1918 in British music

This is a summary of 1918 in music in the United Kingdom.

Events

13 February – Cellist May Mukle and violist Rebecca Clarke give a recital at the Aeolian Hall, New York City, accompanied by Marjorie Hayward, performing works by Hubert Parry, Frank Bridge, and Clarke herself, including the premiėre of her Morpheus, written under the pen-name "Anthony Trent".[http://www.worldcat.org/title/morpheus-for-viola-piano/oclc/44878864?ht=edition&referer=br Morpheus: holograph listing at WorldCat.]
August – Anglo-Welsh composer Philip Heseltine concludes a year's stay in Ireland with the writing of a number of songs which will be published under the pseudonym Peter Warlock.
29 September – The première of Gustav Holst's orchestral suite The Planets takes place before an invited audience at the Queen's Hall, London, with orchestra conducted by Adrian Boult.{{cite book|author1=Malcolm Gillies|author2=David Pear|author3=Mark Carroll|title=Self-Portrait of Percy Grainger|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Q_-DqI_uq70C&pg=PA249|date=29 June 2006|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-971941-9|pages=249}}
December – Ralph Vaughan Williams is appointed Director of Music, First Army.{{cite book|author=Victor Piuk|title=Famous, 1914–1918|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lOM7BAAAQBAJ&pg=PT51|date=10 March 2010|publisher=Pen and Sword|isbn=978-1-84468-824-1|pages=51}}

Ivan Caryll – "Some Day Waiting Will End"{{cite web|title= Some Day Waiting Will End|url= http://www.pritzkermilitary.org/explore/library/online-catalog/view/oclc/71145490 |publisher=Pritzker Military Museum & Library|accessdate=14 June 2016}}
Harry Castling and Fred W. Leigh – "Where's Old Bill?"{{cite book|author=Dave Russell|title=Popular Music in England 1840-1914: A Social History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=n3PHdGaUqIkC&pg=PA157|year=1997|publisher=Manchester University Press|isbn=978-0-7190-5261-3|pages=157–}}

Kenneth J. Alford – The Vanished Army, march
Arnold Bax
String Quartet No. 1 in G major, GP. 199{{cite web|url=http://davpar.eu/bax/bax1519.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151018004008/http://www.davpar.eu/bax/bax1519.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=October 18, 2015|title=Parlett Catalogue of music by Bax 1915–1919|accessdate=2013-02-25}}
Symphonic Variations, GP. 210
Frederick Delius – A Song Before Sunrise{{cite book|author1=Mary Christison Huismann|author2=Mary L Huismann|title=Frederick Delius: A Guide to Research|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MKsd04prSgoC&pg=PA14|year=2005|publisher=Psychology Press|isbn=978-0-415-94106-8|pages=14}}
Edward Elgar – Violin Sonata in E minor

1 June – Tails Up!, a revue starring Jack Buchanan, opens at Comedy Theatre, London, where it will run for 467 performances.Carson, Lionel The Stage Year Book Carson & Comerford Limited, 1919, p. 103.
5 August – Roses of Picardy, by Evelyn Thomas, opens at the Hippodrome, Cannock, before moving to the West End the following year.{{cite book|author=Lionel Carson|title=The Stage Year Book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hTgOAAAAIAAJ|year=1920|publisher=Carson & Comerford, Limited|page=162}}

20 March – Marian McPartland, jazz pianist (died 2013)
16 April – Spike Milligan, comedian, writer, musician, poet and playwright (died 2002)
5 June – Robert Docker, composer (died 1992)
19 August – Dilys Elwyn Edwards, composer (died 2012)
22 September – A. J. Potter, composer (died 1980)
2 December – Wilfred Heaton, composer (died 2000)

15 January – Mark Sheridan, music hall performer, 53 (probable suicide by shooting)"Mr. Mark Sheridan's Death", The Glasgow Herald, 22 November 1918, p. 2
13 April – David Ffrangcon Davies, baritone, 62
26 August – Cecil Coles, composer, 29 (killed in action)[http://www.bardic-music.com/Coles.htm Brief biography] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130816021557/http://www.bardic-music.com/Coles.htm |date=16 August 2013 }}
7 September – Morfydd Llwyn Owen, singer, pianist and composer, 26 (complications from surgery for appendicitis)Cleaver, Emrys. "Morfydd Llwyn Owen (1891–1918)" in Musicians of Wales. Ruthin: John Jones 1968
7 October – Hubert Parry, composer, 70Dibble, Jeremy, [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/35393 "Parry, Sir (Charles) Hubert Hastings, baronet (1848–1918)"], Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004, accessed 18 April 2013 {{ODNBsub}}