1954 in British music

This is a summary of 1954 in music of all genres in the United Kingdom.

Events

• 14 January – The Boy Friend , opens in the West End, with understudy Anne Rogers in the lead role after Diana Maddox falls ill at the dress rehearsal. ^[1]
• 5 August – Salad Days opens in the West End after a short run in Bristol. ^[2] It becomes the longest-running musical in British theatre history until overtaken by Oliver! in 1960.
• 14 September – Benjamin Britten conducts the premiere of his opera The Turn of the Screw at Teatro La Fenice, Venice. ^[3]
• 18 September – The Last Night of the Proms for the first time features the subsequently almost-invariable second-half coupling of Sir Henry Wood's 1905 Fantasia on British Sea Songs , Sir Edward Elgar's 1902 setting of "Land of Hope and Glory", Sir Hubert Parry's 1916 setting of William Blake's "Jerusalem", and "Rule, Britannia!". ^[4]
• 1 October – The UK Singles Chart is expanded into a Top 20.
• 3 December – William Walton's opera Troilus and Cressida opens at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. It is not a success. ^[3]

Charts

• See UK No.1 Hits of 1954

Classical music: new works

• Gerald Finzi – Cello Concerto in A minor
• Alun Hoddinott – Clarinet Concerto
• Daniel Jones – Symphony No. 4
• Ralph Vaughan Williams – Tuba Concerto in F minor

Opera

• Benjamin Britten – The Turn of the Screw ^[5]
• Arwel Hughes – Menna
• John Joubert – Antigone (for radio) ^[6]
• William Walton – Troilus and Cressida

Film and Incidental music

• Malcolm Arnold ^[7]
  • The Belles of St Trinian's , starring Alistair Sim.
  • Hobson's Choice directed by David Lean, starring Charles Laughton, Brenda De Banzie, John Mills and Prunella Scales.
  • The Sea Shall Not Have Them , starring Michael Redgrave, Dirk Bogarde and Anthony Steel.
• Francis Chagrin – An Inspector Calls directed by Guy Hamilton, starring Alastair Sim.
• Eric Coates – The Dam Busters March ^[8]
• Mátyás Seiber – Animal Farm

Musical theatre

• Salad Days , with music by Julian Slade and lyrics by Dorothy Reynolds and Julian Slade
• Zuleika , with music by Peter Tranchell and lyrics by James Ferman ^[9]

Musical films

• Lilacs in the Spring , starring Anna Neagle

Births

• 23 January – Edward Ka-Spel, singer-songwriter
• 8 March – Cheryl Baker, singer (Bucks Fizz)
• 15 March – Isobel Buchanan, operatic soprano
• 30 April – Christopher Wright, composer (died 2024)
• 8 May
  • John Michael Talbot, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (Mason Proffit)
  • Gary Wilmot, entertainer
• 11 May – Judith Weir, composer
• 10 July – Neil Tennant, singer-songwriter and record producer (Pet Shop Boys)
• 11 August – Joe Jackson, singer, songwriter and composer
• 25 August – Elvis Costello, singer-songwriter
• 3 November – Adam Ant, singer
• 4 November – Chris Difford, singer, songwriter and record producer (Squeeze)
• 18 November – John Parr, singer
• 7 December – Mike Nolan, singer (Bucks Fizz)
• 10 December – Jack Hues, singer-songwriter and guitarist (Wang Chung)
• 25 December – Annie Lennox, singer
• date unknown – Timothy Bowers, composer

Deaths

• 18 January – Herbert Heyner, operatic baritone, 71
• 3 March – Noel Gay, songwriter, 55
• 4 April – Frederick Lonsdale, dramatist of musicals, 73
• 24 July – Anne Gilchrist, folk song collector, 90
• 9 August – Frederick Keel, baritone singer and composer, 83
• 14 December – Philip Ritte, operatic tenor, 83
• 29 November – Sir George Robey, music hall star, 85
• date unknown – George Alex Stevens, songwriter and musical show director

See also

• 1954 in British television
• 1954 in the United Kingdom
• List of British films of 1954

References

1. Theatre World. Iliffe Specialist Publications, Limited. 1954. p. 37.
2. Adrian Wright (2010). A Tanner's Worth of Tune: Rediscovering the Post-war British Musical. Boydell & Brewer. p. 95. ISBN   978-1-84383-542-4.
3. Kendall, Alan (2000). The Chronicle of Classical Music. London: Thames & Hudson. p. 240.
4. Cannadine, David (2008). "The 'Last Night of the Proms' in historical perspective". Historical Research . 31 (212): 315–349. doi:10.1111/j.1468-2281.2008.00466.x.
5. Patricia Howard; Richard Wagner (19 September 1985). Benjamin Britten: The Turn of the Screw. Cambridge University Press. ISBN   978-0-521-28356-4.
6. "John Joubert". MusicWeb International. Retrieved 6 April 2019.
7. Stewart R. Craggs; Stewart R. Craggs, Professor (1998). Malcolm Arnold: A Bio-bibliography. Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 190–191. ISBN   978-0-313-29254-5.
8. John Ramsden (2003). The Dam Busters: A British Film Guide. I.B.Tauris. p. 126. ISBN   978-1-86064-636-2.
9. "Zuleika Dobson as a Musical", The Times, 15 February 1957, p. 3