1956 in British music

Events

February – Release of Shirley Bassey's first single, Burn My Candle (At Both Ends).

8 May - Benjamin Britten's opera Gloriana, written in 1953, is given its US première in Cincinnati, in concert form, conducted by Josef Krips.

14 May - Ralph Vaughan Williams's Symphony No. 8 receives its first London performance.

June - Arthur Bliss heads the first delegation by British musicians to the Soviet Union since the end of the Second World War. The party included the violinist Alfredo Campoli, the oboist Léon Goossens, the soprano Jennifer Vyvyan and the pianist Gerald Moore.

13 November – The first of a series of Hoffnung Music Festival Concerts takes place at the Royal Festival Hall, in London.

28 November – Yoko Ono, recently divorced from Japanese composer Toshi Ichiyanagi, marries Anthony Cox.

31 December - Flanders and Swann launch their two-man revue At the Drop of a Hat.

Charts

See UK No.1 Hits of 1956

Classical music: new works

Arthur Bliss –

Edinburgh Overture, for orchestra

Seek the Lord (anthem), SATB choir and organ

Reginald Smith Brindle – El Polifemo de Oro

Benjamin Britten –

Antiphon, Op. 56b, for SATB choir and organ

The Prince of the Pagodas, Op. 57 (ballet in three acts)

Peter Maxwell Davies – Sonata for Clarinet and Piano

Stephen Dodgson - Concerto No. 1 for Guitar and Orchestra

Cecil Armstrong Gibbs – Threnody

Gordon Jacob

Concerto No. 2 for Oboe and Orchestra

Sextet for Piano and Wind Quintet

Trio for Violin, Cello, and Piano

Variations on "Annie Laurie", for two piccolos, two contrabass clarinets, heckelphone, two contrabassoons, serpent, contrabass serpent, subcontrabass tuba, harmonium, and hurdy-gurdy

Michael Tippett –

Bonny at Morn (arr. of Northumbrian folksong), unison choir and three recorders

Songs from the British Isles (4), SATB choir

Ralph Vaughan Williams –

A Choral Flourish (text from the Psalms), for SATB choir, two trumpets, and organ

God Bless the Master of This House, for SATB choir

Preludes on Welsh Folksongs (2), for organ

Symphony No. 8

A Vision of Aeroplanes (text: N. Ezekiel), motet for SATB choir and organ

William Walton – Cello Concerto

Opera

Malcolm Arnold – The Open Window, Op. 56 (opera in one act, libretto by S. Gilliat, after Saki),

Film and Incidental music

Malcolm Arnold - 1984, starring Edmond O'Brien, Donald Pleasence, Jan Sterling and Michael Redgrave.

Brian Easdale - The Battle of the River Plate by director-writer team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, starring John Gregson, Anthony Quayle and Peter Finch.

Edward Williams - Doublecross directed by Anthony Squire, starring Donald Houston, Fay Compton and William Hartnell.

Musical theatre

Grab Me a Gondola by James Gilbert and Julien More, starring Denis Quilley

Musical films

The Good Companions, starring Eric Portman

It's a Wonderful World, starring George Cole and featuring Ted Heath and Dennis Lotis

It's Great to Be Young, starring John Mills and Cecil Parker

Stars in Your Eyes, starring Nat Jackley and Patricia Kirkwood

A Touch of the Sun, starring Frankie Howerd, Ruby Murray and Dennis Price

Births

17 January – Paul Young, singer

25 January – Andy Cox (The Beat, Fine Young Cannibals)

31 January – Johnny Rotten, singer (Sex Pistols)

12 February – Brian Robertson, Scottish guitarist and songwriter (Thin Lizzy, Motörhead, and Wild Horses)

13 February – Peter Hook, singer and bass player (Joy Division, New Order, Freebass, Revenge, and Monaco)

3 June - Lynne Dawson, operatic soprano

5 July

Terry Chimes, drummer (The Clash, Generation X, Hanoi Rocks, and Cowboys International)

Billy Jenkins, guitarist and composer (Voice of God Collective)

15 July – Ian Curtis, vocalist (Joy Division) (died 1980))

19 July –Nikki Sudden, English singer-songwriter and guitarist (Jacobites and Swell Maps) (d. 2006)

20 July

Paul Cook, English drummer (Sex Pistols, The Professionals, Chiefs of Relief, and Man Raze)

Michael Gordon, American composer

27 August – Glen Matlock, guitarist (Sex Pistols)

12 September - B. A. Robertson, singer-songwriter

27 October - Hazell Dean, singer

17 November - Philip Grange, composer

15 December - William Cauty, composter

19 December - Jimmy Cauty, artist and musician

28 December – Nigel Kennedy, violinist

Deaths

16 March – Joseph John Richards, conductor, composer and music teacher, 77

9 April - Jack Little, composer, actor, singer and songwriter

16 May - Orlando Morgan, music teacher, composer and musicologist, 91

18 July - Violet Loraine, musical theatre star, 69

6 September - Felix Borowski, British/American composer and teacher, 84

27 September – Gerald Finzi, composer, 55 ("severe brain inflammation")

18 October - Harry Parry, jazz clarinetist and bandleader, 44

8 December - Edgar Bainton, church music composer, 76

9 December - Ethel Scarborough, pianist and composer, 76

date unknown - George Oldroyd, organist and composer

Ivor Novello Awards

Best Song Musically and Lyrically - Mátyás Seiber & Norman Newell, "By the Fountains of Rome"