1936 in British music

Events

4 February – Documentary film Night Mail, on which Benjamin Britten has collaborated with W. H. Auden (with score recorded in January), is premiered at the Cambridge Arts Theatre.^[1]
12 May – Ralph Vaughan Williams's opera The Poisoned Kiss is given its first performance by the Intimate Opera Company, conducted by Cyril Rootham, at the Cambridge Arts Theatre.^[2]
June – Sir Malcolm Sargent courts controversy by giving an interview to The Daily Telegraph in which he says that an orchestral musician does not deserve a "job for life" and should "give of his lifeblood with every bar he plays". Musicians take offence because of their support of him during his recent recovery from tuberculosis.^[3]
1 September – Arthur Rubinstein plays John Ireland's Piano Concerto in E-flat major at the Proms at Queen's Hall.^[4]
25 September – Sophie Wyss sings the premiere of Britten's Our Hunting Fathers in Norwich, with the London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by the composer.^[1]
date unknown – Granville Bantock begins an affair with Muriel Mann.^[5]

Classical music: new works

Arnold Bax
- Threnody and Scherzo
- String Quartet No. 3 in F major
William Henry Bell – The Tumbler of Our Lady for soloists, choruses and orchestra
Frank Bridge – Movement for String Quartet
Benjamin Britten – Our Hunting Fathers
Alan Bush – Concert Piece for Cello and Piano
Erik Chisholm – The Forsaken Mermaid (ballet)
Eric Coates – Saxo Rhapsody
Gerald Finzi – Earth and Air and Rain
Dorothy Gow – Oboe Quintet^[8]
Constant Lambert – Summer's Last Will and Testament^[9]
Haldane Stewart
- "The Winds at Bethlehem" (carol, with words by W. M. Letts)^[10]
- "Penned are the Sheep" (carol, with words by R. K. Davis)^[11]
William Walton – Theme for Improvisation
Ralph Vaughan Williams – Dona Nobis Pacem
Percy Whitlock – Sonata for Organ in C minor^[12]

4 January – John Gorman, entertainer (The Scaffold)
29 January – Malcolm Binns, pianist
23 February – Trevor Beeton, plumber
22 March – Roger Whittaker, Kenyan-born singer-songwriter
29 March – Richard Rodney Bennett, composer and pianist (died 2012)^[19]
20 April – Christopher Robinson, organist and conductor^[20]
2 May – Engelbert Humperdinck, singer
7 May – Cornelius Cardew, composer and musicologist (died 1981)
12 May – David Snell, harpist, composer and conductor
25 June – Roy Williamson, folk singer-songwriter (died 1990)
27 June – Robin Hall, folk singer (died 1998)^[21]
26 July – Mary Millar, singer and actress (died 1998)
2 August – Anthony Payne, composer
7 September – George Cassidy, jazz musician and music teacher to Van Morrison (died 2023)^[22]
16 September – Gordon Beck, jazz pianist (died 2011)
24 October – Bill Wyman, rock bassist
5 November – Richard Drakeford, composer (died 2009)
14 November – Freddie Garrity, singer (Freddie and the Dreamers) (died 2006)
17 December – Tommy Steele, singer

Events