1937 in British music

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This is a summary of 1937 in music in the United Kingdom.

Events

• 24 January – Ernest John Moeran completes the revised version of his Symphony in G minor, dedicated to conductor Hamilton Harty. ^[1]
• 6 March – Composer Benjamin Britten and his partner, the tenor Peter Pears, meet for the first time, in London. ^[2]
• 12 May – William Walton's ceremonial march, "Crown Imperial", originally written for his predecessor, King Edward VIII, is performed for the first time at the coronation of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth.
• 27 August – Britten's Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge is performed at the Salzburg Festival, conducted by Boyd Neel. ^[2]
• 20 December – The Gaumont State Cinema opens in London with Sidney Torch as organist.
• date unknown
  • Kathleen Ferrier wins the piano and vocal competitions at the Carlisle Festival, and is awarded a special rose bowl as champion of the festival. ^[3]
  • George Lloyd marries Nancy Juvet. Lloyd suffers from PTSD and later acknowledges that he could not have recovered without Nancy's care. ^[4]
  • Ukrainian-born pianist Benno Moiseiwitsch takes up British citizenship.

Popular music

• "A Nice Cup of Tea" Gracie Fields w.m. AP Herbert, Henry Sullivan ^[5]
• "Did Your Mother Come From Ireland?" w.m. Jimmy Kennedy & Michael Carr ^[6]
• "Harbour Lights" w. Jimmy Kennedy m. Hugh Williams
• "Home Town" w.m. Jimmy Kennedy & Michael Carr
• "The Lambeth Walk" w. Douglas Furber, L. Arthur Rose m. Noel Gay ^[7]
• "Leaning on a Lamp-post" w.m. Noel Gay ^[8]
• "Me And My Girl" w.m. Noel Gay & Douglas Furber

Classical music: new works

• Arthur Bliss  – Checkmate (ballet)
• Rutland Boughton  – Symphony No. 3 in B minor
• Frank Bridge   String Quartet No. 4
• Benjamin Britten  – Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge
• George Dyson  – Symphony in G major
• John Ireland  – These Things Shall Be
• Edmund Rubbra – Symphony No. 1
• Ralph Vaughan Williams  – Job: A Masque for Dancing (ballet)
• Percy Whitlock  – Wessex Suite

Film and Incidental music

• Richard Addinsell – Fire Over England , starring Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh.
• Ernest Irving – Feather Your Nest , starring George Formby, Polly Ward and Enid Stamp-Taylor.

Musical theatre

• 5 February – On Your Toes London production opened at the Palace Theatre and ran for 123 performances
• 29 March – Swing is in the Air London revue opened at the Palladium
• 16 December – Me and My Girl (Noel Gay) – London production opened at the Victoria Palace Theatre and ran for 1646 performances.

Musical films

• Big Fella , directed by J. Elder Wills, starring Paul Robeson and Elisabeth Welch ^[9]
• Calling All Stars , directed by Herbert Smith, starring Carroll Gibbons and Evelyn Dall ^[10]
• Gangway , starring Jessie Matthews and Alastair Sim ^[11]
• Head Over Heels , starring Jessie Matthews ^[11]
• Mayfair Melody , directed by Arthur B. Woods, starring Keith Falkner and Chili Bouchier ^[12]
• The Show Goes On , starring Gracie Fields, Owen Nares and John Stuart.
• Song of the Forge , starring Stanley Holloway. ^[13]
• The Street Singer , starring Arthur Tracy, Margaret Lockwood and Arthur Riscoe ^[14]
• Take My Tip , directed by Herbert Mason, starring Jack Hulbert and Cicely Courtneidge

Births

• 8 January  – Shirley Bassey, singer
• 22 January – Ryan Davies, comedian, singer and songwriter (died 1977)
• 27 January – John Ogdon, pianist (died 1989)
• 28 April – Jean Redpath, folk singer (died 2014)
• 5 May – Delia Derbyshire, musician and composer of electronic music ^[15] (died 2001)
• 12 July – Guy Woolfenden, conductor and theatre composer (died 2016) ^[16]
• 27 July – Anna Dawson, actress and singer
• 19 November – Geoff Goddard, songwriter, singer and instrumentalist (died 2000)
• 30 November – Frank Ifield, British-born Australian singer
• 1 December
  • Gordon Crosse, composer ^[17]
  • David Measham, violinist and conductor (died 2005)
• 12 December – Philip Ledger, composer and teacher (died 2012)
• 31 December – Anthony Hopkins, actor and composer

Deaths

• 22 January – Walter Willson Cobbett, businessman and amateur violinist, editor/author of Cobbett's Cyclopedic Survey of Chamber Music, 89
• 10 April – Algernon Ashton, pianist and composer, 77
• 1 May – Herbert Hughes, composer, music critic and collector of folk songs, 54 ^[18]
• 2 May – Sir Arthur Somervell, composer, 73
• 23 July – Charles Henry Mills, composer and music teacher (b. 1873)
• 25 November – Lilian Baylis, founder of Sadler's Wells ballet company, 63 (heart attack) ^[19]
• 23 December – Muriel Foster, contralto, 60 ^[20]
• 26 December
  • Dan Beddoe, tenor, 74
  • Ivor Gurney, composer and poet, 47 (tuberculosis) ^[21]

See also

• 1937 in British television
• 1937 in the United Kingdom
• List of British films of 1937

References

1. From Beyond the Stave: The most glorious of English symphonies
2. Mitchell, Donald, ed. (1991). Letters From A Life: Selected Letters of Benjamin Britten, Vol. 1, 1923–39. London: Faber and Faber. ISBN   0-571-15221X.
3. Leonard, Maurice (1988). Kathleen: The Life of Kathleen Ferrier, 1912–1953. London: Hutchinson. ISBN   0-09-173464-9. pp. 28–30.
4. Kozinn, Allan (1998-07-10). "George Lloyd, 85, British Symphonic Composer". The New York Times . Retrieved 2009-10-22.
5. "Gracie Fields – There's A Small Hotel / A Nice Cup Of Tea". www.discogs.com.
6. Rust, Brian (1973). The complete entertainment discography, from the mid-1890s to 1942. New Rochelle, N.Y: Arlington House. p. 279. ISBN   9780870001505.
7. Macpherson, Ben (2018). Cultural identity in British musical theatre, 1890-1939 : knowing one's place. London: Palgrave Macmillan. p. 194. ISBN   9781137598073.
8. Ratcliffe, Susan (2006). Concise Oxford dictionary of quotations. Oxford New York: Oxford University Press. p. 370. ISBN   9780198614173.
9. Bob McCann (21 December 2009). Encyclopedia of African American Actresses in Film and Television. McFarland. p. 357. ISBN   978-0-7864-5804-2.
10. Robert James (15 December 2010). Popular Culture and Working-class Taste in Britain, 1930-39: A Round of Cheap Diversions?. Oxford University Press. p. 139. ISBN   978-0-7190-8025-8.
11. James Monaco (1991). The Encyclopedia of Film . Perigee Books. pp.  287. ISBN   978-0-399-51604-7.
12. Angus McLaren (16 October 2017). Playboys and Mayfair Men: Crime, Class, Masculinity, and Fascism in 1930s London. JHU Press. p. 166. ISBN   978-1-4214-2347-0.
13. Stephen Shafer (2 September 2003). British Popular Films 1929-1939: The Cinema of Reassurance. Routledge. p. 134. ISBN   978-1-134-98837-2.
14. "BFI | Film & TV Database | the STREET SINGER (1937)". Archived from the original on 2012-10-21. Retrieved 2017-08-23.
15. Wrench, Nigel (18 July 2008). "Lost tapes of the Dr. Who composer". BBC News . Retrieved 22 July 2008.
16. Michael Billington (24 April 2016). "Guy Woolfenden obituary". The Guardian. Retrieved 26 June 2018.
17. Humphreys, Maggie (1997). Dictionary of composers for the Church in Great Britain and Ireland. London Herndon, VA: Mansell. p. 79. ISBN   9780720123302.
18. "MusicSack" . Retrieved 27 August 2010.
19. Tanitch, Robert, "Olivier". Abbeville Press
20. Eric Blom, ed., Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 5th ed, 1954, Vol. III, p. 455
21. P. J. Kavanagh (ed.) (2004). Ivor Gurney, Collected poems (reprint ed.). Fyfield Books. ISBN   1-85754-709-8.