1956 in British music

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This is a summary of 1956 in music in the United Kingdom, including the official charts from that year.

Events

February – Release of Shirley Bassey's first single, Burn My Candle (At Both Ends).
8 May – Benjamin Britten's opera Gloriana, written in 1953, is given its US première in Cincinnati, in concert form, conducted by Josef Krips.
14 May – Ralph Vaughan Williams's Symphony No. 8 receives its first London performance.[1]
June – Arthur Bliss heads the first delegation by British musicians to the Soviet Union since the end of the Second World War. The party included the violinist Alfredo Campoli, the oboist Léon Goossens, the soprano Jennifer Vyvyan and the pianist Gerald Moore.[2]
13 November – The first of a series of Hoffnung Music Festival Concerts takes place at the Royal Festival Hall, in London.
28 November – Yoko Ono, recently divorced from Japanese composer Toshi Ichiyanagi, marries Anthony Cox.
31 December – Flanders and Swann launch their two-man revue At the Drop of a Hat.

Arthur Bliss
- Edinburgh Overture, for orchestra
- Seek the Lord (anthem), SATB choir and organ
Reginald Smith Brindle – El Polifemo de Oro
Benjamin Britten
- Antiphon, Op. 56b, for SATB choir and organ
- The Prince of the Pagodas, Op. 57 (ballet in three acts)
Peter Maxwell Davies – Sonata for Clarinet and Piano
Stephen Dodgson – Concerto No. 1 for Guitar and Orchestra[3]
Cecil Armstrong Gibbs – Threnody
Gordon Jacob
- Concerto No. 2 for Oboe and Orchestra
- Sextet for Piano and Wind Quintet
- Trio for Violin, Cello, and Piano
- Variations on "Annie Laurie", for two piccolos, two contrabass clarinets, heckelphone, two contrabassoons, serpent, contrabass serpent, subcontrabass tuba, harmonium, and hurdy-gurdy
Michael Tippett –
- Bonny at Morn (arr. of Northumbrian folksong), unison choir and three recorders
- Songs from the British Isles (4), SATB choir
Ralph Vaughan Williams
- A Choral Flourish (text from the Psalms), for SATB choir, two trumpets, and organ
- God Bless the Master of This House, for SATB choir
- Preludes on Welsh Folksongs (2), for organ
- Symphony No. 8
- A Vision of Aeroplanes (text: N. Ezekiel), motet for SATB choir and organ
William Walton – Cello Concerto

Malcolm Arnold – The Open Window, Op. 56 (opera in one act, libretto by S. Gilliat, after Saki)
Alan Bush – Men of Blackmoor, with libretto by Nancy Bush, premiered at the German National Theatre, Weimar[4]

1 January – Andy Gill, guitarist and singer-songwriter
17 January – Paul Young, singer
25 January – Andy Cox (The Beat, Fine Young Cannibals)
31 January – Johnny Rotten, singer (Sex Pistols)
12 February – Brian Robertson, Scottish guitarist and songwriter (Thin Lizzy, Motörhead, and Wild Horses)
13 February – Peter Hook, singer and bass player (Joy Division, New Order, Freebass, Revenge, and Monaco)
12 March – Steve Harris, musician, composer (Iron Maiden)
3 June – Lynne Dawson, operatic soprano
5 July
- Terry Chimes, drummer (The Clash, Generation X, Hanoi Rocks, and Cowboys International)
- Billy Jenkins, guitarist and composer (Voice of God Collective)
15 July – Ian Curtis, vocalist (Joy Division) (died 1980))
19 July –Nikki Sudden, English singer-songwriter and guitarist (Jacobites and Swell Maps) (d. 2006)
20 July
- Paul Cook, English drummer (Sex Pistols, The Professionals, Chiefs of Relief, and Man Raze)
- Michael Gordon, American composer
27 August – Glen Matlock, guitarist (Sex Pistols)
12 September – B. A. Robertson, singer-songwriter
27 October – Hazell Dean, singer
17 November – Philip Grange, composer
15 December – William Cauty, composter
19 December – Jimmy Cauty, artist and musician
28 December – Nigel Kennedy, violinist

9 March – Amanda Christina Elizabeth Aldridge (Montague Ring), opera singer, teacher and composer, 89[6]
16 March – Joseph John Richards, conductor, composer and music teacher, 77
9 April – Jack Little, composer, actor, singer and songwriter
16 May – Orlando Morgan, music teacher, composer and musicologist, 91
18 July – Violet Loraine, musical theatre star, 69
6 September – Felix Borowski, British/American composer and teacher, 84
27 September – Gerald Finzi, composer, 55 ("severe brain inflammation")
18 October – Harry Parry, jazz clarinetist and bandleader, 44[7]
8 December – Edgar Bainton, church music composer, 76
9 December – Ethel Scarborough, pianist and composer, 76
date unknown – George Oldroyd, organist and composer

Best Song Musically and Lyrically – Mátyás Seiber & Norman Newell, "By the Fountains of Rome"[8]

Kendall, Alan. The Chronicle of Classical Music. Thames & Hudson, 2000: p. 240
Bliss, Arthur, "A musical embassy to the USSR – Russia through English eyes", The Times, 1 June 1956, p. 11
Music Web International. Accessed 15 April 2013
Ford (8 June 1974). "Burning Bush: Christopher Ford meets Alan Bush, neglected British master of grand opera". The Guardian. ProQuest 185747511. (subscription required)
"The Guide to Musical Theatre". The Guide to Musical Theatre. 1956-11-27. Retrieved 2012-09-13.
"Amanda Aldridge, Teacher and Composer: A Life in Music" by Joyce Andrews, in Journal of Singing, 1 January 2010, ISSN 1086-7732. Accessed 5 October 2010
Davies, John; Jenkins, Nigel; Menna, Baines; Lynch, Peredur I., eds. (2008). The Welsh Academy Encyclopaedia of Wales. Cardiff: University of Wales Press. p. 651. ISBN 978-0-7083-1953-6.
"The Seiber Centenary: 2005 and Beyond" Archived 2012-02-06 at the Wayback Machine, Suppressed Music, 9 August 2005.

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