# 1929 in British music

This is a summary of 1929 in music in the United Kingdom.

## Events

* 22 January – Gordon Jacob's First String Quartet is premiered by the Spencer Dyke Quartet in London.
* 13 June – Eugene Goossens conducts the UK premiere of Ottorino Respighi's Feste Romane, at the Queen's Hall, London.
* 27 June – First London performances of two ballets by Igor Stravinsky, Apollon musagète and Le baiser de la fée, conducted by the composer at the Kingsway Hall and broadcast on the wireless.
* 4 October – Beethoven’s complete Ninth Symphony (with full chorus) is performed at the Proms for the first time since 1902. It has become a regular annual fixture of the festival ever since.
* 12 October – Sir Thomas Beecham, supported by Peter Warlock, launches a six-day festival of the work of Frederick Delius, at the Queen's Hall in London. The composer attends in his wheelchair.
* October – George Formby has a recording session with Dominion Records.
* date unknown
** Jimmy Campbell and Reg Connelly form their music publishing company as a result of the success of their song "Show Me the Way to Go Home".
** Ray Noble becomes leader of the New Mayfair Dance Orchestra, an His Master's Voice studio band featuring members of many of the top hotel orchestras of the day.
** Will Fyffe participates in a screen test, shot for Pathe in New York; it provides rare screen footage of his music hall act.

## Popular music

* "Dear Little Cafe" w.m. Noël Coward
* "I Lift Up My Finger (and I Say "Tweet Tweet")" w.m. Leslie Sarony
* "Spread a Little Happiness" w.m. Vivian Ellis, recorded by Binnie Hale

## Classical music: new works

* Kenneth J. Alford
** Old Panama
** HM Jollies
* Arnold Bax – Symphony No. 3
* Benjamin Britten – Rhapsody for String Quartet
* Alan Bush – Dialectic Op. 15 for string quartet
* Frederick Delius – Cynara
* David John de Lloyd – Forty Welsh Traditional Tunes (arrangements)
* John Ireland – Ballad
* William Walton – Viola Concerto

## Opera

* Ralph Vaughan Williams – Sir John in Love

## Musical theatre

* 12 July – Bitter Sweet, by Noël Coward, opens at His Majesty's Theatre.

## Musical films

* Auld Lang Syne, starring Sir Harry Lauder and Dorothy Boyd (silent film with soundtrack added later)
* The Broken Melody, starring Enid Stamp Taylor (silent film with soundtrack added later)

## Births

* 5 January – Norman Kay, composer (died 2001)
* 28 January – Acker Bilk, jazz clarinetist and band leader (died 2014)
* 14 February – Wyn Morris, conductor (died 2010)
* 25 February – Sandy Brown, Scottish clarinetist (died 1975)
* 5 April – Joe Meek, record producer (died 1967)
* 6 April – Edmund Percey, architect and jazz pianist (died 2014)
* 11 May – Stan Kane, Scottish-Canadian actor and singer (died 2015)
* 13 June – Alan Civil, horn player (died 1989)
* 9 July – Alex Welsh, Scottish singer, cornetist, and trumpeter (died 1982)
* 2 August – Roy Crimmins, trombonist and composer (died 2014)
* 5 August – John Armatage, drummer and arranger
* 11 August – Alun Hoddinott, composer (died 2008)
* 20 September – Joe Temperley, jazz saxophonist (died 2016)
* 2 October – Kenneth Leighton, pianist and composer (died 1988)
* 4 November – Dickie Valentine, singer (died 1971)
* 11 December – Kenneth MacMillan, ballet dancer and choreographer (died 1992)
* date unknown – Maurice Handford, horn player (died 1986)

## Deaths

* 12 February – Lillie Langtry, singer and actress, 75
* 22 August – Lucy Broadwood, folk song collector and researcher, 71
* 7 September – Frederic Weatherly, songwriter, 80
* 29 December – Josiah Booth, hymn-writer, 77