1934 in British music

Events

• February – Sir Edward Elgar dies and is buried next to his wife at St Wulstan's Roman Catholic Church in Little Malvern. Elgar leaves behind 130 pages of notes which Anthony Payne uses to reconstruct his unfinished Third Symphony; it would be premièred in 1998. Elgar is replaced as Master of the King's Music by Sir Walford Davies.
• 28 May – Opening of the first Glyndebourne Festival Opera season.
• June – Sir Henry Lytton retires from the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company.

Popular music

• "The Bluebird Of Happiness" w. Edward Heyman & Harry Parr-Davies m. Sandor Hamati
• "Home, James, and Don't Spare the Horses", by Fred Hillebrand, recorded by Jay Wilbur and later by Elsie Carlisle, with Ambrose and his Orchestra
• "If (They Made Me a King)", music by Tolchard Evans and lyrics by Robert Hargreaves and Stanley J. Damerell
• "I'll Follow My Secret Heart" w.m. Noël Coward, Introduced by Noël Coward and Yvonne Printemps in the musical Conversation Piece
• Albert Ketèlbey – ''From a Japanese Screen''

Recordings

• Sam Browne, Ambrose and his Orchestra – "Stay As Sweet As You Are"
• Stanley Holloway – "With Her Head Tucked Underneath Her Arm"

Classical music: new works

• Arnold Bax
• *Clarinet Sonata
• *Northern Ballad No. 2
• Frank Bridge – A Merry, Merry Xmas
• Benjamin Britten
• *Simple Symphony
• *Te Deum in C
• Edward German – Cloverley Suite
• Walter Leigh – Concertino for Harpsichord and String Orchestra
• William Reed – Homage to Delius, for string sextet
• Ralph Vaughan Williams – Suite for Viola and Orchestra

Opera

• Gustav Holst – The Wandering Scholar
• Michael Tippett – ''Robin Hood''

Film and Incidental music

• Arthur Bliss – Things to Come
• Ernest Irving – ''Autumn Crocus''

Musical theatre

• 19 February – The revue Yours Sincerely, starring Binnie Barnes opens at Daly's Theatre.
• 31 March – Sporting Love opens at the Gaiety Theatre and runs for 302 performances.
• 27 September – London production of Yes, Madam? opens at the Hippodrome and runs for 302 performances

Musical films

• Evergreen, produced by Michael Balcon, starring Jessie Matthews
• Music Hall, starring George Carney, with music by W. L. Trytel
• The Broken Melody, starring John Garrick, Margot Grahame and Merle Oberon, with music by W. L. Trytel

Births

• 13 January – Geoff Bradford, guitarist
• 29 January – Noel Harrison, singer and actor
• 4 March – John Churchill Dunn, DJ
• 8 March – John McLeod, composer
• 29 March – Delme Bryn-Jones, operatic baritone
• 7 April – Victor Feldman, jazz musician
• 5 May – Jim Reid, folk musician
• 9 May – Roy Massey, organist and conductor
• 24 May – Barry Rose, choir-trainer and organist
• 3 June – Bob Wallis, jazz musician
• 2 July – Tom Springfield, singer-songwriter and producer
• 15 July – Harrison Birtwistle, composer
• 26 July – Anthony Gilbert, composer
• 8 September – Peter Maxwell Davies, composer
• 19 September – Brian Epstein, manager of the Beatles
• 26 September – Geoffrey Grey, composer
• 30 September – Sheila Tracy, trombonist and radio presenter
• 1 November – William Mathias, composer
• 15 November – Peter Dickinson, English pianist and composer
• 20 November – Colin Smith, jazz trumpeter
• 4 December – Chas McDevitt, skiffle musician
• 9 December – Alan Ridout, composer
• 16 December – Jim Parker, composer

Deaths

• 23 February – Sir Edward Elgar, composer, 76
• 25 February – Daniel Protheroe, composer and conductor, 67
• 3 March – George Ratcliffe Woodward, poet and composer, 85
• 7 May – Edward Naylor, organist and composer, 67
• 25 May – Gustav Holst, composer, 59
• 10 June
• *Frederick Delius, composer, 82
• *Julia Gwynne, opera singer, 77
• 11 August – Kalitha Dorothy Fox, composer, 40
• 10 September – George Henschel, German-born baritone singer, pianist, conductor and composer, 84
• 24 September – Edwin Lemare, organist and composer, 69