# 1932 in British music

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

## Events

* 7 October – The London Philharmonic Orchestra, recently founded by Thomas Beecham and Malcolm Sargent, gives its first public concert.
* 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)
* Arnold Cooke – Harp Quintet
* Gustav Holst
** "If 'twer the Time of Lilies", for two-part choir and piano, H187 (words by Helen Waddell)
** Jazz-Band Piece
** Jig, for piano, H179
* John Ireland – A Downland Suite
* Cyril Rootham – Symphony No 1 in C minor
* 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

## Opera

* Alfred Reynolds – Derby Day (with libretto by A. P. Herbert)

## Film and Incidental music

* John D. H. Greenwood – After Office Hours
* Louis Levy – White Face

## 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
* For the Love of Mike, directed by Monty Banks, starring Bobby Howes, Constance Shotter and Arthur Riscoe
* Goodnight, Vienna, directed by Herbert Wilcox, starring Jack Buchanan, Anna Neagle and Gina Malo
* Little Waitress, directed by Widgey R. Newman, starring Claude Bailey and Moore Marriott
* 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 (died 2020)
* 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)
* 27 June – Hugh Wood, composer
* 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)
* 18 September – Maureen Lehane, operatic mezzo-soprano (died 2010)
* 19 September – Lol Coxhill, jazz saxophonist (died 2012)
* 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
* 22 July – Hugh Blair, organist and composer, 67
* 21 August – Frederick Corder, composer and music teacher, 80
* 21 September – William Herbert Scott, church composer and hymn-writer, 70
* 23 November – Percy Pitt, organist and conductor, 62
* 4 December – Mona McBurney, pianist, teacher and composer, 70
* 10 December – Percy Fletcher, composer, 52