1950 in British music

Events

• 9 March – UK premiere of Britten's Spring Symphony at the Royal Albert Hall, London, conducted by Eduard van Beinum.
• September – Herbert Howells' Hymnus Paradisi receives its première at the Three Choirs Festival; the work had been written in 1938, shortly after the death of the composer's young son.
• 24 September – US musicologist Alan Lomax leaves for a tour of Europe, in the course of which he collects folk music from all over the UK, broadcasts on the BBC, and works with folklorists Peter Douglas Kennedy, Hamish Henderson, and Séamus Ennis, recording among others, Margaret Barry and the songs in Irish of Elizabeth Cronin; Scots ballad singer Jeannie Robertson; and Harry Cox of Norfolk.
• Jazz musician John Dankworth forms the Dankworth Seven, with Jimmy Deuchar, Eddie Harvey, Don Rendell, Bill Le Sage, Eric Dawson and Tony Kinsey.
• Gracie Fields' radio show transfers from the BBC to Radio Luxembourg, where it is sponsored by Wisk soap powder.
• Pianist Moura Lympany divorces her husband Colin Defries.
• Harrison & Harrison begin work on a 7,866 pipe organ destined for the Royal Festival Hall, working to a design by Ralph Downes.

Classical music: new works

• Malcolm Arnold – English Dances for orchestra, op. 27
• Benjamin Britten – Lachrymae
• Arnold Cooke – Trio for Violin, Viola and Cello
• Vivian Ellis – Alpine Pastures
• Arwel Hughes – Dewi Sant
• Humphrey Searle – Poem for 22 Strings
• William Walton – 2 Pieces for violin and piano
• Grace Williams – Three Traditional Ballads
• W. S. Gwynn Williams – ''Breuddwyd Glyndwr''

Opera

• Hugo Cole – Asses' Ears
• Lawrance Collingwood – The Death of Tintagiles
• Norman Demuth – The Oresteia
• Brian Easdale – The Corn King
• Berthold Goldschmidt – Beatrice Cenci
• Inglis Gundry – The Horses of the Dawn
• Elisabeth Lutyens – ''Penelope''

Film and Incidental music

• Richard Addinsell – The Black Rose
• William Alwyn – State Secret
• Anthony Collins – Odette
• Benjamin Frankel – Night and the City
• Leighton Lucas – Stage Fright
• John Wooldridge – ''The Woman in Question''

Musical theatre

• Noël Coward – Ace of Clubs
• Harry Parr Davies – Dear Miss Phoebe
• Ivor Novello – Gay's the Word
• Sandy Wilson – ''Caprice''

Musical films

Births

• 21 January – Billy Ocean, singer and songwriter
• 12 February – Steve Hackett, English singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
• 24 February – Howard Griffiths, conductor
• 13 February — Peter Gabriel, singer and songwriter
• 19 February — Andy Powell, musician
• 9 March – Howard Shelley, pianist and conductor
• 10 March – Stephen Oliver, opera composer
• 20 April – Ray Hodson
• 22 April — Peter Frampton, singer and songwriter
• 3 May — Mary Hopkin, singer
• 13 May – Danny Kirwan, guitarist, singer and songwriter
• 22 May — Bernie Taupin, songwriter
• 1 June – Tom Robinson, singer and songwriter
• 5 June – Barbara Gaskin, singer
• 16 June – Andrew Ball, pianist
• 23 June – Nicholas Cleobury, conductor
• 27 August – Neil Murray, bass guitarist
• 14 September – Paul Kossoff, guitarist
• 26 September – Simon Brint, comedy musician and composer
• 18 November – Graham Parker, singer-songwriter and guitarist

Deaths

• 14 February – Robert Graham Manson, violinist, pianist and composer, 66
• 26 February – Sir Harry Lauder, singer, comedian and songwriter, 79
• 19 April – Gerald Tyrwhitt-Wilson, 14th Baron Berners, composer, writer and artist, 66
• 13 May – Bruno Siegfried Huhn, organist and composer, 78
• 6 June – Alfred Edward Moffat, composer and collector of music, 86
• 28 June – H. Balfour Gardiner, musician, composer and teacher, 72
• 14 October – Florence Aylward, composer, 88
• 26 October – Evelyn Suart, pianist, 69
• 19 November – Thomas Wood, composer, 57
• 23 November – Percival Mackey, pianist, composer and bandleader, 56
• 1 December – Ernest John Moeran, composer, 55
• 23 December – John Rippiner Heath, violinist and composer, 63
• 25 December – Edward d'Evry, organist and composer, 81
• "date unknown" – Kate Carney, singer and comedian, 80