1929 in British music

Events

• 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 is performed at the Proms for the first time since 1902. It has become a regular annual fixture of the festival ever since.
• 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.
• 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 His Master's Voice 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.

Popular music

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

Classical music: new works

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

Opera

• Ralph Vaughan Williams – ''Sir John in Love''

Musical theatre

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

Musical films

• Auld Lang Syne, starring Sir Harry Lauder and Dorothy Boyd
• The Broken Melody, starring Enid Stamp Taylor

Births

• 5 January – Norman Kay, composer
• 28 January – Acker Bilk, jazz clarinetist and band leader
• 14 February – Wyn Morris, conductor
• 25 February – Sandy Brown, Scottish clarinetist
• 5 April – Joe Meek, record producer
• 6 April – Edmund Percey, architect and jazz pianist
• 11 May – Stan Kane, Scottish-Canadian actor and singer
• 13 June – Alan Civil, horn player
• 9 July – Alex Welsh, Scottish singer, cornetist, and trumpeter
• 2 August – Roy Crimmins, trombonist and composer
• 5 August – John Armatage, drummer and arranger
• 11 August – Alun Hoddinott, composer
• 20 September – Joe Temperley, jazz saxophonist
• 2 October – Kenneth Leighton, pianist and composer
• 4 November – Dickie Valentine, singer
• 11 December – Kenneth MacMillan, ballet dancer and choreographer
• date unknown – Maurice Handford, horn player

Deaths

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