This is a summary of 1944 in music in the United Kingdom .
List of years in British music
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4 January – Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears begin a long association with Decca Records , recording four of Britten's folk song arrangements.[ 1] Snape, Suffolk , working on the opera Peter Grimes March – Vera Lynn goes to Shamsheernugger airfield in British India to entertain the troops before the Battle of Kohima .[ 2]
19 March – Michael Tippett 's oratorio A Child of Our Time London 's Adelphi Theatre .25 May – Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears record Britten's Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings Dennis Brain and the Boyd Neel Orchestra.[ 3] 19 June – American bandleader Glenn Miller flies to London to set up his U.S. Army Air Forces orchestra for the European Theater of Operations .[ 4] 28 July – Sir Henry Wood , aged 75, conducts his last Promenade Concert , evacuated to the Corn Exchange, Bedford .[ 5] 20 September – Yehudi Menuhin gives the first British performance of Béla Bartók 's Violin Concerto in Bedford, in the opening concert of a tour with the B.B.C. Orchestra conducted by Sir Adrian Boult.23 September – English-born composer and violist Rebecca Clarke , stranded in the United States by the war, marries James Friskin , composer, concert pianist and founding member of the Juilliard School faculty.[ 6] 3 October – Glenn Miller plays his last airfield concert in a hangar for the U.S.A.A.F. at RAF Kings Cliffe in Northamptonshire.[ 4] 15 December – Glenn Miller takes off from RAF Twinwood Farm in Bedfordshire; his plane is lost over the English Channel .[ 4] Contralto Kathleen Ferrier makes the first of her recordings of the aria "What is Life?" (Che farò ) from Gluck 's Orfeo ed Euridice [ 7] Classical music: new works
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Film and Incidental music
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3 January – David Atherton , conductor[ 13] 5 January – Jo Ann Kelly , singer and guitarist (John Dummer Band ) (died 1990 )[ 14] 9 January – Jimmy Page , rock musician and producer (Led Zeppelin)[ 15] 19 January – Laurie London , English singer[ 16] 27 January – Nick Mason , percussionist and composer (Pink Floyd)[ 17] 28 January – John Tavener , composer (died 2013 )[ 18] 2 February – Andrew Davis , conductor[ 19] 15 February – Mick Avory , drummer1 March – Roger Daltrey , vocalist (The Who )[ 20] 17 March – John Lill , pianist[ 21] 23 March
6 April – Felicity Palmer , operatic mezzo-soprano[ 24] 26 April – Richard Bradshaw , opera conductor (died 2007 )8 May
10 May – Jackie Lomax , singer-songwriter and guitarist (The Undertakers ) (died 2013 )12 May – Brian Kay , singer, conductor, and radio host (The King's Singers )20 May – Joe Cocker , singer (died 2014 )17 June – Chris Spedding , singer-songwriter and guitarist21 June – Ray Davies , singer-songwriter (The Kinks )22 June – Peter Asher , singer and record producer (Peter & Gordon )24 June
22 July – Rick Davies , keyboardist (Supertramp )2 August – Jim Capaldi , musician and songwriter (died 2005 )[ 25] 5 August – Christopher Gunning , composer16 August – Kevin Ayers , singer-songwriter (died 2013 )10 September – Thomas Allen , operatic baritone9 October – John Entwistle , bassist (The Who) (died 2002 )2 November – Keith Emerson , keyboardist and composer (died 2016 )10 November – Tim Rice , lyricist
19 January – Harold Fraser-Simson , songwriter and composer of light music (born 1872 )[ 26] 6 February – Philip Michael Faraday , organist, composer and theatrical producer (born 1875 )[ 27] 12 February – Annie Fortescue Harrison , songwriter and composer of piano music (born 1850 or 1851)29 February – Durward Lely , operatic tenor (born 1852 )9 May – Dame Ethel Smyth , composer (born 1858 )[ 28] 24 June – Chick Henderson , dance band singer (born 1912 ; killed in action)[ 29] 4 July – Alice Burville , singer and actress (born 1856 )11 July – Frank Bury , composer (born 1910 ; killed in action)[ 30] [ 31] 13 July – Eda Kersey , violinist (born 1904 ; stomach cancer)[ 32] 19 August – Sir Henry Wood , conductor (born 1869 )[ 33] 21 September – Louis N. Parker , dramatist, composer and translator (born 1852 )[ 34]
^ Stuart, Philip. Decca Classical 1929–2009
^ "Technology Obituaries: Bernard Holden" . The Daily Telegraph . London. 2012-10-04. Retrieved 2014-06-14 .^ Mitchell, Donald (ed) (1991). Letters From A Life: Selected Letters of Benjamin Britten, Vol. 2 1939–45 . London: Faber and Faber. ISBN 0-571-16058-1 . p. 1196.
^ a b c Polic, Edward F. (1989). The Glenn Miller Army Air Force Band . Metuchen: Scarecrow Press. ISBN 978-0810822696 ^ "Jubilee Prom". The Yorkshire Post . Leeds. 1944-07-28. from the rural B.B.C. studio to which the concerts have been transferred. ^ Curtis, Liane (May 1996). "A Case of Identity" (PDF) . Musical Times : 20. ^ Campion, Paul (2005). Ferrier – A Career Recorded . London: Thames Publishing. pp. 43–44. ISBN 0-903413-71-X ^ John C. Dressler (March 2013). William Alwyn: A Research and Information Guide ISBN 978-1-136-66003-0 ^ Kevin Sweeney (1999). James Mason: A Bio-bibliography ISBN 978-0-313-28496-0 ^ Jefferson Hunter (5 April 2010). English Filming, English Writing ISBN 978-0-253-00414-7 ^ Jan G. Swynnoe (2002). The Best Years of British Film Music, 1936-1958 ISBN 978-0-85115-862-4 ^ Kennedy, Michael. "Walton, Sir William Turner (1902–1983)" , Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , Oxford University Press, 2004; online edition, May 2008, retrieved 27 September 2010 (subscription required)
^ Gerald Norris (June 1981). A musical gazetteer of Great Britain & Ireland ISBN 978-0-7153-7845-8 ^ Colin Larkin (1998). The Virgin Encyclopedia of the Blues ISBN 978-0-7535-0226-6 ^ Joseph Murrells (31 December 1984). Million selling records from the 1900s to the 1980s: an illustrated directory ISBN 978-0-7134-3843-7 ^ Joseph Murrells (1978). The Book of Golden Discs ISBN 978-0-214-20480-7 ^ Vernon Fitch (2005). The Pink Floyd Encyclopedia ISBN 978-1-894959-24-7 ^ Maggie Humphreys; Robert Evans (1 January 1997). Dictionary of Composers for the Church in Great Britain and Ireland ISBN 978-0-7201-2330-2 ^ Roderick L. Sharpe; Jeanne Koekkoek Stierman (30 May 2008). Maestros in America: Conductors in the 21st Century ISBN 978-1-4616-6948-7 ^ Ben Marshall (27 October 2015). The Who: 50 Years: The Official History ISBN 978-0-06-239638-9 ^ Gerald Norris (June 1981). A musical gazetteer of Great Britain & Ireland ISBN 978-0-7153-7845-8 ^ Adam Sweeting (10 June 2023). "Tony McPheen". The Guardian . London. ^ Colin Larkin (2000). The Virgin Encyclopedia of Nineties Music ISBN 978-0-7535-0427-7 ^ Laura Williams Macy (2008). The Grove Book of Opera Singers ISBN 978-0-19-533765-5 ^ Roberts, David (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums (19th ed.). London: Guinness World Records Limited. p. 92. ISBN 1-904994-10-5 ^ The Times ^ John Parker (1916). Who's who in the Theatre ^ Ethel Smyth (16 April 2013). Impressions That Remained - Memoirs of Ethel Smyth ISBN 978-1-4465-4542-3 ^ [1] CWGC Casualty Record.^ CWGC entry ^ Edward Greenfield; Robert Layton (2000). The Penguin Guide to Yearbook 2000-2001: Best Buys in Classical Music ISBN 978-0-14-051382-0 ^ The Strad ^ Stephen Lloyd (2001). William Walton: Muse of Fire ISBN 978-0-85115-803-7 ^ Wilson library bulletin
