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Overview of the events of 1939 in British music
List of years in British music
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This is a summary of 1939 in music in the United Kingdom .
April – a left-wing Festival of Music for the People is held in London. Participants include a pageant for 500 singers and 100 dancers featuring the American singer Paul Robeson as soloist, a balalaika orchestra playing Russian tunes, music by Alan Bush , and Benjamin Britten 's Ballad of Heroes with words by W.H. Auden and Randall Swingler , performed by "Twelve Co-operative and Labour Choirs".[ 1] John Ireland 's These Things Shall Be is performed at the festival's third concert in the Queen's Hall conducted by Constant Lambert .[ 2]
29 April – Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears leave the UK for North America on board the SS Ausonia .[ 3] 10 May – Heimo Haitto , 13, wins the British Council music prize[ 4] 10 June – the New York Philharmonic , conducted by Sir Adrian Boult , gives the first public performance of Arthur Bliss 's Piano Concerto in B flat with soloist Solomon ; Arnold Bax 's Symphony No. 7 ; and Ralph Vaughan Williams ' Five Variants of Dives and Lazarus Carnegie Hall .1 September – Henry Wood conducts a concert of Beethoven - the Symphony No 6 and the Piano Concerto No 2 - then announces to the audience that the rest of the season is cancelled, because Britain is at war with Germany.7 December – William Walton 's Violin Concerto is given its première in Cleveland, Ohio, United States, by Jascha Heifetz , for whom it was written.[ 5] The Nordstrom Sisters are the resident act at the Ritz Hotel in London.
The National Gallery , with all its pictures taken to a secure location at the outbreak of war, becomes home of popular lunchtime concerts organised by pianist Myra Hess , assisted by the composer Howard Ferguson and with the enthusiastic backing of the gallery's director Sir Kenneth Clark .[ 6] Classical music: new works [ edit ] Film and Incidental music [ edit ] 8 March – Robert Tear , tenor (died 2011 )16 April – Dusty Springfield , singer (died 1999 )3 May – Jonathan Harvey , composer (died 2012 )6 July – Jet Harris , British bassist, singer and songwriter (The Shadows ) (died 2011 )[ 12] 17 July – Spencer Davis , singer-songwriter and guitarist (The Spencer Davis Group )18 July – Brian Auger , English keyboard player (Brian Auger and the Trinity , CAB , and The Steampacket )19 August – Ginger Baker , drummer30 August – John Peel , influential disc jockey (died 2004 )10 September – Cynthia Lennon , writer, first wife of English musician (Beatle) John Lennon (died 2015 )8 December – Sir James Galway , flautist13 December – Eric Flynn , British actor and singer (died 2002 )January – Leonard N. Fowles , organist, conductor and composer, 68[ 13]
25 January – Charles Davidson Dunbar , soldier and bagpipe player, 688 March – Gertrude Eaton , singer, 7825 April – John Foulds , composer, 58 (cholera)[ 14] 20 July – Sir Dan Godfrey , conductor, 71[ 15] 27 October – Nelly Bromley , singer and actress, 899 November – Charles Goulding , operatic tenor19 December – Eric Fogg , composer and conductor, 36 (killed by train)[ 16] date unknown – Colin Wark , film composer
^ Tuppen, Sandra (9 July 2013). "War and peace in Britten" . British Library. Retrieved 19 June 2014 . ^ Foreman, Lewis. The John Ireland Companion . The Boydell Press, 2011: p. xxxiii
^ Mitchell, Donald (ed) (1991). Letters From A Life: Selected Letters of Benjamin Britten, Vol. 1 1923–39 . London: Faber and Faber. ISBN 0-571-15221-X . p. 318
^ "Two Loves: Fiddle and Football" . The Mail Magazine . Adelaide. 15 July 1939. p. 11."Heimo Haiton voitto" . Helsingin Sanomat (in Finnish). Helsinki. 11 May 1939. p. 9.^ Schonberg, Harold C. (December 12, 1987). "Jascha Heifetz Is Dead at 86; A Virtuoso Since Childhood" . The New York Times . Retrieved 31 May 2017 . ^ Foreman, Lewis & Foreman, Susan. London: A Musical Gazetteer . Yale University Press, 2005: p. 36
^ Frank Edward Huggett (1979). Goodnight Sweetheart: Songs and Memories of the Second World War ISBN 978-0-491-02308-5 ^ Rubinstein, William D., ed. (2011-01-27). The Palgrave Dictionary of Anglo-Jewish History ISBN 9780230304666 ^ " . Archived from the original on 2024-03-29. Retrieved 2024-04-03 .^ Stephen C. Shafer, British Popular Films, 1929–1939: the Cinema of Reassurance
^ "BFI | Film & TV Database | YES, MADAM? (1938)" . Ftvdb.bfi.org.uk. 2009-04-16. Archived from the original on 2012-10-21. Retrieved 2012-03-16 .^ "Jet Harris" . The Telegraph . 18 March 2011. Retrieved 2 March 2020 .^ The Musical Times, Volume 49, February 1, 1908, page 118
^ Wright, Roger (2007-09-15). "John Foulds' Indian summer [print version: A composer's Indian summer]" . The Daily Telegraph (Review). Archived from the original on 2007-12-07. Retrieved 2021-07-25 . ^ Sean Street; Ray Carpenter (1 January 1993). The Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, 1893-1993: a centenary celebration ISBN 978-1-874336-10-5 ^ The Listener
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