1914 in British music
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This is a summary of 1914 in music in the United Kingdom.
Events
- 21 January â Edward Elgar makes the first recordings of his music, including the miniature "Carissima" prior to its public premiere.[1]
- February â Regal Recordings issues its first records.
- 2 February â The restrictions on performances of Wagner's opera Parsifal outside of Bayreuth having been withdrawn, the first staged British performance opens at London's Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.[2]
- 27 February â George Butterworth's The Banks of Green Willow is premièred at West Kirby, Liverpool, conducted by Adrian Boult.
- 16 March â A new concert hall, the Usher Hall, opens in Edinburgh.
- c. June â First publication of Orchestration, the classic book by Cecil Forsyth.
- 26 August â Rutland Boughton's "fairy opera" The Immortal Hour is premièred at Glastonbury Assembly Rooms as part of the inaugural Glastonbury Festival, co-founded by the socialist composer.[3] On 5 August the first concert concluded with the choral song "The Last Post" by Charles Villiers Stanford in lieu of the Grail Dance from Parsifal "owing to the outbreak of war."[4]
- 24 October â Italian-born Welsh-resident operatic soparano Adelina Patti gives her final public performance, in a Red Cross concert for the benefit of First World War veterans, at London's Royal Albert Hall.[5]
- 31 December â English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams, aged 42, volunteers for war service, initially as a private with the Royal Army Medical Corps.[6]
Popular music
Classical music: new works
- Kenneth J. Alford â Colonel Bogey March
- Granville Bantock â The Song of Liberty
- Frederick Delius â Violin Sonata No. 1
- Edward Elgar â "The Shower" and "The Fountain", SATB unacc., words by Henry Vaughan, Op. 71 Nos.1 and 2
- Herbert Howells â Piano Concerto No. 1
- Roger Quilter â A Children's Overture
- Ralph Vaughan Williams
- The Lark Ascending (original version completed)
- Symphony No. 2, A London Symphony
Opera
- Rutland Boughton â The Immortal Hour (see Events)
Musical theatre
- 4 November â Revival of The Earl and the Girl by Seymour Hicks, with lyrics by Percy Greenbank and music by Ivan Caryll, at the Aldwych Theatre.[7]
Births
- 11 March â William Lloyd Webber, organist and composer (died 1982)
- 24 May â Harry Parr Davies, composer and songwriter (died 1955)
- 23 August â Harold Truscott, composer, pianist, broadcaster and writer on music (died 1992)
- 14 December â Rosalyn Tureck, pianist (died 2003)
Deaths
- 7 January â Patrick Weston Joyce, historian and musicologist, 86
- 23 July â Harry Evans, conductor and composer, 41
- 13 September â Robert Hope-Jones, inventor of the theatre organ, 55 (suicide)[8]