-11-12 at the Wayback Machine . Accessed 22 April 2013
14. Adam Sweeting (9 March 2016). "Sir George Martin obituary". The Guardian. Retrieved 19 February 2019.
15. "Sir Alexander Gibson obituary" . The Independent. 16 January 1995. Archived from the original on 2022-05-01. Retrieved 19 February 2019.
16. Jim Hiley (2 July 2018). "Dame Gillian Lynne obituary". The Guardian. Retrieved 19 February 2019.
17. Dave Laing (18 August 2008). "Lita Roza". The Guardian. Retrieved 29 December 2023.
18. "Obituary: Morag Beaton". The Scotsman. 27 April 2010. Retrieved 19 February 2019.
19. Julian Mitchell (6 July 2007). "George Melly". The Guardian. Retrieved 19 February 2019.
20. John Fordham (6 December 2013). "Stan Tracey obituary". The Guardian. Retrieved 19 February 2019.
21. Dictionary of Composers for the Church in Great Britain and Ireland. Accessed 28 January 2016
22. "Charles Wood (WT888C)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge. Retrieved 29 December 2023.