This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1914.
Specific locations
Specific genres
Events
- January 1 â The copyright on Wagner's Parsifal expires allowing it to be staged outside of Bayreuth. Performances take place in Barcelona, Prague, Berlin, Budapest, Bologna, Rome and WrocÃ
Âaw. In the next few weeks it is staged in St. Petersburg, Paris, Brussels, Vienna and London's Covent Garden.
- January 21 â Edward Elgar makes the first recordings of his music, including the miniature "Carissima" prior to its public premiere.
- January 24 â First public performance of LeoÃ
¡ JanáÃÂek's piano cycle In the Mists at the third concert of the Organ School in Brno by pianist Marie DvoÃ
Âáková, teacher of the school.
- January â First Finnish performance of Jean Sibelius's tone poem Luonnotar, with soprano Aino Ackté and conductor Georg Schnéevoigt.
- c. June â First publication of Orchestration, the classic book by Cecil Forsyth.
- August 26 â Rutland Boughton's fairy opera The Immortal Hour is first performed in the Glastonbury Assembly Rooms at the inaugural Glastonbury Festival co-founded by the English socialist composer. On August 5, the first concert concluded with the choral song "The Last Post" by Charles Villiers Stanford in lieu of the Grail Dance from Parsifal "owing to the outbreak of war."
- October â Adelina Patti gives her last public performance, in a Red Cross concert at London's Royal Albert Hall.
- October 15 â In Rovigo, Beniamino Gigli makes his operatic debut in Amilcare Ponchielli's La Gioconda.
- December 6 â Première of KÃ
Âsaku Yamada's Symphony in F major "Triumph and Peace" at the Imperial Theatre in Tokyo, performed by the conducted by the composer.
- December 31 â English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams, aged 42, volunteers for war service, initially as a private with the Royal Army Medical Corps.
- The first recording of calypso music is made in Trinidad and Tobago.
Published popular music
Popular recordings
Classical music
Opera
Births
- January 25 â William Strickland, American conductor and organist (d. 1991)
- February 10 â Larry Adler, harmonica virtuoso (d. 2001)
- February 12 â Tex Beneke, American bandleader (d. 2000)
- February 18 â Pee Wee King, country musician (d. 2000)
- March 5 â Philip Farkas, horn player (d. 1992)
- March 6 â Kirill Kondrashin, conductor (d. 1981)
- March 10 â Pilar Manalo Danao, Filipino songwriter (d. 1987)
- March 21 â Paul Tortelier, cellist and composer (d. 1990)
- March 28 â Clara Petrella, Italian operatic soprano (d. 1987)
- March 30 â Sonny Boy Williamson, blues musician (d. 1948)
- April 4 â Frances Langford, American singer and actress (d. 2005)
- April 25 â John Sebastian, harmonica virtuoso (d. 1980)
- April 26 â Wilfrid Mellers, musicologist and composer (d. 2008)
- May 9
- Carlo Maria Giulini, conductor (d. 2005)
- Hank Snow, country singer (d. 1999)
- May 13 â Johnnie Wright, American country music singer-songwriter (d. 2011)
- May 18
- Cacilda Borges Barbosa, Brazilian pianist, conductor and composer (d. 2010)
- Alla Bayanova, Russian singer (d. 2011)
- Boris Christoff, operatic bass (d. 1993)
- May 22 â Sun Ra, American musician (d. 1993)
- May 26 â Ziggy Elman, American trumpet player (d. 1968)
- May 31 â Akira Ifukube, composer (d. 2006)
- June 6 â Iris du Pré, pianist, mother of Jacqueline du Pré and Hilary du Pré (d. 1985)
- June 16
- Colette Maze, French pianist (d. 2023)
- Eleanor Sokoloff, American pianist and teacher (d. 2020)
- June 28 â Lester Flatt, bluegrass musician (d. 1979)
- June 29 â Rafael KubelÃÂk, Czech-born conductor (d. 1996)
- July 2 â Frederick Fennell, conductor (d. 2004)
- July 5 â Gerda Gilboe, Danish actress and singer (d. 2009)
- July 7 â Serafim Tulikov, Russian and Soviet composer (d. 2004)
- July 8 â Billy Eckstine, jazz musician and singer (d. 1993)
- July 14 â Fred Fox, American French horn player and brass instrument teacher (d. 1949)
- July 24 â Riccardo Malipiero, Italian composer, pianist and music educator (d. 2003)
- July 26
- Ralph Blane, American composer and singer (d. 1995)
- Erskine Hawkins, American jazz trumpeter and bandleader (d. 1993)
- August 5 â Stjepan Ã
 ulek, Croatian composer (d. 1986)
- August 10 â Witold MaÃ
ÂcuÃ
¼yÃ
Âski, Polish pianist (d. 1977)
- August 11 â Hugh Martin, American composer (d. 2011)
- August 12 â Ruth Lowe, Canadian pianist and songwriter (d. 1981)
- August 18 â Irmgard ÃÂsterwall, Swedish jazz singer (d. 1980)
- August 28 â Glenn Osser, American conductor and arranger (d. 2014)
- September 5 â Minuetta Kessler, née Shumiatcher, concert pianist, classical composer and music educator (d. 2002)
- September 12 â Eddy Howard, singer (d. 1963)
- September 24 â Andrzej Panufnik, composer (d. 1991)
- September 25 â Robert Wright, American composer (d. 2005)
- October 7 â Alfred Drake, American singer and actor (d. 1992)
- October 10 â Ivory Joe Hunter, R&B singer, songwriter and pianist (d. 1974)
- November 15 â Jorge Bolet, pianist and conductor (d. 1990)
- December 3 â Irving Fine, composer (d. 1962)
- December 7 â Alberto Castillo, Argentine tango singer and actor (d. 2002)
- December 14 â Rosalyn Tureck, pianist (d. 2003)
- December 23 â Dezider KardoÃ
¡, composer (d. 1991)
- December 29 â Billy Tipton, jazz musician (d. 1989)
- December 30
- Bert Parks, American singer and actor (Miss America Pageant) (d. 1992)
- Nicolai Shutorev, American singer (d. 1948)
- date unknown â Rita Abatzi, rebetiko singer (d. 1969)
Deaths
- January 5 â François Cellier, conductor and composer (b. 1849)
- January 13 â Valentin Zubiaurre, Spanish composer and professor of the Madrid Royal Conservatory (b. 1837)
- January 23 â George W. Johnson, singer and pioneer recording artist (b. 1850)
- February 1 â Alexander Dodonov, Russian opera singer (b. 1837)
- March 1 â Tor Aulin, violinist, conductor and composer (b. 1866)
- March 24 â Ellen Franz, pianist and actress (b. 1839)
- March 31 â Hubert von Herkomer, painter, film director and composer (b. 1849)
- May 3 â Carl Kölling, composer of piano music (b. 1831)
- May 10
- Lillian Nordica, opera singer (b. 1857)
- Ernst von Schuch, conductor (b. 1846)
- July 1 â Edmund Payne, musical comedy star (b. 1865)
- July 14 â Andrzej HÃ
Âawiczka, musicologist (b. 1866)
- July 23 â Harry Evans, conductor and composer (b. 1873)
- August 7 â BolesÃ
Âaw DembiÃ
Âski, composer (b. 1833)
- August 11 â Emil Fischer, operatic bass (b. 1838)
- August 18 â Anna Yesipova, pianist (b. 1851)
- August 28 â Anatoly Lyadov, composer (b. 1855)
- September 2 â K. C. Kesava Pillai, Carnatic composer and poet (b. 1868)
- September 3 â Albéric Magnard, composer (b. 1865)
- September 13 â Robert Hope-Jones, inventor of the theatre organ (b. 1859)
- September 28 â Stevan Mokranjac, composer (b. 1856)
- October 28 â Richard Heuberger, composer (b. 1850)
- November 9 â Jean-Baptiste Faure, operatic baritone and composer (b. 1830)
- December 14 â Giovanni Sgambati, Italian pianist and composer (b. 1841)
- December 16 â Ivan Zajc, composer (b. 1832)
- December 25 â Bernhard Stavenhagen, pianist, composer and conductor (b. 1862)
- December 29/31 â Alfredo D'Ambrosio, Italian composer (b. 1871)
- May Summerbelle
References