This is a summary of 1900 in music in the United Kingdom.

Events 3 March – Joseph Holbrooke‘s orchestral tone poem The Raven is given at the Crystal Palace – the first major recognition for the 22 year-old composer after leaving the Royal Academy of Music three years earlier. 22 March – Samuel Coleridge-Taylor conducts all three parts of his Hiawatha trilogy of works for chorus and orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall, including the first performance of part three, Hiawatha's Departure. April – Charles Villiers Stanford resigns from the Irish Literary Society in protest at anti-monarchist sentiments expressed by W. B. Yeats. 25 June – Charles Villiers Stanford's cantata, The Last Post, is privately premièred at Buckingham Palace. 28 June – Frederick Cowen's Concertstuck for piano and orchestra, written in 1897, is performed by the Polish pianist Paderewski at Queen's Hall in a Royal Philharmonic Society concert. 19 August – The first performance of the Pelléas et Mélisande suite, compiled from incidental music written in 1897 by William Wallace, takes place at The Tower, New Brighton. 2 October – The Soldier's Tent for baritone and orchestra by Hubert Parry is performed for the first time, in Birmingham.Jeremy Dibble. Notes to Hyperion CDA67065 (1999) 3 October – Edward Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius receives its première in Birmingham. 8 November – The Piano Quintet in C, Op. 6 by Donald Tovey is performed for the first time at St James's Hall in London. 22 November – An honorary doctorate in music is conferred on Edward Elgar by the University of Cambridge. 27 November – The Sérénade lyrique for small orchestra by Edward Elgar, composed in 1899, is performed in its orchestral version for the first time at St. James' Hall, London.Sérénade lyrique at Christie's Books and Manuscripts unknown date – Arnold Bax enters the Royal Academy of Music.

Popular music "I Love You, Ma Cherie", words and music by Paul Rubens, music by Edward Elgar. "Violets", words by Julian Fane, music by Ellen Wright.

Classical music: new works Frederic Austin – Overture to Richard II, for orchestraCompleted 30 Aug 1900; 1st performance 12 Dec 1901, by Bournemouth Municipal Orch. under Dan Godfrey. Source: original Concert Programme Granville Bantock – Thalaba the Destroyer (Tone Poem No. 1) Rutland Boughton – The Chilterns, symphonic suite Havergal Brian – Tragic Overture Samuel Coleridge-Taylor – Hiawatha's Departure, cantataWise Music Edward Elgar – The Dream of Gerontius Edward German – Nell Gwynne, incidental musicScore at IMSLP Joseph Holbrooke The Raven Variations on 'Three Blind Mice''', for orchestraVariations on 'The Girl I Left Behind Me' for orchestra Gustav HolstAve Maria for eight-part female choirSuite de BalletSymphony in F major "The Cotswolds" Hamish MacCunn – The Masque of War and PeaceSir John Blackwood McEwen – Graih My Chree, Recitation Music for 2 violins, viola, cello, piano and percussion Hubert Parry – Agamemnon, incidental musicScore at IMSLP Percy Pitt – Ballade for violin and orchestraCyril Scott – Symphony No. 1 Ralph Vaughan Williams – Bucolic Suite for orchestraOxford University Press William Wallace – Jacobite Songs, for voice and orchestraBoston Symphony Orchestra - Programme. United States: The Orchestra, 1917.

OperaKain, with music by Eugen d'Albert and libretto by Heinrich Bulthaupt (premièred in Berlin, Germany)

Musical theatre 3 February – The Messenger Boy, by James T. Tanner and Alfred Murray, with lyrics by Adrian Ross and Percy Greenbank, and music by Ivan Caryll and Lionel Monckton (additional numbers by Paul Rubens), opens at the Gaiety Theatre, and runs for 428 performances. 26 April – Pretty Polly, by Basil Hood, with music by François Cellier, opens at the Theatre Royal, Colchester, as a companion piece to Hood and Sir Arthur Sullivan's The Rose of Persia. It later moves to the Savoy Theatre, for a run of 26 performances from 19 May 1900 to 28 June 1900, and from 8 December 1900 to 20 April 1901 along with the first revival of Gilbert and Sullivan's 1881 hit, Patience'', a run of 102 performances.

Births 23 January – William Ifor Jones, composer (d. 1988) 3 February – Mabel Mercer, English-born singer and actress (d. 1984) 6 February – Guy Warrack, composer, music educator and conductor (d. 1986)Obituary, The Musical Times, Vol. 127, No. 1718 (May 1986), p. 291 2 June – David Wynne, Welsh composer (d. 1983) 10 July – Evelyn Laye, actress and singer (d. 1996) 12 September – Eric Thiman, composer (d. 1975) 17 December – George Lambert, operatic baritone and teacher (d. 1971) 22 December – Alan Bush, pianist, composer and conductor (d. 1995)

Deaths 22 January – David Edward Hughes, musician and inventor, 68 13 March – Alicia Ann Spottiswoode, songwriter, 89 28 May – George Grove, compiler of the well-known dictionary of music, 79Young, Percy M. "Grove, Sir George (1820–1900)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edition, May 2006 accessed 2 November 2010 22 November – Sir Arthur Sullivan, composer, 58 (kidney disease)Jacobs, Arthur. "Sullivan, Sir Arthur Seymour (1842–1900)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, September 2004 (online edition, May 2006), accessed 8 July 2008 8 December – Henry Russell, pianist, baritone singer and composer

See also 1900 in the United Kingdom

References