1926 in British music explained

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
• 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

Notes and References

1. Web site: Hurd. Michael Hurd (composer). Michael. 1983. Rutland Boughton (1878–1960), The Immortal Hour. Hyperion. 2014-09-01.
2. http://musicandhistory.com/music-and-history-by-the-year/187-1926.html Music and History: 1926
3. Smyth, Ethel (1987). The Memoirs of Ethel Smyth (abridged, edited and annotated by Richard Crichton), p. 290. Viking.
4. Morley, Sheridan, Gertrude Lawrence. New York, New York: McGraw-Hill 1981; . 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
7. http://www.thestage.co.uk/news/newsstory.php/1774 "Central and Webber Douglas to Merge."
8. H. D., "Alfred Herbert Brewer, 1865–1928", The Musical Times, Vol. 69, No. 1022 (Apr. 1, 1928), pp. 315–316
9. Web site: List of works – T to Y. https://web.archive.org/web/20120727010646/http://www.johnirelandtrust.org/ttoy.htm. dead. July 27, 2012. The John Ireland Trust. 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. Web site: 6 Studies in English Folk Song, for cello and piano . Ralph Vaughan Williams: Chamber Works . Classical Archives . 2008 . 2011-02-24.
12. http://lms01.harvard.edu/F/HSSX8EUQAEY9YH6K2XE8AVQP31XS2GC6FNY9N5NC5VRRVU7BVX-16466?func=find-b&find_code=WRD&request=the+lepers+flute&adjacent=1 Harvard Library
13. https://www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf/shows/songbook/multimedia/bio_duke.html PBS: Vernon Duke
14. Web site: Sir George Martin obituary. 9 March 2016. Adam Sweeting. The Guardian. 19 February 2019.
15. Web site: Sir Alexander Gibson obituary. https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220501/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/sir-alexander-gibson-obituaries-1568234.html . 2022-05-01 . subscription . live. 16 January 1995. The Independent. 19 February 2019.
16. Web site: Dame Gillian Lynne obituary. 2 July 2018. Jim Hiley. The Guardian. 19 February 2019.
17. Web site: Lita Roza. 18 August 2008. Dave Laing. The Guardian. 29 December 2023.
18. Web site: Obituary: Morag Beaton. 27 April 2010. The Scotsman. 19 February 2019.
19. Web site: George Melly. 6 July 2007. Julian Mitchell. The Guardian. 19 February 2019.
20. Web site: Stan Tracey obituary. 6 December 2013. John Fordham. The Guardian. 19 February 2019.
21. https://books.google.com/books?id=xZCvAwAAQBAJ&dq=composer+died+1926&pg=PA60 Dictionary of Composers for the Church in Great Britain and Ireland