1929 in British music

This is a summary of 1929 in music in the United Kingdom.

• 22 January – Gordon Jacob's First String Quartet is premiered by the Spencer Dyke Quartet in London.
• 13 June – Eugene Goossens conducts the UK premiere of Ottorino Respighi's Feste Romane, at the Queen's Hall, London.
• 27 June – First London performances of two ballets by Igor Stravinsky, Apollon musagète and Le baiser de la fée, conducted by the composer at the Kingsway Hall and broadcast on the wireless.
• 4 October – Beethoven’s complete Ninth Symphony (with full chorus) is performed at the Proms for the first time since 1902. It has become a regular annual fixture of the festival ever since.^[1]
• 12 October – Sir Thomas Beecham, supported by Peter Warlock, launches a six-day festival of the work of Frederick Delius, at the Queen's Hall in London. The composer attends in his wheelchair.^[2]
• October – George Formby has a recording session with Dominion Records.
• date unknown
  • Jimmy Campbell and Reg Connelly form their music publishing company as a result of the success of their song "Show Me the Way to Go Home".
  • Ray Noble becomes leader of the New Mayfair Dance Orchestra, an HMV Records studio band featuring members of many of the top hotel orchestras of the day.
  • Will Fyffe participates in a screen test, shot for Pathe in New York; it provides rare screen footage of his music hall act.

• "Dear Little Cafe" w.m. Noël Coward
• "I Lift Up My Finger (and I Say "Tweet Tweet")" w.m. Leslie Sarony
• "Spread a Little Happiness" w.m. Vivian Ellis, recorded by Binnie Hale

• Kenneth J. Alford
  • Old Panama
  • HM Jollies
• Arnold Bax – Symphony No. 3
• Benjamin Britten – Rhapsody for String Quartet^[3]
• Alan Bush – Dialectic Op. 15 for string quartet^[4]
• Frederick Delius – Cynara^[5]
• David John de Lloyd – Forty Welsh Traditional Tunes (arrangements)
• John Ireland – Ballad
• William Walton – Viola Concerto

• Ralph Vaughan Williams – Sir John in Love

• 12 July – Bitter Sweet, by Noël Coward, opens at His Majesty's Theatre.

• Auld Lang Syne, starring Sir Harry Lauder and Dorothy Boyd (silent film with soundtrack added later)^[6]
• The Broken Melody, starring Enid Stamp Taylor (silent film with soundtrack added later)^[7]

• 5 January – Norman Kay, composer (died 2001)^[8]
• 28 January – Acker Bilk, jazz clarinetist and band leader (died 2014)^[9]
• 14 February – Wyn Morris, conductor (died 2010)
• 25 February – Sandy Brown, Scottish clarinetist (died 1975)
• 5 April – Joe Meek, record producer (died 1967)
• 6 April – Edmund Percey, architect and jazz pianist (died 2014)
• 11 May – Stan Kane, Scottish-Canadian actor and singer (died 2015)
• 13 June – Alan Civil, horn player (died 1989)^[10]
• 9 July – Alex Welsh, Scottish singer, cornetist, and trumpeter (died 1982)
• 2 August – Roy Crimmins, trombonist and composer (died 2014)
• 5 August – John Armatage, drummer and arranger
• 11 August – Alun Hoddinott, composer (died 2008)
• 20 September – Joe Temperley, jazz saxophonist (died 2016)
• 2 October – Kenneth Leighton, pianist and composer (died 1988)
• 4 November – Dickie Valentine, singer (died 1971)
• 11 December – Kenneth MacMillan, ballet dancer and choreographer (died 1992)
• date unknown – Maurice Handford, horn player (died 1986)^[11]

• 12 February – Lillie Langtry, singer and actress, 75^[12]
• 22 August – Lucy Broadwood, folk song collector and researcher, 71^[13]
• 7 September – Frederic Weatherly, songwriter, 80^[14]
• 29 December – Josiah Booth, hymn-writer, 77^[15]

• 1929 in British television
• 1929 in the United Kingdom
• List of British films of 1929