1936 in British music

This is a summary of 1936 in music in the United Kingdom.

Events

 * January – Benjamin Britten collaborates with W. H. Auden on the film Night Mail
 * 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 (ballet)
 * 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" (carol, with words by W. M. Letts)
 * "Penned are the Sheep" (carol, with words by R. K. Davis)
 * 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 (Ivor Novello) opens at the Theatre Royal on and runs for 295 performances.

Musical films

 * Ball at Savoy, directed by Victor Hanbury, starring Conrad Nagel and Marta Labarr
 * The Beloved Vagabond, directed by Curtis Bernhardt, starring Maurice Chevalier, Betty Stockfeld, Margaret Lockwood and Austin Trevor
 * Dodging the Dole, directed by John E. Blakeley, starring Barry K. Barnes and Dan Young
 * Everybody Dance, starring Cicely Courtneidge
 * Everything Is Rhythm, starring Harry Roy and Dorothy Boyd
 * The Last Waltz, starring Jarmila Novotna, Harry Welchman, and Gerald Barry
 * It's Love Again, directed by Victor Saville, starring Jessie Matthews, Robert Young and Sonnie Hale.
 * Limelight, directed by Herbert Wilcox, starring Anna Neagle, Arthur Tracy and Jane Winton.
 * Southern Roses, directed by Frederic Zelnik, starring George Robey, Gina Malo and Chili Bouchier.

Births

 * 4 January – John Gorman, entertainer (The Scaffold)
 * 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 (died 2012)
 * 20 April – Christopher Robinson, organist and conductor
 * 2 May – Engelbert Humperdinck, singer
 * 7 May – Cornelius Cardew, composer and musicologist (died 1981)
 * 12 May – David Snell, harpist, composer and conductor
 * 25 June – Roy Williamson, folk singer-songwriter (died 1990)
 * 27 June – Robin Hall, folk singer (died 1998)
 * 26 July – Mary Millar, singer and actress (died 1998)
 * 2 August – Anthony Payne, composer
 * 16 September – Gordon Beck, jazz pianist (died 2011)
 * 24 October – Bill Wyman, rock bassist
 * 5 November – Richard Drakeford, composer (died 2009)
 * 14 November – Freddie Garrity, singer (Freddie and the Dreamers) (died 2006)
 * 17 December – Tommy Steele, singer

Deaths

 * 23 January – Dame Clara Butt, operatic contralto, 63
 * 11 February – Florence Smithson, singer, 51 (post-operative complications)
 * 3 March – Ethel Mary Boyce, composer, pianist and teacher, 73
 * 4 March – Ernest Pike, tenor, 64 (cerebral haemorrhage)
 * 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