1929 in British music explained

This is a summary of 1929 in music in the United Kingdom.

Events

• 22 January – Gordon Jacob's First String Quartet is premiered by the Spencer Dyke Quartet in London.
• 13 June – Eugene Goossens conducts the UK premiere of Ottorino Respighi's Feste Romane, at the Queen's Hall, London.
• 27 June – First London performances of two ballets by Igor Stravinsky, Apollon musagète and Le baiser de la fée, conducted by the composer at the Kingsway Hall and broadcast on the wireless.
• 4 October – Beethoven’s complete Ninth Symphony (with full chorus) is performed at the Proms for the first time since 1902. It has become a regular annual fixture of the festival ever since.^[1]
• 12 October – Sir Thomas Beecham, supported by Peter Warlock, launches a six-day festival of the work of Frederick Delius, at the Queen's Hall in London. The composer attends in his wheelchair.^[2]
• October – George Formby has a recording session with Dominion Records.
• date unknown
  • Jimmy Campbell and Reg Connelly form their music publishing company as a result of the success of their song "Show Me the Way to Go Home".
  • Ray Noble becomes leader of the New Mayfair Dance Orchestra, an HMV Records studio band featuring members of many of the top hotel orchestras of the day.
  • Will Fyffe participates in a screen test, shot for Pathe in New York; it provides rare screen footage of his music hall act.

Popular music

• "Dear Little Cafe" w.m. Noël Coward
• "I Lift Up My Finger (and I Say "Tweet Tweet")" w.m. Leslie Sarony
• "Spread a Little Happiness" w.m. Vivian Ellis, recorded by Binnie Hale

Classical music: new works

• Kenneth J. Alford
  • Old Panama
  • HM Jollies
• Arnold Bax – Symphony No. 3
• Benjamin Britten – Rhapsody for String Quartet
• Alan Bush – Dialectic Op. 15 for string quartet^[3]
• Frederick Delius – Cynara^[4]
• David John de Lloyd – Forty Welsh Traditional Tunes (arrangements)
• John Ireland – Ballad
• William Walton – Viola Concerto

Opera

• Ralph Vaughan Williams – Sir John in Love

Musical theatre

• 12 July – Bitter Sweet, by Noël Coward, opens at His Majesty's Theatre.

Musical films

• Auld Lang Syne, starring Sir Harry Lauder and Dorothy Boyd (silent film with soundtrack added later)^[5]
• The Broken Melody, starring Enid Stamp Taylor (silent film with soundtrack added later)^[6]

Births

• 5 January – Norman Kay, composer (died 2001)^[7]
• 28 January – Acker Bilk, jazz clarinetist and band leader (died 2014)^[8]
• 14 February – Wyn Morris, conductor (died 2010)
• 25 February – Sandy Brown, Scottish clarinetist (died 1975)
• 5 April – Joe Meek, record producer (died 1967)
• 6 April – Edmund Percey, architect and jazz pianist (died 2014)
• 11 May – Stan Kane, Scottish-Canadian actor and singer (died 2015)
• 13 June – Alan Civil, horn player (died 1989)^[9]
• 9 July – Alex Welsh, Scottish singer, cornetist, and trumpeter (died 1982)
• 2 August – Roy Crimmins, trombonist and composer (died 2014)
• 5 August – John Armatage, drummer and arranger
• 11 August – Alun Hoddinott, composer (died 2008)
• 20 September – Joe Temperley, jazz saxophonist (died 2016)
• 2 October – Kenneth Leighton, pianist and composer (died 1988)
• 4 November – Dickie Valentine, singer (died 1971)
• 11 December – Kenneth MacMillan, ballet dancer and choreographer (died 1992)
• date unknown – Maurice Handford, horn player (died 1986)^[10]

Deaths

• 12 February – Lillie Langtry, singer and actress, 75^[11]
• 22 August – Lucy Broadwood, folk song collector and researcher, 71^[12]
• 7 September – Frederic Weatherly, songwriter, 80^[13]
• 29 December – Josiah Booth, hymn-writer, 77^[14]

See also

• 1929 in British television
• 1929 in the United Kingdom
• List of British films of 1929

Notes and References

1. https://www.bbc.co.uk/events/e69q2m BBC Proms Performance Archive
2. The Published Writings of Philip Heseltine on Delius. The Delius Society Journal. 94. Autumn 1987. 2015-07-13. https://web.archive.org/web/20150923213430/http://www.delius.org.uk/images/journals/pdfs/journal94t.pdf. 2015-09-23. dead.
3. Web site: Rhapsody in Red (about Bush's Dialectic, and other things). January 6, 2009.
4. Book: Beecham, Thoma. Thomas Beecham. Frederick Delius. Severn House. Sutton, Surrey. 1975. 0-7278-0099-X. 203.
5. Book: St. Pierre, Paul Matthew . Music Hall Mimesis in British Film, 1895–1960: On the Halls on the Screen . 42 . . New Jersey . April 1, 2009 . 978-1611473995 .
6. Web site: British Film Institute. The Broken Melody. 2013-01-01 . https://web.archive.org/web/20120905014243/http://explore.bfi.org.uk/4ce2b793af196 . 2012-09-05 . dead .
7. 30 May 2001. Norman Kay obituary . The Guardian. 22 February 2010.
8. News: Leigh. Spencer. Acker Bilk: Clarinettist and bandleader who became best known for his sweetly melancholic 'Stranger on the Shore'. https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220501/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/news/acker-bilk-clarinettist-and-bandleader-who-became-best-known-for-his-sweetly-melancholic-stranger-on-the-shore-9836623.html . 2022-05-01 . subscription . live. 4 November 2014. The Independent. 4 November 2014.
9. Book: The Horn Call. 1991. International Horn Society. 39.
10. Book: Music and Musicians. 35. 1987. 45. Obituaries. Maurice Handford : A Personal Tribute – The premature death of the conductor Maurice Handford, at the age of 57, has left the musical world a good deal the poorer. Those of us who were privileged to know him as a friend are ....
11. Book: Dudley, Ernest. The Gilded Lily. 1958. Oldhams Press. London. 219–220.
12. Web site: Lucy Etheldred Broadwood (1858–1929). National Archives. 26 June 2019.
13. Pickles John D., "Weatherly, Frederick Edward (1848–1929)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, online edition, Oxford University Press, September 2004, accessed 29 August 2010.
14. Book: Maggie Humphreys. Robert Evans. Dictionary of Composers for the Church in Great Britain and Ireland. 1 January 1997. A&C Black. 978-0-7201-2330-2. 38.