1939 in British music

This is a summary of 1939 in music in the United Kingdom.

Events

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 June – the New York Philharmonic conducted by Sir Adrian Boult premiere 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, in a concert held at Carnegie Hall.
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.^[4]

Arnold Bax – Pastoral Fantasia for Viola and String Orchestra
Arthur Bliss – Piano Concerto in B flat
Benjamin Britten –
- Les Illuminations
- Violin Concerto
Herbert Howells – Concerto for Strings
William Lloyd Webber
- Lento in E major for string orchestra
- Waltz in E minor for orchestra
William Walton – Violin Concerto

20 January – Magyar Melody London production opened at His Majesty's Theatre and ran for 105 performances
23 March – The Dancing Years London production opened at the Drury Lane Theatre and ran for 187 performances
21 April The Little Revue London revue opened at The Little Theatre and ran for 415 performances
3 November – Runaway Love opened at the Saville Theatre on November 3 and ran for 195 performances
14 November – Black Velvet London revue opened at the Hippodrome Theatre and ran for 620 performances
21 December – Shephard's Pie London revue opened at the Princes Theatre on December 21
22 December Haw-Haw (Music: Harry Parr Davies Words: Phil Park Script: Max Miller & Ben Lyon) opened at the Holborn Empire. Starring Bebe Daniels, Ben Lyon and Max Miller.

8 March – Robert Tear, tenor (died 2011)
16 April – Dusty Springfield, singer (died 1999)
3 May – Jonathan Harvey, composer (died 2012)
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, drummer
30 August – John Peel, influential disc jockey (died 2004)
8 December – Sir James Galway, flautist
13 December – Eric Flynn, British actor and singer (died 2002)

^ 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 0-571-15221X. p. 318
^ Foreman, Lewis & Foreman, Susan. London: A Musical Gazetteer. Yale University Press, 2005: p. 36
^ Stephen C. Shafer, British Popular Films, 1929–1939: the Cinema of Reassurance (Oxford: Routledge, 1997), 186.
^ "BFI | Film & TV Database | YES, MADAM? (1938)". Ftvdb.bfi.org.uk. 2009-04-16. Retrieved 2012-03-16.
^ 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). {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
^ The Argus, 30 March 2006^{[permanent dead link]}