1845
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1 January 1845 The sale by Robert Schumann (34) of the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik to Franz Brendel becomes effective.
Die Kreuzfahrer, an opera by Louis Spohr (60) to words of L.&M. Spohr after Kotzebue, is performed for the first time, in the Kassel Hoftheater.
3 January 1845 Emperor Ferdinand orders that Croatian be the official language of Croatia.
Robert Schumann (34) consults Dr. Carl Gustav Carus in Dresden about his “nervous disorder.” Carus suggests Dr. Carl Helbig, an adherent of hypnotism and magnetism.
5 January 1845 Kaiser Adolph von Nassau, a grosse Oper by Heinrich August Marschner (49) to words of Rau, is performed for the first time, in the Königliches Sächsisches Hoftheater, Dresden. The singers were prepared by the Dresden Kapellmeister, Richard Wagner (31).
8 January 1845 Hear My Prayer, a hymn for soprano, chorus and organ by Felix Mendelssohn (35) to words of Bartholemew after the Bible, is performed for the first time, in London.
15 January 1845 Franz Liszt (33) reaches Lisbon by steamboat from Gibraltar. He will be in Lisbon for six weeks and give twelve concerts.
19 January 1845 Hector Berlioz’ (41) overture Le corsaire is performed for the first time, at the Cirque Olympique, Paris directed by the composer. It is performed under the name La tour de Nice.
20 January 1845 In the middle of an ongoing bout with depression, Robert Schumann (34) begins wearing an amulet to ward off evil spirits. Coincidentally, he is working on his Scenes from Goethe’s Faust.
21 January 1845 Pope Gregory XVI appoints Gaspare Spontini (70) as Count of San Andrea.
22 January 1845 Die jungen Wiener op.7, a waltz by Johann Strauss (19), is performed for the first time, in Dommayer’s Casino, Heitzing. Also premiered is his Elfen-Quadrille op.16.
24 January 1845 A requiem mass is said for the memory of Nicolò Paganini (†4) in Chiesa della Steccata, Parma. Until recently, the Church refused the remains of Paganini a Christian burial due to the composer’s refusal to receive the last sacrament.
26 January 1845 Franz Liszt (33) plays at the Royal Palace in Lisbon before Queen Maria II, who awards him the Order of Christ.
29 January 1845 “The Raven”, a poem by Edgar Allan Poe, appears in print for the first time, in the New York Evening Mirror under a pseudonymn.
1 February 1845 Woman in the Nineteenth Century by Margaret Fuller is published this month in New York.
3 February 1845 Faschings-Lieder op.11, a waltz by Johann Strauss (19), is performed for the first time, at the Goldener Strauß, Vienna.
15 February 1845 Giovanna d’Arco, a dramma lirico by Giuseppe Verdi (31) to words of Solera after Schiller, is performed for the first time, in Teatro alla Scala, Milan and enjoys enormous popular success.
16 February 1845 Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka (40) witnesses a concert conducted by Hector Berlioz (41) in the Cirque Olympique, Paris. “I have had no greater musical pleasure than this second concert of Berlioz’. In my opinion Berlioz is one of the most remarkable composers of our time.”
18 February 1845 Giacomo Meyerbeer (53) directs a performance of Euryanthe in Berlin starring Jenny Lind for the benefit of a memorial to the composer, Carl Maria von Weber (†18).
1 March 1845 US President John Tyler signs a bill annexing the Republic of Texas.
3 March 1845 Florida is admitted as the 27th state of the United States.
4 March 1845 James Knox Polk replaces John Tyler as President of the United States.
6 March 1845 Juan Nepomuceno Almonte, the Mexican minister in Washington, asks for his passport because of the annexation of Texas.
8 March 1845 Ernani becomes the first opera by Giuseppe Verdi (31) to be performed in England, at Her Majesty’s Theatre, London.
11 March 1845 Amidst growing tensions, Maori attack the British settlement of Kororareka. The garrison holds them off while the town is evacuated to waiting ships. The settlement is then plundered and burned. This is seen as the beginning of the first Maori War.
A third child is born to Robert (34) and Clara (24) Schumann. She is named Julie.
13 March 1845 Felix Mendelssohn’s (36) Violin Concerto op.64 is performed for the first time, in the Leipzig Gewandhaus.
15 March 1845 Friedrich Engels dates the preface to his work Die Lage der arbeitenden Klasse in England, (The Condition of the Working Class in England). It will be published in Leipzig.
16 March 1845 While Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka (40) is visiting Paris, Hector Berlioz (41) performs a selection from A Life for the Tsar and one from Ruslan and Ludmilla at one of his concerts at the Cirque Olympique. Critical reaction is mixed.
17 March 1845 Stephen Perry of Messrs Perry & Co. receives a British patent for a rubber band.
24 March 1845 Franz Liszt (33) arrives in Valencia where he will give three performances over the next week.
26 March 1845 Dr. Horace Harrel of Jersey City, New Jersey and Dr. William H. Shecut receive a patent for an “adhesive and medicated plaster”, the forerunner of the Band-Aid®.
28 March 1845 Karl Friedrich Nebenius become Prime Minister of Baden.
The Mexican government ratifies the actions of 6 March of their minister in Washington and breaks off relations with the United States largely in response to the annexation of Texas.
2 April 1845 French physicists Louis Fizeau and Leon Foucault take the first successful photograph of the sun.
Louis Moreau Gottschalk (15) gives his first performance in Paris at the Salle Pleyel. He plays Chopin’s (35) e minor piano concerto and two unaccompanied works: Thalberg’s (33) transcription of airs from Rossini’s (53) Semiramide and Liszt’s (33) Fantasy on Meyerbeer’s Robert le diable. The performance is very successful. Chopin (35) and Kalkbrenner (59) are present. After the performance, Chopin meets the precocious American but no two people agree on exactly what he said to him.
Solo de piano avec accompagnement de quintette op.10 by César Franck (22) is performed for the first time, in Salle Erard, Paris.
3 April 1845 Louis Moreau Gottschalk (15) calls at the home of Frédéric Kalkbrenner (59) in Paris. Kalkbrenner compliments his technique but criticizes his choice of music.
5 April 1845 Franz Liszt (33) arrives in Barcelona where he will give six concerts through 21 April.
10 April 1845 Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka (40) performs in a concert at the Salle Herz, Paris featuring some of his music. It is moderately successful.
Nearly one-third of Pittsburgh is destroyed by fire. Two people are killed, 12,000 are homeless. Over a thousand buildings are destroyed with $9,000,000 in damages. Among the citizens helping to fight the blaze are Stephen Foster (18) and his brother Morrison.
13 April 1845 Victor Hugo is made a peer of France: Vicomte Hugo.
16 April 1845 Duchess Marie Louise and the Bishop of Parma allow the earthly remains of Nicolò Paganini (†4) to enter Parma.
Hector Berlioz (41) writes glowingly of Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka (40) and his music in Journal des débats, calling him “among the outstanding composers of his time.”
21 April 1845 Undine, a romantische Zauberoper by Albert Lortzing (43) to his own words after de la Motte-Fouqué, is performed for the first time, in Magdeburg Stadttheater.
22 April 1845 La barcarolle, ou L’amour et la musique, an opéra comique by Daniel-François-Esprit Auber (63) to words of Scribe, is performed for the first time, at the Théâtre Favart, Paris.
26 April 1845 The Chartist Land Cooperative is put into operation. It is part of a scheme by Daniel O’Connor to take unemployed factory workers and place them back on the land in smallholdings.
27 April 1845 Franz Liszt (33) is created a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor.
30 April 1845 Sybil, or The Two Nations is completed by Benjamin Disraeli. It will be published in May.
2 May 1845 During a popular entertainment in Great Yarmouth, England, a suspension bridge over the River Bure collapses sending four hundred spectators into the water. 79 of them are killed, mostly children.
3 May 1845 Fire breaks out in a theatre in Canton, China. 1,670 people are killed.
The mortal remains of Nicolò Paganini (†4) are laid to rest in the grounds of Villa Gaione, Parma almost five years after his death.
6 May 1845 Incidental music to d’Ennery and Lemoine’s play Sabaudka by Stanislaw Moniuszko (26) is performed for the first time, in Vilnius.
12 May 1845 Gabriel Urbain Fauré is born at Pamiers, Ariège, 50 km south of Toulouse, the last of six children born to Tossaint-Honoré Fauré, deputy inspector of primary education at Pamiers, and Marie-Antoinette-Hélène Lalène-Laprade, daughter of a former captain in the Imperial army and a member of the minor aristocracy.
14 May 1845 A railway begins operation between Utrecht and Arnhem.
15 May 1845 14-year-old Georg Viktor replaces Georg Friedrich Heinrich as Prince of Waldeck and Pyrmont under regency.
17 May 1845 “The Pit and the Pendulum” by Edgar Allan Poe is published in The Broadway Journal.
19 May 1845 The two ships of the expedition led by Sir John Franklin, Erebus and Terror set sail from Greenhithe, England searching for the Northwest Passage.
20 May 1845 The first legislative assembly in Hawaii convenes.
23 May 1845 Spain adopts a new, more conservative, constitution which grants more power to the monarchy.
24 May 1845 José Joaquín Antonio Florencio de Herrera y Ricardos replaces Antonio López de Santa Anna y Pérez de Lebrón as President of Mexico.
25 May 1845 Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka (40) departs Paris by rail for Spain.
28 May 1845 Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka (40) arrives in Pau from Paris.
The Saint-Roch district of Quebec is destroyed by fire. 50 people are killed and over 1,200 are left homeless.
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Written by Himself is published. It becomes an immediate and international hit.
29 May 1845 In Linz, Anton Bruckner (20) passes the Konkursprüfung, the examination to become a full teacher.
30 May 1845 The first ship carrying indentured workers from India arrives in Trinidad.
1 June 1845 Crossing the Pyrenees with pack mules, Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka and his companions reach the Spanish border on the composer’s 41st birthday.
3 June 1845 Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka (41) reaches Pamplona.
11 June 1845 The Committee of the Birmingham Festival votes to ask Felix Mendelssohn (36) to conduct the next festival and to provide a new oratorio for that occasion.
19 June 1845 Franz Liszt (33) gives the first of three concerts in Basel.
23 June 1845 A joint resolution passes the Congress of the Republic of Texas accepting annexation by the United States.
28 June 1845 Exactly one month after the Saint-Roch district of Quebec is destroyed by fire, a similar fate visits the Saint-Jean district of the same city.
2 July 1845 In Washington, Secretary of State James Buchanan iterates the US offer to settle the Oregon boundary dispute at 49°. British Minister Richard Pakenham iterates the traditional British refusal and their claim of the Columbia River as the boundary.
4 July 1845 Henry David Thoreau moves to Walden Pond near Concord, Massachusetts, beginning his 26-month residence.
A special convention of the Republic of Texas votes to accept annexation by the United States.
5 July 1845 Jugend-Träume op.12, a waltz by Johann Strauss (19), is performed for the first time, at the Sperl Ballroom, Vienna.
9 June 1845 About three quarters of the carpenters of Paris go on strike over wages and subcontracting.
10 July 1845 Gaetano Donizetti (47) leaves Vienna for the last time, heading for Paris.
16 July 1845 Premier Duo sur le “God Save the King” op.4 for piano four hands by César Franck (22) is performed for the first time, in Paris.
17 July 1845 French authorities raid the Compagnons du devoir, an inn in Paris which serves as the base of operations for the carpenters strike. The strike fund is taken and the proprietors arrested.
19 July 1845 Fire destroys 1,000 buildings in New York.
20 July 1845 Sträußchen op.15, a waltz by Johann Strauss (19), is performed for the first time, at the Goldener Strauß, Vienna.
21 July 1845 Czechen-Polka op.13 by Johann Strauss (19) is performed for the first time, at the Sperl Ballroom, Vienna.
26 July 1845 The two ships of the expedition led by Sir John Franklin, Erebus and Terror, are last seen by white men entering Lancaster Sound in search of the Northwest Passage.
30 July 1845 Jean Sylvain van de Weyer replaces Jean Baptiste Nothomb as head of government for Belgium.
1 August 1845 One day after departing Dresden for the Beethoven festival in Bonn, Robert Schumann (35), accompanied by his wife Clara (25), suffers an attack of “anxiety and dizziness.” They abandon the trip and travel instead to his family in Zwickau.
The Andover Workhouse Scandal firsts comes to light when Thomas Wakeley, MP asks a question in Parliament about the conditions at the Andover Workhouse in Hampshire. Charges have been made that the workers are so mistreated that they fight over the bones they are supposed to be crushing in order to find something to eat.
The Home Secretary promises to investigate.
8 August 1845 The Aberdeen Act, named after its sponsor Lord Aberdeen, receives royal assent from Queen Victoria. It authorizes the Royal Navy to stop and search Brazilian ships suspected of carrying slaves.
9 August 1845 After Gaetano Donizetti (47) falls on the street outside his Paris hotel and is brought unconscious to his room, a meeting of three doctors prescribes a change of scene and no composing. His disease is not in doubt.
11 August 1845 Today begins three days of celebrations surrounding the unveiling of the Beethoven (†18) monument in Bonn. Attenders include King Friedrich Wilhelm IV and Queen Elisabeth of Prussia, Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. Famous musicians include Louis Spohr (61), Giacomo Meyerbeer (53), Hector Berlioz (41), Franz Liszt (33) and Jenny Lind. This evening, during dinner, a small concert is given, directed by Meyerbeer and featuring Jenny Lind.
12 August 1845 After a performance of the Missa Solemnis in the cathedral, directed by Louis Spohr (61), the Beethoven (†18) Monument is unveiled in Bonn before royal and musical guests and a multitude of onlookers.
Giuseppe Verdi’s (31) tragedia lirica Alzira to words of Cammarano after Voltaire, is performed for the first time, in Teatro San Carlo, Naples and enjoys a moderate success.
13 August 1845 Festkantate zur Enthüllung des Beethovens-Denkmals in Bonn by Franz Liszt (33) to words of Wolff is performed for the first time, in Bonn. This evening, during dinner, a small concert is given, directed by Meyerbeer (53) and featuring Jenny Lind and Franz Liszt.
Felix Mendelssohn (36) and his family move to 3 Königstrasse in Leipzig, his last residence.
18 August 1845 By decree of Tsar Nikolay I, the Imperial Russian Geographical Society is founded in St. Petersburg.
Patrioten-Marsch op.8 by Johann Strauss (19) is performed for the first time, in Vienna. Also premiered is his waltz Berglieder op.18.
23 August 1845 “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe is published in The Broadway Journal.
28 August 1845 Rufus Porter publishes the first issue of Scientific American in New York.
2 September 1845 The Electric Telegraph Company is registered as a joint stock company in Britain. It is the first joint stock company involved with electronic communications.
7 September 1845 Hearing that his wife is gravely ill, Gioachino Rossini (53) travels with his mistress, Olympe Pélissier, to Castenaso to visit her. Rossini spends 30 minutes alone with her and leaves in tears. He will receive daily reports on her condition until she dies on 7 October.
9 September 1845 Irish newspapers report on the potato blight for the first time.
10 September 1845 A new building for the oldest stock exchange in the world is opened in Amsterdam by King Willem II. It was designed by Jan David Zocher, Jr.
11 September 1845 After spending the summer in Valladolid, Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka (41) departs for Madrid.
13 September 1845 Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka (41) arrives in Madrid from Valladolid and takes up residence in the center of town.
15 September 1845 Six Sonatas for Organ by Felix Mendelssohn (36) are published simultaneously in London, Leipzig, Milan and Paris.
22 September 1845 Great Britain and France declare a blockade of the Rio de la Plata to support the Colorados in the Uruguayan Civil War.
23 September 1845 Alexander Cartwright of the Knickerbocker Base Ball Club in New York publishes the first codified rules of baseball. They become known as the Knickerbocker Rules.
25 September 1845 After continuous fighting for three days and nights, a French force at Sidi Brahim is almost entirely wiped out by Algerians. Only eleven of 450 French troops survive.
Anton Bruckner (21) becomes assistant teacher at the school he attended as a child, the Paris School of St. Florian, a community of Augustinian priests situated southwest of Linz. He will remain here for the next ten years, but it will be his spiritual home throughout his life.
1 October 1845 The first installment of Carmen by Prosper Mérimée appears in the Revue des Deux Mondes.
9 October 1845 Anglican theologian John Henry Newman converts to the Roman Catholic faith.
10 October 1845 A school to train naval officers opens at Fort Severn at Annapolis, Maryland. In 1850 it will become known as the United States Naval Academy.
13 October 1845 Voters in the Republic of Texas approve annexation by the United States and a new constitution.
15 October 1845 The Dämonen-Quadrille op.19 of Johann Strauss (19) is performed for the first time, in Dommayer’s Casino, Heitzing.
16 October 1845 Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka (41) visits Aranjuez, the “Tsarskoye Selo of the Spanish kings...” He is not impressed. He will then go on to Toledo, which pleases him much more.
19 October 1845 Tannhäuser und der Sängerkrieg auf Wartburg, a grosse romantische Oper by Richard Wagner (32) to his own words, is performed for the first time, in the Dresden Hoftheater, conducted by the composer. The reception is friendly but lukewarm. Robert Schumann (35) is in the audience. He is not impressed. See 1 August 1847, 13 March 1861 and 1 August 1867.
22 October 1845 Hector Berlioz (41) and Marie Recio depart Paris for a tour of German-speaking countries. He carries with him most of the libretto to La damnation de Faust.
30 October 1845 In a concert organized by the father of the composer, the églogue biblique Ruth for solo voices, chorus and orchestra by César Franck (22) to words of the Bible and Guillemin is performed for the first time, in the Salle Erard, Paris. Present at the invitation of the elder Franck are Gaspare Spontini (70), Giacomo Meyerbeer (54), Fromental Halévy (46), Adolphe Adam (42) Franz Liszt (34) and Ignaz Moscheles. The composers are mildly laudatory except for Liszt who is effusively so.
1 November 1845 Incidental music to Sophocles’ play Oedipus at Colonos by Felix Mendelssohn (36) is performed for the first time, before King Friedrich Wilhelm IV in Potsdam. Public and press are unimpressed.
2 November 1845 Hector Berlioz (41) and his mistress Marie Recio (who promises not to sing) arrive in Vienna. He will give six concerts here.
4 November 1845 Sixteen months of voting for the House of Representatives throughout the United States conclude. The Whig Party makes modest gains, but the Democrats will control the House.
6 November 1845 Today sees the first of six concerts that Hector Berlioz (41) will give in the Theater-an-der-Wien, Vienna. The composer’s time in Vienna will be very successful.
7 November 1845 All Danish territories in India are sold to Great Britain.
8 November 1845 The Poor Law Commissioners admit that press reports about conditions at the Andover Workhouse in Hampshire are largely correct. The bones to be crushed for fertilizer are fought over by the workers for scraps of food who are not given enough to eat.
9 November 1845 Quadrille nach der Oper Der Liebesbrunnen von M.W. Balfe op.10 by Johann Strauss (20), is performed for the first time, in Vienna.
10 November 1845 US President Polk sends John Slidell on a secret mission to Mexico. He is to offer them $30,000,000 for the provinces of Alta California and Santa Fe de Nuevo México.
11 November 1845 Die Frauen und die Sänger for chorus by Felix Mendelssohn (36) to words of Schiller, is performed for the first time, in Leipzig.
19 November 1845 The Raven and Other Poems by Edgar Allan Poe is published in New York.
20 November 1845 British and French warships force their way past Argentine ships and shore batteries at Vuelta de Obligado on the Paraná River. They are able to defeat the Argentines but unable to achieve their objective, to open free commerce on the river.
22 November 1845 Lord John Russell writes to Prime Minister Robert Peel from Edinburgh agreeing to the repeal of the Corn Laws. This puts the Whigs on the side of repeal.
Robert Schumann (35) sees Tannhäuser again and changes his previously hostile view of the score. He writes to Mendelssohn (36) that he will have to retract most of what he wrote about it.
23 November 1845 Die Österreicher op.22, a waltz by Johann Strauss (20), is performed for the first time, at the Sperl Ballroom, Vienna.
25 November 1845 A Piano Concerto by Adolf von Henselt (31) is performed for the first time, in Dresden, Clara Schumann (26) at the piano.
29 November 1845 Two works for solo voice and orchestra by Hector Berlioz (41) are performed for the first time, in Vienna: Le chasseur danois to words of de Leuven, and the boléro Zaïde to words of de Beauvoir.
30 November 1845 The revised version of the Symphony no.2 by Otto Nicolai (35) is performed for the first time, in Berlin.
1 December 1845 Incidental music to Racine’s play Athalie by Felix Mendelssohn (36) is performed for the first time, at the Charlottenburg Palace, Berlin.
The Twenty-ninth Congress of the United States convenes in Washington. President Polk’s Democratic Party gains control of the Senate from the Whigs. They continue to hold a majority in the House of Representatives. The new House contains twelve members of the American Party for the first time.
2 December 1845 Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka (41) arrives in Granada from Madrid.
Johannes Simon Mayr dies in Bergamo, aged 82 years, five months and 18 days. His funeral will be attended by Giuseppe Verdi (32).
On the 23rd anniversary of the Monroe Doctrine, US President James Polk announces an aggressive expansionist policy which will spread the United States to the Pacific Ocean. He claims all of the Oregon Territory as far north as 54° 40’.
4 December 1845 Concerto for piano and orchestra op.54 by Robert Schumann (35) is performed for the first time, in the Hotel de Saxe, Dresden, Clara Schumann (26), seven months pregnant, at the keyboard. See 1 January 1846.
The demand to see Jenny Lind at a Gewandhaus concert directed by Felix Mendelssohn (36) is so great that ticket prices are increased and the usual free admission for students of the Leipzig Conservatory is cancelled. The students protest and their leader, Otto Goldschmidt (later accompanist and husband to Jenny Lind), negotiates with Mendelssohn. At the conductor’s wish, Ms. Lind will give a benefit concert for the Gewandhaus musicians pension fund.
5 December 1845 Lacking support in his own cabinet for repeal of the Corn Laws, Sir Robert Peel resigns as prime minister. Queen Victoria will choose John Russell, Lord Russell to succeed him but he will be unable to form a government. Peel remains until next June.
6 December 1845 US envoy John Slidell reaches Mexico City but no one in authority will see him.
8 December 1845 German astronomer Karl Ludwig Hencke discovers Astraea, the fifth asteroid to be viewed from Earth. No new asteroids have been seen since the discovery of Vesta in 1807.
10 December 1845 Scottish inventor Robert Thomson receives a British patent for a pneumatic rubber tire.
11 December 1845 A Sikh army crossed the River Sutlej at the village of Moran. Great Britain declares war.
Seven Swiss Catholic cantons form the Sonderbund to protect themselves.
17 December 1845 In the Engelklub, Dresden, Richard Wagner (32) reads the libretto of Lohengrin to colleagues, including Ferdinand Hiller and Robert Schumann (35).
18 December 1845 12,000 British and Indian troops defeat 30,000 attacking Sikhs at Mukdi in the Punjab.
20 December 1845 The Cricket on the Hearth by Charles Dickens is published.
22 December 1845 After two days of fighting, British forces defeat the Sikhs at Ferozeshah.
25 December 1845 Andrea Donizetti, nephew of the composer (48), arrives in Paris having been sent by the family to ascertain his uncle’s true condition. Their worst fears are confirmed.
27 December 1845 Anesthesia is used for the first time in childbirth, by Dr. Crawford W. Long of Jefferson, Georgia, on his wife.
In an editorial in the New York Morning News about the Oregon issue, John O’Sullivan uses the phrase “manifest destiny.” He claims it for the United States to “possess the whole of the continent which providence has given us.”
29 December 1845 Texas is admitted as the 28th state of the United States.
30 December 1845 Gabriel Valencia replaces José Joaquín Antonio Florencio de Herrera y Ricardos as interim President of Mexico.
©2004-2014 Paul Scharfenberger
10 February 2014
Last Updated (Monday, 10 February 2014 07:05)