1932 in British music

Events

• 7 October – The London Philharmonic Orchestra, recently founded by Thomas Beecham and Malcolm Sargent, gives its first public concert.
• date unknown – Henry Hall becomes Director of the BBC Dance Orchestra.

Popular music

• "Ain't it grand to be blooming well dead?" w. Leslie Sarony
• "The Flies Crawled Up The Window" w.m. Douglas Furber & Vivian Ellis
• "Love Is The Sweetest Thing" w.m. Ray Noble
• "Mad About the Boy" w.m. Noël Coward
• "What More Can I Ask?" w. A. E. Wilkins m. Ray Noble

Classical music: new works

• Arnold Bax
• *Concerto for Cello and Orchestra
• *Sinfonietta
• *Sonata No. 4, for piano
• *Summer Music, for orchestra
• *Symphony No. 5
• *"Watching the Needleboats", for voice and piano
• Arthur Benjamin – Violin Concerto
• Arthur Bliss – A Colour Symphony
• Arnold Cooke – Harp Quintet
• Gustav Holst
• *"If 'twer the Time of Lilies", for two-part choir and piano, H187
• *Jazz-Band Piece
• *Jig, for piano, H179
• John Ireland – A Downland Suite
• Cyril Rootham – Symphony No 1 in C minor
• Michael Tippett – String Trio in B Flat
• Ralph Vaughan Williams – Magnificat for contralto, women's chorus, and orchestra
• William Walton – 3 Songs to Poems by Edith Sitwell
• Grace Williams
• *Suite for orchestra
• *''Two Psalms for contralto, harp and strings''

Opera

• Alfred Reynolds – ''Derby Day''

Film and Incidental music

• John D. H. Greenwood – After Office Hours
• Louis Levy – ''White Face''

Musical theatre

• 16 September – Words and Music, a London revue by Noël Coward, opens at the Adelphi Theatre.

Musical films

• Carmen, directed by Cecil Lewis, starring Marguerite Namara and Thomas F. Burke
• For the Love of Mike, directed by Monty Banks, starring Bobby Howes, Constance Shotter and Arthur Riscoe
• Goodnight, Vienna, directed by Herbert Wilcox, starring Jack Buchanan, Anna Neagle and Gina Malo
• Little Waitress, directed by Widgey R. Newman, starring Claude Bailey and Moore Marriott
• The Maid of the Mountains, directed by Lupino Lane, starring Nancy Brown and Harry Welchman

Births

• 3 January – Johanna Peters, operatic mezzo-soprano
• 12 January – Des O'Connor, comedian, singer and television host
• 19 January – Russ Hamilton, English singer-songwriter
• 23 January – Cyril Davies, blues musician
• 29 January – Myer Fredman, British-Australian conductor
• 26 February – Jean Allister, opera singer
• 31 March – John Mitchinson, operatic tenor
• 19 May
• *John Barnes, saxophonist and clarinet player
• *Alma Cogan, singer
• 21 May – Robert Sherlaw Johnson, pianist and composer
• 27 June – Hugh Wood, composer
• 16 July – John Chilton, jazz trumpeter
• 31 August – Roy Castle, actor, musician and singer
• 11 September – Ian Hamer, jazz trumpeter
• 18 September – Maureen Lehane, operatic mezzo-soprano
• 19 September – Lol Coxhill, jazz saxophonist
• 15 November – Petula Clark, singer, actress, and songwriter
• 26 December – Clive Westlake, songwriter

Deaths

• 28 January – Poldowski, Belgian-born British pianist and composer, 52
• 3 March – Eugen d'Albert, Scottish-born German pianist and composer, 67
• 14 May – John Hughes, composer of Cwm Rhondda
• 22 July – Hugh Blair, organist and composer, 67
• 21 August – Frederick Corder, composer and music teacher, 80
• 21 September – William Herbert Scott, church composer and hymn-writer, 70
• 23 November – Percy Pitt, organist and conductor, 62
• 4 December – Mona McBurney, pianist, teacher and composer, 70
• 10 December – Percy Fletcher, composer, 52