1929 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
←1919	1930→

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 Goosens conducts the UK premieres of Igor Stravinsky's Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments, with the composer as soloist, and 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.
• 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.^[1]
• 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

• Arnold Bax – Symphony No. 3
• Benjamin Britten – Rhapsody for String Quartet^[2]
• 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)
• 29 January - Malcolm Binns, classical pianist
• 14 February - Wyn Morris, conductor
• 5 April – Joe Meek, record producer (died 1967)
• 11 May - Stan Kane, Scottish-Canadian actor and singer
• 13 June - Alan Civil, horn player (died 1989)
• 2 August - Roy Crimmins, trombonist and composer
• 11 August - Alun Hoddinott, composer (died 2008)
• 20 September - Joe Temperley, jazz saxophonist
• 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)^[8]

Deaths

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

References

1. "The Published Writings of Philip Heseltine on Delius" (PDF). The Delius Society Journal (94). Autumn 1987.
2. "IRCAM Database Page for Britten Rhapsody". Retrieved January 6, 2009.
3. "Rhapsody in Red (about Bush's Dialectic, and other things)". Retrieved January 6, 2009.
4. Beecham, Thomas (1975). Frederick Delius. Sutton, Surrey: Severn House. p. 203. ISBN 0-7278-0099-X.
5. St. Pierre, Paul Matthew (April 1, 2009). Music Hall Mimesis in British Film, 1895-1960: On the Halls on the Screen. New Jersey: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press. p. 42. ISBN 978-1611473995.
6. British Film Institute. "The Broken Melody | BFI | British Film Institute". Explore.bfi.org.uk. Retrieved 2013-01-01.
7. "Norman Kay obituary". The Guardian. 30 May 2001. Retrieved 22 February 2010.
8. Music and Musicians - Volume 35 1987 - Page 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 ..."