1946 in British music explained

This is a summary of 1946 in music in the United Kingdom.

Events

• February – Kathleen Ferrier's recording contract with Columbia Records expires, and she transfers to Decca.
• 21 March – Swedish premiere of Peter Grimes, the opera's first performance outside the UK, in Stockholm.^[1]
• June – George Formby is awarded the Order of the British Empire in the 1946 King's Birthday Honours List.^[2]
• 5 July – Michael Tippett arranges the first British performance of Monteverdi's Vespers at Morley College, adding his own organ Preludio for the occasion.^[3]
• 6, 7 & 9 August – Leonard Bernstein conducts the first US performance of Peter Grimes at the Berkshire Music Center, Tanglewood.^[4]

Popular music

• Geraldo and his Orchestra – "We'll Gather Lilacs" (Ivor Novello)
• Archie Lewis and The Geraldo Strings – "I Dream of You (More Than You Dream I Do)"
• "It's A Pity To Say Goodnight" – (Billy Reid)

Classical music: new works

• Malcolm Arnold – Symphony for Strings, Opus 13
• Edmund Rubbra – Cello Sonata, Opus 60
• Michael Tippett – Little Music for String Orchestra
• Ralph Vaughan Williams – Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra, co-arranged with Joseph Cooper
• William Walton – String Quartet No. 2 in A minor

Opera

• Benjamin Britten – The Rape of Lucretia

Film and Incidental music

• William Alwyn – I See a Dark Stranger, starring Deborah Kerr and Trevor Howard.
• John Ireland – The Overlanders.
• Alan Rawsthorne – The Captive Heart, starring Michael Redgrave.

Musical theatre

• 7 March – The London production of Song of Norway opens at the Palace Theatre and runs for 526 performances.
• 19 December – Noël Coward's new musical Pacific 1860 opens at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, starring Mary Martin and Graham Payn.

Musical films

• Gaiety George, released July 22, starring Richard Greene and Ann Todd.
• I'll Turn to You, directed by Geoffrey Faithfull, starring Terry Randall and Don Stannard
• The Laughing Lady, directed by Paul L. Stein, starring Anne Ziegler and Webster Booth
• London Town, released September 30, starring Sid Fields, Greta Gynt, Petula Clark, Kay Kendall and Sonny Hale and featuring Tessie O'Shea and Beryl Davis.
• The Magic Bow, directed by Bernard Knowles, starring Stewart Granger and Phyllis Calvert

Births

• 3 January – John Paul Jones (Led Zeppelin)
• 6 January – Syd Barrett (Pink Floyd) (died 2006)
• 10 January – Aynsley Dunbar, drummer and songwriter
• 22 January – Malcolm McLaren, impresario and founder of the Sex Pistols (died 2010)
• 7 March – Matthew Fisher (Procol Harum)
• 21 March – Ray Dorset (Mungo Jerry)
• 1 April – Ronnie Lane, singer, songwriter and guitarist (The Faces) (died 1997)
• 2 April – Raymond Gubbay, classical music promoter
• 4 April – Dave Hill, guitarist (Slade)
• 11 April – Bob Harris, DJ
  • • 10 May Donovan, folk singer
  • Graham Gouldman, singer and songwriter (10cc)
  • Dave Mason, singer-songwriter and guitarist (Traffic and Fleetwood Mac)
• 15 May – Aly Bain, Scottish fiddler (The Boys of the Lough)
• 16 May – Robert Fripp, guitarist, composer and record producer
• 18 May – Bruce Gilbert, guitarist (Wire and Dome)
• 15 June - Noddy Holder, singer and songwriter (Slade)
• 30 June - Giles Swayne, composer
• 19 July – Alan Gorrie, Scottish singer and bass player (Average White Band and Forever More)
• 23 July – Andy Mackay, saxophonist, oboist, and composer
• 10 August – Peter Karrie, star of West End musical productions
• 1 September – Barry Gibb, singer and songwriter
• 5 September – Freddie Mercury, singer (Queen) (died 1991)
• 23 September – Duster Bennett, blues singer and musician (died 1976)^[5]
• 28 September – Helen Shapiro, singer
• 14 October
  • Justin Hayward, guitarist, singer and songwriter (The Moody Blues)
  • Dan McCafferty (Nazareth)
• 29 October – Peter Green, guitarist and singer
• 8 November – Roy Wood, singer and songwriter (The Move, Wizzard)
• 11 November – Chip Hawkes, vocalist and guitarist (The Tremeloes)
• 24 November – Bev Bevan, drummer (Electric Light Orchestra, Black Sabbath)
• 1 December – Gilbert O'Sullivan, singer-songwriter
• 10 December – Ace Kefford, bass player
• 12 December – Clive Bunker, drummer (Jethro Tull, Electric Sun, Solstice, and Aviator)
• 14 December – Jane Birkin, French-based actress and singer (died 2023)
• 16 December – Trevor Pinnock, harpsichordist and conductor
• 29 December – Marianne Faithfull, singer and actress

Deaths

• 29 January – Sidney Jones, conductor and composer, 84^[6]
• 20 February – Hugh Allen, organist and choral conductor, 76^[7]
• 13 March – Thomas Dunhill, composer and music writer, 69^[8]
• 13 April – W. H. Bell, composer and conductor, 72^[9]
• 1 May
  • Edward Bairstow, organist and composer, 71^[10]
  • Percy Whitlock, organist and composer, 42 (tuberculosis)^[11]
• 16 October – Sir Granville Bantock, composer, 78^[12]
• 10 November – Nicholas Gatty, composer and music critic, 72
• 5 December – Tom Clare, music hall singer and pianist, 70
• 15 December – Frederic Norton, composer, 77

See also

• 1946 in British television
• 1946 in the United Kingdom
• List of British films of 1946

Notes and References

1. Mitchell, Donald (ed) (2004). Letters From A Life: Selected Letters of Benjamin Britten, Vol. 3 1946–51. London: Faber and Faber. . p. 137
2. Book: Whitcomb , Ian . 2012. Ukulele Heroes: The Golden Age. Hal Leonard Books. Milwaukee, Wisconsin. 978-1-4584-1654-4. 83.
3. Cole, Suzanne (2013). "Things that really interest ME: Tippett and Early Music". In Gloag, Kenneth and Jones, Nicholas. The Cambridge Companion to Michael Tippett. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 48–67. . p. 59
4. Mitchell, Donald (ed) (2004). Letters From A Life: Selected Letters of Benjamin Britten, Vol. 3 1946–51. London: Faber and Faber. . p. 207
5. http://www.mojo4music.com/blog/2008/07/duster_bennett_1.html Mojo4music.com
6. Book: Alan Hyman. Sullivan and his satellites: a survey of English operettas 1860-1914. 1 January 1978. Chappell. 978-0-903443-24-1. 210.
7. 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. 6.
8. Book: Gerald Norris. A musical gazetteer of Great Britain & Ireland. June 1981. David & Charles. 978-0-7153-7845-8. 74.
9. 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. 28.
10. Book: Melvin P. Unger. Historical Dictionary of Choral Music. 17 June 2010. Scarecrow Press. 978-0-8108-7392-6. 27.
11. Book: David Mason Greene. Greene's Biographical Encyclopedia of Composers. 1985. Reproducing Piano Roll Fnd.. 978-0-385-14278-6. 1329.
12. Book: Jürgen Schaarwächter. Two Centuries of British Symphonism: From the beginnings to 1945. A preliminary survey. With a foreword by Lewis Foreman. Volume 1. 27 February 2015. Georg Olms Verlag. 978-3-487-15227-1. 510.