1932 in British music

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

List of years in British music
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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

• "Ain't it grand to be blooming well dead?" w. Leslie Sarony
• "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 (revised)[2]
• Arnold Cooke – Harp Quintet[3]
• Gustav Holst
  • "If 'twer the Time of Lilies", for two-part choir and piano, H187 (words by Helen Waddell)[4]
  • Jazz-Band Piece
  • Jig, for piano, H179
• John Ireland – A Downland Suite
• Cyril Rootham – Symphony No 1 in C minor[5]
• 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[6]

Opera

• Alfred Reynolds – Derby Day (with libretto by A. P. Herbert)[7]

Film and Incidental music

• John D. H. Greenwood – After Office Hours[8]
• Louis Levy – White Face[9]

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, starring Marguerite Namara and Thomas F. Burke[10]
• For the Love of Mike, directed by Monty Banks, starring Bobby Howes, Constance Shotter and Arthur Riscoe[11]
• Goodnight, Vienna, directed by Herbert Wilcox, starring Jack Buchanan, Anna Neagle and Gina Malo[12]
• Little Waitress, directed by Widgey R. Newman, starring Claude Bailey and Moore Marriott[13]
• 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)
• 12 January – Des O'Connor, comedian, singer, and television host[14]
• 19 January – Russ Hamilton, English singer-songwriter (died 2008)
• 23 January – Cyril Davies, blues musician (died 1964)
• 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
  • Alma Cogan, singer (died 1966)
• 21 May – Robert Sherlaw Johnson, pianist and composer (died 2000)[15]
• 27 June – Hugh Wood, composer[16]
• 16 July – John Chilton, jazz trumpeter (died 2016)
• 31 August – Roy Castle, actor, musician and singer (died 1994)
• 11 September – Ian Hamer, jazz trumpeter (died 2006)[17]
• 18 September – Maureen Lehane, operatic mezzo-soprano (died 2010)
• 19 September – Lol Coxhill, jazz saxophonist (died 2012)[18]
• 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[19]
• 22 July – Hugh Blair, organist and composer, 67[20]
• 21 August – Frederick Corder, composer and music teacher, 80[21]
• 21 September – William Herbert Scott, church composer and hymn-writer, 70[22]
• 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

1. Reid, Charles (1961). Thomas Beecham – An Independent Biography. London: Victor Gollancz. OCLC 500565141
2. Randel, Don Michael (2003). The Harvard dictionary of music. Harvard University Press. p. 191. ISBN 978-0-674-01163-2.
3. British Music Information Centre (1969). Chamber music by living British composers. British Music Information Centre. p. 10.
4. Catalog of Copyright Entries: Musical compositions. Library of Congress, Copyright Office. 1934. p. 21.
5. "Cyril Rootham (1875-1938) - Composer". Rootham.org. Retrieved 15 March 2019.
6. John Evans, Journeying Boy: The Diaries of the Young Benjamin Britten 1928–1938 (Faber & Faber, 2009), p 174
7. Dunhill, Thomas F., "The Music of Derby Day" (1 May 1932). The Musical Times, 73 (1071): pp. 415–416.
8. BFI.org
9. "White Face". BFI. Archived from the original on 2009-01-14.
10. Ann Davies; Phil Powrie (2006). Carmen on Screen: An Annotated Filmography and Bibliography. Tamesis Books. p. 18. ISBN 978-1-85566-129-5.
11. Wood, Linda. British Films, 1927–1939. British Film Institute, 1986, page 74
12. Ian Conrich (14 July 2006). Film's Musical Moments. Edinburgh University Press. p. 75. ISBN 978-0-7486-2727-1.
13. Wood, Linda. British Films, 1927–1939. British Film Institute, 1986, page 256
14. Colin Larkin (2002). The Virgin Encyclopedia of 70s Music. Virgin. p. 311. ISBN 978-1-85227-947-9.
15. Times obituary.
16. Gerald Norris (June 1981). A musical gazetteer of Great Britain & Ireland. David & Charles. p. 198. ISBN 978-0-7153-7845-8.
17. Fordham, John (2006-09-11). "Ian Hamer". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2017-03-25.
18. "Jazz breaking news: Saxophonist Lol Coxhill Dies Age 79", Jazzwise (website), 10 July 2012
19. Rhondda Cynon Taf: History of Pontypridd. Accessed 14 June 2014
20. Alumnae Cantabrigienses. Accessed 26 Sept 2014
21. "Corder, Frederick". Who's Who. Vol. 59. 1907. p. 385.
22. Maggie Humphreys; Robert Evans (1 January 1997). Dictionary of Composers for the Church in Great Britain and Ireland. A&C Black. p. 301. ISBN 978-0-7201-2330-2.