1926 in British music

1920s in music in the UK
Best-selling singles
Best-selling albums
Summaries and charts 1920, 1921, 1922, 1923, 1924 1925, 1926, 1927, 1928, 1929
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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]
• 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.^[3]
  • Sir Walford Davies resigns his professorship at University College, Aberystwyth.^[4]

Popular music

• Eric Coates - "By The Tamarisk"

Classical music: new works

• Arnold Bax - Symphony No. 2 in E minor and C major
• John Ireland - Three Songs, 1926^[5]
• Ralph Vaughan Williams
  • On Christmas Night (ballet)
  • Piano Concerto in C (movements 1 and 2)^[6]
• Six Studies in English Folk Song^[7]
• Gerald Tyrwhitt - The Triumph of Neptune (ballet)
• Peter Warlock - Capriol Suite

Opera

• Ernest Bryson - The Leper’s Flute, with libretto by Ian Colvin^[8]

Musical theatre

• May - Yvonne by Percy Greenbank, Jean Gilbert and Vernon Dukelsky,^[9] opens at Daly's Theatre, London.

Births

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

Deaths

• 8 June - John Hornsey Casson, hymn-tune composer, 82^[10]
• 12 July - Charles Wood, composer, 60
• 4 November - Robert Newman, co-founder of the Proms, 68

References

1. Hurd, Michael (1983). "Rutland Boughton (1878-1960), The Immortal Hour". Hyperion. Retrieved 2014-09-01.
2. Music and History: 1926. Accessed 28 January 2016
3. The Times obituary, 2 August 1958, p. 8
4. 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 or UK public library membership required)
5. "List of works – T to Y". The John Ireland Trust. Retrieved 29 April 2015.
6. Achenbach, Andrew, Notes for EMI 75983, Vaughn Williams: Piano Concerto; Delius: Piano Concerto; Finzi: Eclogue; Piers Lane, piano; Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Vernon Handley.
7. "6 Studies in English Folk Song, for cello and piano". Ralph Vaughan Williams: Chamber Works. Classical Archives. 2008. Retrieved 2011-02-24.
8. Harvard Library. Accessed 27 January 2016
9. PBS: Vernon Duke. Accessed 22 April 2013
10. Dictionary of Composers for the Church in Great Britain and Ireland. Accessed 28 January 2016