1946 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 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)
• 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^[5]
• 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)
• 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)^[6]
• 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
• 12 December – Clive Bunker, drummer (Jethro Tull, Electric Sun, Solstice, and Aviator)
• 14 December – Jane Birkin, French-based actress and singer
• 16 December - Trevor Pinnock, harpsichordist and conductor
• 29 December – Marianne Faithfull, singer and actress

Deaths

• 29 January - Sidney Jones, conductor and composer, 84
• 20 February – Hugh Allen, organist and choral conductor, 76
• 13 March - Thomas Dunhill, composer and music writer, 69
• 13 April - W. H. Bell, composer and conductor, 72
• 1 May
  • Edward Bairstow, organist and composer, 71
  • Percy Whitlock, organist and composer, 42 (tuberculosis)
• 16 October – Sir Granville Bantock, composer, 78
• 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

References

1. Mitchell, Donald (ed) (2004). Letters From A Life: Selected Letters of Benjamin Britten, Vol. 3 1946-51. London: Faber and Faber. ISBN 0-571-22282-X. p. 137
2. Whitcomb, Ian (2012). Ukulele Heroes: The Golden Age. Milwaukee, Wisconsin: Hal Leonard Books. p. 83. ISBN 978-1-4584-1654-4.
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. ISBN 978-1-107-60613-5. p. 59
4. Mitchell, Donald (ed) (2004). Letters From A Life: Selected Letters of Benjamin Britten, Vol. 3 1946-51. London: Faber and Faber. ISBN 0-571-22282-X. p. 207
5. "Birthdays", The Guardian, p. 37, 2 April 2014
6. Mojo4music.com