1942 in British music

1940s in music in the UK
Best-selling singles
Best-selling albums
Summaries and charts 1940, 1941, 1942, 1943, 1944 1945, 1946, 1947, 1948, 1949
←1939	1950→

This is a summary of 1942 in music in the United Kingdom.

Events

• January/February – Serge Koussevitzky commissions Benjamin Britten to compose an opera, Peter Grimes, one of the first commissions given by the Koussevitzky Music Foundation.^[1]
• 16 March – Britten sails back to England with Peter Pears on board MS Axel Johnson.^[2]
• 20 March – Vera Lynn records The White Cliffs of Dover with Mantovani at Decca Records's West Hampstead studio.^[3]
• 26 August – In an act of wartime cultural diplomacy, John Ireland, Granville Bantock, Arnold Bax and Benjamin Britten deliver a letter to the wife of the Soviet Ambassador sending greetings from British composers to their Soviet counterparts.^[4]
• November/December - E.J. Moeran's Symphony is the first British work to be recorded under the auspices of the British Council. The recording is made in Manchester by the Hallé Orchestra conducted by Leslie Heward.

Popular music

• Vera Lynn with Mantovani - The White Cliffs of Dover (Walter Kent)

Classical music: new works

• Benjamin Britten -
  • A Ceremony of Carols
  • Hymn to St Cecilia
• Gerald Finzi - Let Us Garlands Bring Op. 18, song cycle (words by Shakespeare)

Film and Incidental music

• Noël Coward - In Which We Serve
• Ralph Vaughan Williams -
  • Coastal Command (film)
  • The Pilgrim’s Progress (music for radio production)
• William Walton - The First of the Few directed by and starring Leslie Howard, with co-star David Niven.

Musical theatre

• 22 October - Du Barry Was A Lady, London production opens at His Majesty's Theatre and runs for 178 performances
• 19 November - Let's Face It!, London production opens at the Hippodrome and runs for 348 performances

Musical films

• Rose of Tralee, starring John Longden, Lesley Brook and Angela Glynne.^[5]
• We'll Smile Again, starring Bud Flanagan, Chesney Allen and Meinhart Maur.^[6]

Births

• 12 February - Lionel Grigson, English pianist, composer, and educator (d. 1994)
• 28 February - Brian Jones, Rolling Stones (died 1969)
• 24 March - Arthur Brown, singer (Kingdom Come and The Crazy World of Arthur Brown)
• 12 May - Ian Dury, singer-songwriter (died 2000)
• 18 June - Paul McCartney, singer, songwriter & composer
• 21 September - Jill Gomez, soprano

Deaths

• 14 January - Harry Champion, music hall composer
• 12 June - Walter Leigh, composer, 36 (killed in action)
• 17 June - Jessie Bond, singer and actress in Gilbert & Sullivan, 89
• 30 July - Dorothy Silk, soprano, 59
• 15 October - Dame Marie Tempest, opera and musical comedy singer, 78

References

1. Mitchell, Donald (ed) (1991). Letters From A Life: Selected Letters of Benjamin Britten, Vol. 2 1939-45. London: Faber and Faber. ISBN 0-571-160581. pp. 1017, 1019
2. Mitchell (1991): p. 630
3. MacKenzie, Colin (2005). Mantovani: A Lifetime in Music. Melrose Press. p. 87.
4. Foreman, Lewis. The John Ireland Companion. The Boydell Press, 2011: p. xxxiii
5. "BFI | Film & TV Database | The ROSE OF TRALEE (1942)". BFI: Film & TV Database. Retrieved 15 June 2014.
6. "BFI | Film & TV Database | WE'LL SMILE AGAIN (1942)". BFI: Film & TV Database. Retrieved 15 June 2014.