This is a summary of 1926 in music in the United Kingdom.
Events c. May – Socialist composer Rutland Boughton stages a performance of his Nativity opera Bethlehem (1915) at Church House, Westminster, in a staging explicitly referencing the 1926 United Kingdom general strike. 6 May – In the midst of the General Strike, a concert of Leos Janácek's work is held at the Wigmore Hall, attended by the composer himself.. Accessed 28 January 2016 20 October – Ethel Smyth's opera Entente Cordiale receives its first public stage performance in Bristol, having been premièred by students at the Royal College of Music the previous year.Smyth, Ethel (1987). The Memoirs of Ethel Smyth (abridged, edited and annotated by Richard Crichton), p. 290. Viking. November – Gertrude Lawrence becomes the first British performer to star in a US musical on Broadway, starring in Oh, Kay!.Morley, Sheridan, Gertrude Lawrence. New York, New York: McGraw-Hill 1981; . p. 61 8 December – The premiere of Dame Ethel Smyth's Sonata in A minor for cello and piano is held in London, nearly 40 years after the work was composed. 14 December – The mother of teenage composer Benjamin Britten brings his work to the attention of Charles Macpherson. 17 December – Composer John Ireland marries Dorothy Phillips, thirty years his junior, at Chelsea Register Office. 26 December – Granville Bantock's incidental music for Macbeth is used for the first time, in a production at the Prince Theatre, London, starring Sybil Thorndike. date unknown Operatic baritone Leslie Rands marries his D'Oyly Carte co-star Marjorie Eyre. Eugène Goossens, fils, joins the British National Opera Company as a conductor.The Times obituary, 2 August 1958, p. 8 Sir Walford Davies resigns his professorship at University College, Aberystwyth.Dibble, Jeremy. "Davies, Sir (Henry) Walford (1869–1941)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, online edition, January 2011, retrieved 6 December 2015 The Webber Douglas School of Singing and Dramatic Art is founded by Walter Johnstone Douglas and Amherst Webber in London."Central and Webber Douglas to Merge." The Stage. 20 April 2004. Organist and composer Herbert Brewer receives a knighthood.H. D., "Alfred Herbert Brewer, 1865–1928", The Musical Times, Vol. 69, No. 1022 (Apr. 1, 1928), pp. 315–316
Popular music Eric Coates – "By The Tamarisk"
Classical music: new works Arnold Bax – Symphony No. 2 in E minor and C major Rutland Boughton – The Queen of Cornwall, overture John Ireland – Three Songs, 1926 Ralph Vaughan Williams On Christmas Night (ballet) Piano Concerto in C (movements 1 and 2)Achenbach, Andrew, Notes for EMI 75983, Vaughan Williams: Piano Concerto; Delius: Piano Concerto; Finzi: Eclogue; Piers Lane, piano; Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Vernon Handley. Six Studies in English Folk Song Gerald Tyrwhitt – The Triumph of Neptune (ballet) Peter Warlock – Capriol Suite
Opera Ernest Bryson – The Leper’s Flute, with libretto by Ian ColvinHarvard Library . Accessed 27 January 2016
Musical theatre May – Yvonne by Percy Greenbank, Jean Gilbert and Vernon Dukelsky,PBS: Vernon Duke . Accessed 22 April 2013 opens at Daly's Theatre, London.
Births 3 January – Sir George Martin, record producer (died 2016) 21 January – Brian Brockless, organist, composer, and conductor (died 1995) 11 February – Alexander Gibson, conductor and founder of the Scottish Opera (died 1995) 20 February – Gillian Lynne, choreographer (died 2018) 14 March – Lita Roza, singer (died 2006) 31 May — Duncan Campbell, trumpeter (died 2013) 2 July – Morag Beaton, operatic soprano (died 2010) 18 July – Bryan Johnson, singer (died 1995) 17 August – George Melly, jazz singer (died 2007) 17 November – Robert Earl, singer (died 2025) 30 December – Stan Tracey, jazz pianist and composer (died 2013)
Deaths 8 June – John Hornsey Casson, hymn-tune composer, 82Dictionary of Composers for the Church in Great Britain and Ireland. Accessed 28 January 2016 12 July – Charles Wood, composer, 60 17 October – Horton Claridge Allison, pianist and composer, 80 2 November – John Le Hay, Irish-born musical comedy performer, 72 4 November – Robert Newman, co-founder of the Proms, 68
See also 1926 in the United Kingdom List of British films of 1926
References