1890 in music
Encyclopedia
Events
- September 9 - Edward ElgarEdward ElgarSir Edward William Elgar, 1st Baronet OM, GCVO was an English composer, many of whose works have entered the British and international classical concert repertoire. Among his best-known compositions are orchestral works including the Enigma Variations, the Pomp and Circumstance Marches, concertos...
's concert overtureOvertureOverture in music is the term originally applied to the instrumental introduction to an opera...
Froissart is premiered at the Three Choirs FestivalThree Choirs FestivalThe Three Choirs Festival is a music festival held each August alternately at the cathedrals of the Three Counties and originally featuring their three choirs, which remain central to the week-long programme...
in Worcester - George W. JohnsonGeorge W. JohnsonGeorge Washington Johnson was a singer and pioneer sound recording artist, the first African American recording star of the phonograph.-Early life:...
records phonograph cylinders - First full performance of Hector BerliozHector BerliozHector Berlioz was a French Romantic composer, best known for his compositions Symphonie fantastique and Grande messe des morts . Berlioz made significant contributions to the modern orchestra with his Treatise on Instrumentation. He specified huge orchestral forces for some of his works; as a...
's opera, Les Troyens, takes place at Karlsruhe, 21 years after the composer's death - Charles-Marie WidorCharles-Marie WidorCharles-Marie Jean Albert Widor was a French organist, composer and teacher.-Life:Widor was born in Lyon, to a family of organ builders, and initially studied music there with his father, François-Charles Widor, titular organist of Saint-François-de-Sales from 1838 to 1889...
succeeds César FranckCésar FranckCésar-Auguste-Jean-Guillaume-Hubert Franck was a composer, pianist, organist, and music teacher who worked in Paris during his adult life....
as organ professor at the Paris Conservatoire. - The New York Phonograph Company opens the first recording studio.
Published popular music
- "The Commodore Song"
- "Little Pig Went To Market" by J. Cheever Goodwin & Gustave KerkerGustave KerkerGustave Adolph Kerker was a German composer and conductor who made a career in London and America. He became a musical director for Broadway theatre productions and wrote the music for a series of musicals.-Life and career:...
- "Maggie Murphy's Home" w. Edward HarriganEdward HarriganEdward Harrigan was an American actor, playwright, theatre manager, and composer. Harrigan and Tony Hart formed the first famous collaboration in American musical theatre.-Life and career:...
m. David BrahamDavid BrahamDavid Braham was a London-born musical theatre composer most famous for his work with Edward Harrigan and Tony Hart. He is considered as "the American Offenbach".- Early life :... - "Passing By" w. Robert Herrick m. Edward C. Purcell
- "Star of the EastStar of the East (song)"Star of the East", originally named "'" is a popular Christmas carol written in the 1800s.The words were written by Alfred Hans Zoller and translated to English by New York lyricist George Cooper in 1890. The music was arranged by composer Amanda Kennedy in 1883, for a song called "Star of the Sea"...
" w. George CooperGeorge CooperGeorge Stephen Cooper , was an Australian cricket Test match umpire.He umpired two Test matches between 1948 and 1950...
m. Amanda Kennedy - "Throw Him Down McCloskey" w.m. John W. Kelly
- "You'll Miss Lots of Fun When You're Married" by John Philip SousaJohn Philip SousaJohn Philip Sousa was an American composer and conductor of the late Romantic era, known particularly for American military and patriotic marches. Because of his mastery of march composition, he is known as "The March King" or the "American March King" due to his British counterpart Kenneth J....
& Edward M. Taber
Classical music
- Ferruccio BusoniFerruccio BusoniFerruccio Busoni was an Italian composer, pianist, editor, writer, piano and composition teacher, and conductor.-Biography:...
- Violin Sonata No. 1, Opus 29 - Ernest ChaussonErnest ChaussonAmédée-Ernest Chausson was a French romantic composer who died just as his career was beginning to flourish.-Life:Ernest Chausson was born in Paris into a prosperous bourgeois family...
- Chansons de Shakespeare - Antonín DvořákAntonín DvorákAntonín Leopold Dvořák was a Czech composer of late Romantic music, who employed the idioms of the folk music of Moravia and his native Bohemia. Dvořák’s own style is sometimes called "romantic-classicist synthesis". His works include symphonic, choral and chamber music, concerti, operas and many...
- Requiem - Alexander GlazunovAlexander GlazunovAlexander Konstantinovich Glazunov was a Russian composer of the late Russian Romantic period, music teacher and conductor...
- Symphony No. 3, Opus 33 - Armas JärnefeltArmas JärnefeltEdvard Armas Järnefelt , was a Finnish composer and conductor.Armas Järnefelt was born in Vyborg, in the Grand Duchy of Finland, the son of general August Aleksander Järnefelt and Elisabeth Järnefelt . His siblings were Kasper, Arvid, Erik, Ellida, Ellen, Aino, Hilja and Sigrid...
- Ouverture Lyrique - Carl NielsenCarl NielsenCarl August Nielsen , , widely recognised as Denmark's greatest composer, was also a conductor and a violinist. Brought up by poor but musically talented parents on the island of Funen, he demonstrated his musical abilities at an early age...
- String Quartet No. 2 in F minorString Quartet No. 2 (Nielsen)Carl Nielsen's String Quartet No. 2 in F minor or Quartet for Two Violins, Viola and Cello in F minor, Opus 5, was composed in 1890, partly in Denmark but mostly in Germany where the composer was travelling on a stipend... - Alexander ScriabinAlexander ScriabinAlexander Nikolayevich Scriabin was a Russian composer and pianist who initially developed a lyrical and idiosyncratic tonal language inspired by the music of Frédéric Chopin. Quite independent of the innovations of Arnold Schoenberg, Scriabin developed an increasingly atonal musical system,...
- Romance for Horn and Piano - Jean SibeliusJean SibeliusJean Sibelius was a Finnish composer of the later Romantic period whose music played an important role in the formation of the Finnish national identity. His mastery of the orchestra has been described as "prodigious."...
- Piano Quintet in G minor - Johann Strauss IIJohann Strauss IIJohann Strauss II , also known as Johann Baptist Strauss or Johann Strauss, Jr., the Younger, or the Son , was an Austrian composer of light music, particularly dance music and operettas. He composed over 500 waltzes, polkas, quadrilles, and other types of dance music, as well as several operettas...
- Rathausball-TänzeRathausball-TänzeRathausball-Tänze op. 438 is a waltz by composer Johann Strauss II written in 1890 in honor of the inauguration of the new city hall of Vienna or the 'Rathaus'. The event that this waltz was intended to grace was that of the opening of the new banqueting hall on 12 February 1890 where two rival... - Sergei TaneyevSergei TaneyevSergei Ivanovich Taneyev , was a Russian composer, pianist, teacher of composition, music theorist and author.-Life:...
- String Quartet No. 1 Opus 4
OperaOperaOpera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
- Cavalleria RusticanaCavalleria rusticanaCavalleria rusticana is an opera in one act by Pietro Mascagni to an Italian libretto by Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti and Guido Menasci, adapted from a play written by Giovanni Verga based on his short story. Considered one of the classic verismo operas, it premiered on May 17, 1890 at the Teatro...
by Pietro MascagniPietro MascagniPietro Antonio Stefano Mascagni was an Italian composer most noted for his operas. His 1890 masterpiece Cavalleria rusticana caused one of the greatest sensations in opera history and single-handedly ushered in the Verismo movement in Italian dramatic music... - Prince IgorPrince IgorPrince Igor is an opera in four acts with a prologue. It was composed by Alexander Borodin. The composer adapted the libretto from the East Slavic epic The Lay of Igor's Host, which recounts the campaign of Russian prince Igor Svyatoslavich against the invading Polovtsian tribes in 1185...
begun by Alexander BorodinAlexander BorodinAlexander Porfiryevich Borodin was a Russian Romantic composer and chemist of Georgian–Russian parentage. He was a member of the group of composers called The Five , who were dedicated to producing a specifically Russian kind of art music...
, completed by Alexander GlazunovAlexander GlazunovAlexander Konstantinovich Glazunov was a Russian composer of the late Russian Romantic period, music teacher and conductor...
and Nikolai Rimsky-KorsakovNikolai Rimsky-KorsakovNikolai Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov was a Russian composer, and a member of the group of composers known as The Five.The Five, also known as The Mighty Handful or The Mighty Coterie, refers to a circle of composers who met in Saint Petersburg, Russia, in the years 1856–1870: Mily Balakirev , César... - Queen of Spades by Pyotr Ilyich TchaikovskyPyotr Ilyich TchaikovskyPyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (Russian: Пётр Ильи́ч Чайко́вский ; often "Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky" in English. His names are also transliterated "Piotr" or "Petr"; "Ilitsch", "Il'ich" or "Illyich"; and "Tschaikowski", "Tschaikowsky", "Chajkovskij"...
Musical theater
- The GondoliersThe GondoliersThe Gondoliers; or, The King of Barataria is a Savoy Opera, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It premiered at the Savoy Theatre on 7 December 1889 and ran for a very successful 554 performances , closing on 30 June 1891...
BroadwayBroadway theatreBroadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
production - Love And Law Broadway production
- Robin Hood ChicagoChicagoChicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
production - The Sentry LondonWest End theatreWest End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London's 'Theatreland', the West End. Along with New York's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English speaking...
production - Reilly And The 400 BroadwayBroadway theatreBroadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
production
Births
- February 25 - Myra HessMyra HessDame Myra Hess DBE was a British pianist.She was born in London as Julia Myra Hess, but was best known by her middle name. At the age of five she began to study the piano and two years later entered the Guildhall School of Music, where she graduated as winner of the Gold Medal...
, pianist (d. 1965) - February 27 - Freddie KeppardFreddie KeppardFreddie Keppard was an early jazz cornetist.Keppard was born in the Creole of Color community of downtown New Orleans, Louisiana. His older brother Louis Keppard was also a professional musician. Freddie played violin, mandolin, and accordion before switching to cornet...
(d. 1933) - March 12 - Evert TaubeEvert TaubeEvert Axel Taube was a Swedish author, artist, composer and singer. He is best known for his folk songs, and is widely regarded as one of Sweden's most respected musicians.-Biography:...
, writer, artist, composer and singer (d. 1976) - March 17 - Harold Morris, pianist and composer (d. 1964)
- March 20
- Beniamino GigliBeniamino GigliBeniamino Gigli was an Italian opera singer. The most famous tenor of his generation, he was renowned internationally for the great beauty of his voice and the soundness of his vocal technique. Music critics sometimes took him to task, however, for what was perceived to be the over-emotionalism...
, opera singer (d. 1957) - Lauritz MelchiorLauritz MelchiorLauritz Melchior was a Danish and later American opera singer. He was the pre-eminent Wagnerian tenor of the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s, and has since come to be considered the quintessence of his voice type.-Biography:...
, opera singer (d. 1973)
- Beniamino Gigli
- March 28 - Paul WhitemanPaul WhitemanPaul Samuel Whiteman was an American bandleader and orchestral director.Leader of the most popular dance bands in the United States during the 1920s, Whiteman's recordings were immensely successful, and press notices often referred to him as the "King of Jazz"...
(d. 1967) - April 17 - Gussie MuellerGussie MuellerGustave "Gussie" Mueller was an early jazz clarinetist....
(d. 1965) - May 21 - Harry TierneyHarry TierneyHarry Austin Tierney was a successful American composer of musical theatre, best known for long-running hits such as Irene , Broadway's longest-running show of the era , Kid Boots and Rio Rita , one of the first musicals to be turned into a talking picture .Born...
, songwriter, composer of Irene and Rio Rita (d. 1965) - June 6 - Ted LewisTed Lewis (musician)Theodore Leopold Friedman, better known as Ted Lewis , was an American entertainer, bandleader, singer, and musician. He led a band presenting a combination of jazz, hokey comedy, and schmaltzy sentimentality that was a hit with the American public. He was known by the moniker "Mr...
(d. 1971) - June 26 - Jeanne EagelsJeanne EagelsJeanne Eagels was an American actress on Broadway and in several motion pictures. She was a former Ziegfeld Follies Girl who went on to greater fame on Broadway and in the emerging medium of sound films....
, Broadway star (d. 1929) - August 12 - Lillian EvantiLillian EvantiLillian Evanti , was an African American opera singer. Evanti, a soprano, debuted in 1927 in Delibes's Lakmé at Nice, France. She graduated from Howard University with a Bachelor's Degree in music and studied in France and Italy. As an opera singer and concert artist, she toured throughout...
, opera singer (d. 1967) - August 15 - Jacques IbertJacques IbertJacques François Antoine Ibert was a French composer. Having studied music from an early age, he studied at the Paris Conservatoire and won its top prize, the Prix de Rome at his first attempt, despite studies interrupted by his service in World War I.Ibert pursued a successful composing career,...
, composer (d. 1962) - August 28 - Ivor GurneyIvor GurneyIvor Bertie Gurney was an English composer and poet.-Life:Born at 3 Queen Street, Gloucester in 1890, the second of four children of David Gurney, a tailor, and his wife Florence, a seamstress, Gurney showed musical ability early...
, poet and composer (d. 1937) - September 15 - Frank MartinFrank Martin (composer)Frank Martin was a Swiss composer, who lived a large part of his life in the Netherlands.-Childhood and youth:...
, composer (d. 1974) - September 26 - Papanasam SivanPapanasam SivanPapanasam Sivan was a prominent composer of Carnatic music and a singer.A famous composer, Sivan was also known as Tamil Thyagayya. Using Classical South Indian as a base, Sivan created numerous hits popularised by M. K. Thyagaraja Bhagavathar and M. S...
, Carnatic music composer (d. 1973) - October 1 - Stanley HollowayStanley HollowayStanley Augustus Holloway, OBE was an English stage and film actor, comedian, singer, poet and monologist. He was famous for his comic and character roles on stage and screen, especially that of Alfred P. Doolittle in My Fair Lady...
, English actor and singer (d. 1982) - October 8 - Samuel HoffensteinSamuel HoffensteinSamuel "Sam" Hoffenstein was a screenwriter and a musical composer. Born in Russia, he immigrated to the United States and began a career in New York City as a newspaper writer and in the entertainment business. In 1931 he moved to Los Angeles where he lived for the rest of his life where he wrote...
, screenwriter and composer (d. 1947) - October 13 - Gösta NystroemGösta NystroemGösta Nystroem was a Swedish composer.Nystroem, originally Nyström, was born in Silvberg, Sweden, a parish in the province of Dalarna, but spent most of his childhood in Österhaninge near Stockholm, at the time a small village but nowadays a suburban district. His father was a headmaster and an...
, composer (d. 1966) - November 10 - Mischa BakaleinikoffMischa BakaleinikoffMikhail Romanovich Bakaleinikov or Mischa Bakaleinikoff was a noted musical director, film composer and conductor.-Personal life:Brother to Constantin, Nikolay and Vladimir, Bakaleinikoff was born in Moscow in 1890. He left Russia for the United States in 1926, and joined Columbia Studios's music...
, musical director (d. 1960) - December 8 - Bohuslav MartinůBohuslav MartinuBohuslav Martinů was a prolific Czech composer of modern classical music. He was of Czech and Rumanian ancestry. Martinů wrote six symphonies, 15 operas, 14 ballet scores and a large body of orchestral, chamber, vocal and instrumental works. Martinů became a violinist in the Czech Philharmonic...
(d. 1959)
Deaths
- January 8 - Giorgio RonconiGiorgio RonconiGiorgio Ronconi was an Italian operatic baritone celebrated for his brilliant acting and compelling stage presence. In 1842, he created the title-role in Giuseppe Verdi's Nabucco at La Scala, Milan.-Career:...
, operatic baritone (b. 1810) - January 17 - Salomon SulzerSalomon SulzerSalomon Sulzer was an Austrian hazzan and composer. His family, which prior to 1813 bore the name of Levi, removed to Hohenems from Sulz in 1748. He was educated for the cantorate, studying first under the cantors of Endingen and Karlsruhe, with whom he traveled extensively, and later under...
, cantor and composer (b. 1804) - January 20 - Franz LachnerFranz LachnerFranz Paul Lachner was a German composer and conductor.Lachner was born in Rain am Lech to a musical family . He studied music with Simon Sechter and Maximilian, the Abbé Stadler. He conducted at the Theater am Kärntnertor in Vienna. In 1834, he became Kapellmeister at Mannheim...
, conductor and composer (b. 1803) - February 14 - Wilhelm FitzenhagenWilhelm FitzenhagenWilhelm Karl Friedrich Fitzenhagen , was a German cellist, composer and instructor, best known today as the dedicatee of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's Variations on a Rococo Theme.-Life:...
, cellist and music teacher (b. 1848) - March 13 - Henry WyldeHenry WyldeHenry Wylde was a conductor, composer, teacher and music critic.Henry Wylde was born at Bushey, Hertfordshire, the elder son of Henry Wylde and Martha Lucy née Paxton. His father, then the organist at St Mary's Watford, was himself a music teacher...
, conductor, composer, music teacher and critic (b. 1822) - April 16 - John BarnettJohn BarnettJohn Barnett was an English composer and writer on music.-Life:Barnett was the eldest son of a Prussian Jew named Bernhard Beer, who changed his surname on settling in England as a jeweller. According to some he was a cousin of the composer Giacomo Meyerbeer...
, composer and music writer (b. 1802) - May 6 - Hubert LéonardHubert LéonardHubert Léonard was a famous Belgian violinist, born at Bellaire, Liège. His earliest preparatory training was given by Rouma, after which he entered the Paris Conservatory in 1836, where he studied for three years under Habeneck. In 1844 he started his extended tours which established his...
, violinist (b. 1819) - May 28 - Viktor NesslerViktor NesslerViktor Ernst Nessler was an Alsatian composer who worked mainly in Leipzig.Nessler was born at Baldenheim near Sélestat, Alsace. At Strasbourg he began his university career with the study of theology, but he concluded it with the production of a light opera entitled Fleurette...
, composer (b. 1841) - June 3 - Oskar KolbergOskar KolbergHenryk Oskar Kolberg, , was a Polish ethnographer, folklorist, and composer.- Life :He was born in Przysucha, the son of Juliusz Kolberg, a professor at Warsaw University, and Fryderyka Mercoeur...
, folklorist and composer (b. 1814) - June 30 - Samuel Parkman TuckermanSamuel Parkman TuckermanSamuel Parkman Tuckerman was an American composer.He was born in Boston and became the organist of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in 1840. He also studied in England and Switzerland. He is known primarily for his church music.He died in Newport, Rhode Island....
, composer (b. 1819) - October 7 - John Hill HewittJohn Hill HewittJohn Hill Hewitt was an American songwriter, playwright, and poet. He is best known for his songs about the American South, including "A Minstrel's Return from the War", "The Soldier's Farewell", "The Stonewall Quickstep", and "Somebody's Darling"...
, songwriter (b. 1801) - October 17 - Prosper SaintonProsper SaintonProsper Philippe Catherine Sainton was a French violinist.He was the son of a merchant at Toulouse, where he was born...
, violinist (b. 1813) - October 28 - Alexander John EllisAlexander John EllisAlexander John Ellis FRS was an English mathematician and philologist. He changed his name from his father's name Sharpe to his mother's maiden name Ellis in 1825, based on a condition for receiving significant financial support from a relative on his mother's side.- Biography :He was born...
, music theorist (b. 1814) - November 8 - César FranckCésar FranckCésar-Auguste-Jean-Guillaume-Hubert Franck was a composer, pianist, organist, and music teacher who worked in Paris during his adult life....
, composer (b. 1822) - December 21 - Niels Gade, composer (b. 1817)
- date unknown - Ostap VeresaiOstap VeresaiOstap Mykytovych Veresai , was a renowned minstrel and kobzar from the Poltava Governorate of the Russian Empire...
, minstrel and kobzarKobzarA Kobzar was an itinerant Ukrainian bard who sang to his own accompaniment.-Tradition:Kobzars were often blind, and became predominantly so by the 1800s...
(b. 1803)