1936 in British music

Events

• 4 February – Documentary film Night Mail, on which Benjamin Britten has collaborated with W. H. Auden, is premiered at the Cambridge Arts Theatre.
• 12 May – Ralph Vaughan Williams's opera The Poisoned Kiss is given its first performance by the Intimate Opera Company, conducted by Cyril Rootham, at the Cambridge Arts Theatre.
• June – Sir Malcolm Sargent courts controversy by giving an interview to The Daily Telegraph in which he says that an orchestral musician does not deserve a "job for life" and should "give of his lifeblood with every bar he plays". Musicians take offence because of their support of him during his recent recovery from tuberculosis.
• 1 September – Arthur Rubinstein plays John Ireland's Piano Concerto in E-flat major at the Proms at Queen's Hall.
• 25 September – Sophie Wyss sings the premiere of Britten's Our Hunting Fathers in Norwich, with the London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by the composer.
• date unknown – Granville Bantock begins an affair with Muriel Mann.

Popular music

• "Has Anybody Seen Our Ship?" w.m. Noël Coward
• "Let's Have A Tiddley At The Milk Bar", w.m. Noel Gay, sung by Nellie Wallace
• "The Window Cleaner", by Fred Cliff, Harry Gifford and George Formby

Classical music: new works

• Arnold Bax
• *Threnody and Scherzo
• *String Quartet No. 3 in F major
• William Henry Bell – The Tumbler of Our Lady for soloists, choruses and orchestra
• Frank Bridge – Movement for String Quartet
• Benjamin Britten – Our Hunting Fathers
• Alan Bush – Concert Piece for Cello and Piano
• Erik Chisholm – The Forsaken Mermaid
• Eric Coates – Saxo Rhapsody
• Gerald Finzi – Earth and Air and Rain
• Dorothy Gow – Oboe Quintet
• Constant Lambert – Summer's Last Will and Testament
• Haldane Stewart
• *"The Winds at Bethlehem"
• *"Penned are the Sheep"
• William Walton – Theme for Improvisation
• Ralph Vaughan Williams – Dona Nobis Pacem
• Percy Whitlock – Sonata for Organ in C minor

Opera

• Roger Quilter – ''Julia''

Film and Incidental music

• Hubert Bath – Tudor Rose
• Allan Gray – The House of the Spaniard
• Leighton Lucas – ''The Cardinal''

Musical theatre

• 22 December – The London production of Balalaika opens at the Adelphi Theatre and runs for 570 performances.
• 11 September – Careless Rapture opens at the Theatre Royal on and runs for 295 performances.

Musical films

Births

• 4 January – John Gorman, entertainer
• 29 January – Malcolm Binns, pianist
• 23 February – Trevor Beeton, plumber
• 22 March – Roger Whittaker, Kenyan-born singer-songwriter
• 29 March – Richard Rodney Bennett, composer and pianist
• 20 April – Christopher Robinson, organist and conductor
• 2 May – Engelbert Humperdinck, singer
• 7 May – Cornelius Cardew, composer and musicologist
• 12 May – David Snell, harpist, composer and conductor
• 25 June – Roy Williamson, folk singer-songwriter
• 27 June – Robin Hall, folk singer
• 26 July – Mary Millar, singer and actress
• 2 August – Anthony Payne, composer
• 7 September – George Cassidy, jazz musician and music teacher to Van Morrison
• 16 September – Gordon Beck, jazz pianist
• 24 October – Bill Wyman, rock bassist
• 5 November – Richard Drakeford, composer
• 14 November – Freddie Garrity, singer
• 17 December – Tommy Steele, singer

Deaths

• 23 January – Dame Clara Butt, operatic contralto, 63
• 11 February – Florence Smithson, singer, 51
• 3 March – Ethel Mary Boyce, composer, pianist and teacher, 73
• 4 March – Ernest Pike, tenor, 64
• 18 May – Alick Maclean, conductor and composer, 63
• 4 June – Mathilde Verne, pianist and teacher, 71
• 15 August – Sir Henry Lytton, Gilbert & Sullivan comic baritone, 71
• 19 August – Harry Plunket Greene, Irish baritone, 71
• 11 November – Sir Edward German, composer, 74