my-server
← Wiki

1932 in music

This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1932.

Specific locations

Specific genres

Events

Published popular music

Top popular recordings 1932

1932 marked the lowest trough the recording industry would experience during the Great Depression, as the record industry struggled for its existence. Only Victor, ARC (which added Brunswick) and Columbia released records, and Columbia would be in bankruptcy by 1934. In the United States, revenues went from 104 million units in 1927 to 6 million in 1932, and did not start to rebound until 1937. The top selling records of 1929 ranged from $500,000 and up, fell under $100,000 in 1930, $60k in 1931 and $20k in 1932, where they stayed for several years. Keep this in mind when reviewing sales figures. You may also notice less artists and records. Record companies were afraid of taking more losses, such as gambling on new artists and new styles. Three of the six top selling 10" 78s were recorded by Jimmie Rodgers, who would die of Tuberculosis in May 1933. They can be found on the 1932 Country (Hillbilly) page.

The top popular records of 1932 listed below were compiled from Joel Whitburn's Pop Memories 1890–1954, record sales reported on the "Discography of American Historical Recordings" website, and other sources as specified. Numerical rankings are approximate, there were no Billboard charts in 1932, the numbers are only used for a frame of reference.

Top blues recordings

Classical music

  • Henk Badings
  • Symphony for 16 soloists
  • Symphony No. 2
  • Arnold Bax
  • Concerto for Cello and Orchestra
  • Sinfonietta
  • Sonata No. 4, for piano
  • Summer Music, for orchestra (revised version)
  • Symphony No. 5
  • "Watching the Needleboats", for voice and piano (text by James Joyce)
  • Arthur Benjamin – Violin Concerto
  • Marc Blitzstein
  • The Condemned, choral opera in one act
  • Serenade, for string quartet
  • John Cage – Greek Ode, for voice and piano (text from Aeschylus' The Persians)
  • Carlos Chávez
  • Antígona (incidental music for the adaptation by Jean Cocteau of the tragedy by Sophocles)
  • Caballos de vapor (H.P., sinfonía de baile)
  • String Quartet No. 2
  • Tierra mojada (for mixed choir, oboe, and cor anglais (text by R. López Velarde)
  • "Todo", for voice and piano (text by R. López Velarde)
  • Henry Cowell
  • Expressivo, for piano
  • Four Continuations, for string orchestra
  • Reel (Lilt of the Reel), for small orchestra
  • Rhythm Study, for piano
  • Two Appositions, for piano
  • Two Appositions: One Movement for Orchestra
  • Ruth Crawford Seeger
  • Ricercari (2), for voice and piano (text by H. T. Tsiang)
  • Songs (3), for alto voice, oboe, percussion, piano, and optional orchestra (texts by Carl Sandburg)
  • Jean Françaix – Piano Concerto
  • Gunnar de Frumerie – Variations and Fugue
  • George Gershwin – Cuban Overture, for orchestra
  • Peggy Glanville-Hicks
  • Fantasy, for solo violin
  • "He Reproves the Curlew", for voice and piano (text by William Butler Yeats)
  • Prelude for a Pensive Pupil, for piano
  • "Sheiling Song", for voice and piano (text by F. MacLeod)
  • "They Are Not Long", for voice and piano (text by Ernest Dowson)
  • "To the Moon", for voice and piano (text by Percy Bysshe Shelley)
  • "A Widow Bird", for voice and piano (text by Percy Bysshe Shelley)
  • Percy Grainger – Handel in the Strand
  • Camargo Guarnieri – String Quartet No. 1
  • Alois Hába
  • Children's Choruses (5), in quarter tones, Op. 42 (texts by V. Nezval)
  • Children's Choruses, in quarter tones, Op. 43
  • Fantazie No. 2, for nonet, Op. 41
  • Pracující den, for male choir, in quarter tones, Op. 45 (text by J. Hora)
  • Jascha Heifetz – arrangement of Grigoraş Dinicu's Hora staccato
  • Gustav Holst
  • "If 'twer the Time of Lilies", for two-part choir and piano, H187
  • Jazz-Band Piece
  • Jig, for piano, H179
  • John Ireland – A Downland Suite
  • Dmitri Kabalevsky – Symphony No. 1
  • Ernst Krenek – Kantate von der Vergänglichkeit des Irdischen, for soprano, mixed choir, and piano, Op. 72 (texts by P. Fleming, A. Gryphius, and other 17th-century German writers)
  • László Lajtha – Cello Sonata
  • Nikolai Myaskovsky – Symphony No. 11
  • Harry Partch – "The Lord Is My Shepherd" (Psalm XXIII), for voice and adapted viola
  • Paul Pisk
  • Campanella, cantata for voice and orchestra, Op. 28 (text after 11 poems of the Monk [Luitpold])
  • Little Suite, for chamber orchestra, Op. 11a
  • Sergei Prokofiev –
  • Piano Concerto No. 5, Op. 55
  • Sonata for Two Violins in C major, Op. 56
  • Ottorino Respighi – Huntingtower, for large wind band, P. 173
  • Silvestre Revueltas
  • Alcancías, for orchestra
  • Colorines, for orchestra
  • Música de feria (String Quartet No. 4)
  • Three Pieces for violin and piano
  • Miklós Rózsa – Bagatelles for Piano, Op. 12
  • Arnold Schoenberg
  • Mirror Canon, for string quartet
  • Mirror Canon in four parts, for Carl Moll
  • Moses und Aron, opera in 3 acts (Act 3 not composed)
  • William Schuman
  • "God's World", for voice and piano (text by Edna St. Vincent Millay)
  • Potpourri, for orchestra
  • Dmitri Shostakovich
  • Hamlet (incidental music for the play by William Shakespeare), Op. 32
  • Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District, opera in four acts, Op. 29
  • Six Romances, for tenor and orchestra, Op. 21
  • Twenty-Four Preludes, for piano, Op. 34
  • Vstrechnïy (music for the film directed by F. Ermler and Yutkevich), Op. 33
  • Igor Stravinsky
  • Chants du rossignol et Marche chinoise, for violin and piano (arranged from The Nightingale)
  • Danse russe, for violin and piano
  • Duo concertant, for violin and piano
  • Scherzo, for violin and piano [arr. from The Firebird]
  • Suite italienne, for cello and piano (arranged from Pulcinella)
  • Suite italienne, for violin and piano (arranged from Pulcinella)
  • Simvol verï, for SATB choir
  • Virgil Thomson
  • String Quartet No. 2
  • Symphony No. 2 (arrangement for piano, four hands)
  • Joaquín Turina
  • Homenaje a Tárrega, Op. 69, for guitar
  • Silhouettes, Op. 70, for piano
  • Mujeres españolas, Series 2 Op. 73, for piano
  • Vocalizaciones, Op. 74, for soprano and piano
  • Ivan Wyschnegradsky – Prelude and Fugue, for two pianos tuned a quarter tone apart, Op. 21

Opera

Film

Jazz

Musical theater

Musical films

Births

Deaths

References