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]
1 September –
Henry Wood conducts a concert of
Beethoven - the Symphony No 6 and the Piano Concerto No 2 - then announces to the audience that the rest of the season is cancelled, because Britain is at war with Germany.
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.[6]
^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.
ISBN0-571-15221-X. p. 318
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]
1 September –
Henry Wood conducts a concert of
Beethoven - the Symphony No 6 and the Piano Concerto No 2 - then announces to the audience that the rest of the season is cancelled, because Britain is at war with Germany.
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.[6]
^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.
ISBN0-571-15221-X. p. 318