This is a summary of 1904 in music in the United Kingdom.
Events
7 January - The first performance of the Nonet for Four Voices, Four Strings and Pianoforte by Henry Walford Davies, with the composer at the piano, takes place at the St James's Hall in London.
14 March - The opening of a three day Elgar Festival at Covent Garden - the first time such as event has been put on for a living English composer - which concludes on 16 March with the first performance of the orchestral work In the South.[1]
20 May - Frank Bridge conducts the first performance of his symphonic poem, Mid of the Night at the St James’ Hall in London.
9 June - The London Symphony Orchestra puts on its inaugural concert under the direction of Hans Richter at the Queen’s Hall. The program includes music by Wagner, Bach, Mozart, Elgar and Liszt, concluding with Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony.[2]
5 July - Edward Elgar is knighted at the King’s investiture.[2]
20 August – The UK premiere of Claude Debussy‘s Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune takes place at the Proms in the Queen’s Hall, nearly ten years after its premiere in Paris. Debussy’s music was not well known in the UK until the late Edwardian period.
7 September – The Love that Casteth Out Fear, a “sinfonia sacra” for contralto, bass, semi-chorus and orchestra by Sir Hubert Parry, is performed for the first time in Gloucester.[2]
21 September – The first performance of Edward German's Welsh Rhapsody, conducted by the composer, takes place at the Cardiff Music Festival.[2]
6 October – Everyman, a choral cantata by Sir Henry Walford Davies, is premiered at the Leeds Festival, conducted by Charles Stanford.[4]
Other premieres at the Leeds Festival in October include Queen Mab, a poem for chorus and orchestra by Joseph Holbrooke, Five Songs of the Sea by Stanford. The Witches Daughter by Alexander Mackenzie and A Ballad of Dundee by Charles Wood.
26 November – The first performance of Joseph Holbrooke’s orchestral tone poem Ulalume is conducted by the composer at the Queen’s Hall.
^"Show Girldom's Zenith in New Musical Play". The New York Times. 29 August 1905. p. 5.
^Randel, Don Michael, ed. (1996). "Addinsell, Richard (Stewart)". The Harvard biographical dictionary of music. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Belknap Press of Harvard Univ. Press. pp. 5. ISBN0-674-37299-9.
^"Vivian Ellis". Robert Farnon Society. Archived from the original on 27 December 2009. Retrieved 18 June 2009. His date of birth is frequently given as 1904 but the Births, Marriages and Deaths Index gives 1903 as the year of registration.