1932 in British music

This is a summary of 1932 in music in the United Kingdom.

Events

• 7 October – The London Philharmonic Orchestra, recently founded by Thomas Beecham and Malcolm Sargent, gives its first public concert.^[1]
• date unknown – Henry Hall becomes Director of the BBC Dance Orchestra.

Popular music

• "The Flies Crawled Up The Window" w.m. Douglas Furber & Vivian Ellis
• "Love Is The Sweetest Thing" w.m. Ray Noble
• "Mad About the Boy" w.m. Noël Coward
• "What More Can I Ask?" w. A. E. Wilkins m. Ray Noble

Classical music: new works

• Arnold Bax
  • Concerto for Cello and Orchestra
  • Sinfonietta
  • Sonata No. 4, for piano
  • Summer Music, for orchestra (revised version)
  • Symphony No. 5
  • "Watching the Needleboats", for voice and piano (text by James Joyce)
• Arthur Benjamin – Violin Concerto
• Arthur Bliss – A Colour Symphony
• Arnold Cooke – Harp Quintet
• Gustav Holst
  • "If 'twer the Time of Lilies", for two-part choir and piano, H187
  • Jazz-Band Piece
  • Jig, for piano, H179
• John Ireland – A Downland Suite
• Michael Tippett – String Trio in B Flat
• Ralph Vaughan Williams – Magnificat for contralto, women's chorus, and orchestra
• William Walton – 3 Songs to Poems by Edith Sitwell
• Grace Williams
  • Suite for orchestra
  • Two Psalms for contralto, harp and strings^[2]

Opera

• Alfred Reynolds – Derby Day (with libretto by A. P. Herbert)^[3]

Film and Incidental music

• John D. H. Greenwood – After Office Hours^[4]
• Louis Levy – White Face^[5]

Musical theatre

• 16 September – Words and Music, a London revue by Noël Coward, opens at the Adelphi Theatre.

Musical films

• Carmen, directed by Cecil Lewis, starringMarguerite Namara and Thomas F. Burke
• For the Love of Mike, directed by Monty Banks, starring Bobby Howes, Constance Shotter and Arthur Riscoe^[6]
• Goodnight, Vienna, directed by Herbert Wilcox, starring Jack Buchanan, Anna Neagle and Gina Malo
• Little Waitress, directed by Widgey R. Newman, starring Claude Bailey and Moore Marriott^[7]
• The Maid of the Mountains, directed by Lupino Lane, starring Nancy Brown and Harry Welchman

Births

• 3 January – Johanna Peters, operatic mezzo-soprano (died 2000)
• 19 January – Russ Hamilton, English singer-songwriter died 2008)
• 29 January – Myer Fredman, British-Australian conductor (died 2014)
• 26 February – Jean Allister, opera singer (died 2012)
• 31 March – John Mitchinson, operatic tenor
• 19 May – John Barnes, saxophonist and clarinet player
• 19 May – Alma Cogan, singer (died 1966)
• 21 May – Robert Sherlaw Johnson, pianist and composer (died 2000)^[8]
• 31 August – Roy Castle, actor, musician and singer (died 1994)
• 18 September – Maureen Lehane, operatic mezzo-soprano (died 2010)
• 19 September – Lol Coxhill, jazz saxophonist (died 2012)^[9]
• 15 November – Petula Clark, singer, actress, and songwriter
• 26 December – Clive Westlake, songwriter (died 2000)

Deaths

• 28 January – Poldowski, Belgian-born British pianist and composer, 52
• 3 March – Eugen d'Albert, Scottish-born German pianist and composer, 67
• 14 May – John Hughes, composer of Cwm Rhondda^[10]
• 22 July – Hugh Blair, organist and composer, 67^[11]
• 21 August – Frederick Corder, composer and music teacher, 80^[12]
• 23 November – Percy Pitt, organist and conductor, 62
• 4 December – Mona McBurney, pianist, teacher and composer, 70
• 10 December – Percy Fletcher, composer, 52

See also

• 1932 in British television
• 1932 in the United Kingdom
• List of British films of 1932

References