1905
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1 January 1905 The first trip along the Trans-Siberian Railway, uniting Vladivostok and Paris, begins. It takes 21 days to make the complete trip.
Germany changes the status of Togoland from a protectorate to a colony.
Paul, Baron Gautsch von Frankenthurn succeeds Ernst von Koerber as Chancellor of Austria.
2 January 1905 Russian forces in the Pacific naval base of Port Arthur (Lüshun) ask for terms from the Japanese.
Michael Kemp Tippett is born in London, second of two children born to Henry William Tippett, a lawyer, and Isabel Clementine Binny Kemp, author and daughter of a civil servant.
American astronomer Charles Dillon Perrine discovers Elara, a moon of Jupiter, at the Lick Observatory near San Jose, California. It is the seventh moon of Jupiter to be observed from Earth.
4 January 1905 After months of furious battle, the Russian base at Port Arthur (Lüshun), with over 24,000 men, surrenders to the Japanese.
Tragic Overture by Antonín Dvorák (†0) is performed for the first time, in Prague.
5 January 1905 Jean Sibelius (39) arrives in Berlin at the invitation of Ferruccio Busoni (38).
7 January 1905 An Impromptu for harp op.86 by Gabriel Fauré (59) is performed for the first time.
8 January 1905 The symphonic poem Le Palais hanté by Florent Schmitt (34) is performed for the first time, in Paris.
10 January 1905 Two Songs op.17 for voice and piano by Frederick S. Converse (34) to words of Rossetti and Tennyson, are performed for the first time, in Boston.
13 January 1905 Regent Leopold, Count zur Lippe-Biesterfeld replaces Alexander as Prince of Lippe.
14 January 1905 Jens Christian Christensen replaces Johan Henrik Deuntzer as Prime Minister of Denmark.
19 January 1905 Historiettes au crepuscule for voice and piano by Ernst Bloch (24) is performed for the first time, in Geneva.
20 January 1905 Night and Day op.11 for piano and orchestra by Frederick S. Converse (34) is performed for the first time, in Boston.
22 January 1905 Approximately 200,000 workers converge on the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg to petition the Tsar for a redress of grievances. Troops guarding the palace fire into the crowd and then charge, killing hundreds and wounding thousands. The day is known thereafter as “Bloody Sunday.”
24 January 1905 Maurice Rouvier replaces Emile Combes as Prime Minister of France.
25 January 1905 Russian forces attack the Japanese around the village of Sandepu, 38 km southwest of Mukden (Shenyang).
Three days after Bloody Sunday, Sergey Prokofiev (13) and his mother arrive in St. Petersburg after the winter holiday for the next term at the Conservatory.
Arnold Schoenberg’s (30) symphonic poem Pelleas und Melisande is performed for the first time, under the composer’s direction, in Vienna. Although many leave during the performance, one interested listener, Gustav Mahler (44), stays until the end.
27 January 1905 Raimundo Fernández Villaverde, marqués de Pozo Rubio replaces Marcelo de Azcárraga y Palmero as Prime Minister of Spain.
On the fourth anniversary of the death of Giuseppe Verdi, a setting of the Requiem by Giacomo Puccini (46) is performed for the first time, at the Casa di Riposo, Milan.
28 January 1905 After four days of confused fighting and mounting casualties, the Russians call off their attack on the Japanese southwest of Mukden (Shenyang).
29 January 1905 A night devoted to Mahler (44) lieder with orchestra in the Kleiner Musiksaal of the Musikverein, Vienna sees several premieres, including two from Des knaben Wunderhorn (Des Antonius von Padua Fischpredigt, and Lied des Verfolgten im Turm) to words of Brentano and Arnim; the entire Kindertotenlieder cycle, to words of Rückert; four other Rückert Lieder (Blicke mir nicht in die Lieder, Ich atmet’einen Linden Duft, Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen and Um Mitternacht) and two lieder from Des knaben Wunderhorn not part of the song cycle (Revelge and Der Tamboursg’sell). The composer conducts all these works. It is a tremendous success. Attending is a young member of the Schoenberg circle, Anton von Webern (21). He is very impressed.
3 February 1905 A song by Ralph Vaughan Williams (32), Ye Little Birds, to words of Heywood, is performed for the first time, in Aeolian Hall, London.
At a social gathering in the Annahof, Vienna following a Mahler concert, a repeat of the 29 January program, Anton von Webern (21) personally meets Gustav Mahler (44) for the first time. He spends several hours listening to Mahler’s ideas. Webern will later recall “...it was the first time that I received the immediate impression of a truly great personality.”
4 February 1905 Albert Roussel’s (35) Piano Trio op.2 is given its first public performance, at the Salle Pleyel, Paris. See 14 April 1904.
An agreement is signed between the United States and the Dominican Republic by which US agents will take over all Dominican customs houses. 55% of the take will go toward reduction of Dominican debt. It will never be ratified by the US Senate, but President Roosevelt orders it into operation anyway.
5 February 1905 The Second Cello Concerto of Camille Saint-Saëns (69) is performed for the first time, in Paris.
7 February 1905 Edward Elgar (47) receives an honorary doctorate from Oxford University.
8 February 1905 A cyclone around Tahiti kills 10,000 people.
Variations on Balkan Themes op.60 for piano by Amy Cheney Beach (37) is performed for the first time, in Huntington Chambers Hall, Boston. The audience and critics are positive.
12 February 1905 King Vittorio Emmanuele III creates Ruggero Leoncavallo (47) a Cavaliere dell’Ordine dei Santi Maurizio e Lazzaro, in Rome.
13 February 1905 Merlin, an opera by Isaac Albéniz (44) to words of Money-Coutts, is performed for the first time, in a concert setting in French, at the home of M. Tassel in Brussels. See 18 December 1950 and 20 June 1998.
Two of the Three Dante Rhapsodies op.92 for piano by Charles Villiers Stanford (52), Beatrice and Capaneo, are performed for the first time, in Bechstein Hall, London by Percy Grainger.
14 February 1905 Chérubin, a comédie chantée by Jules Massenet (62) to words of de Croisset and Cain, is performed for the first time, at the Opéra de Monte Carlo. The audience is very enthusiastic, requiring constant encores.
15 February 1905 29 of the leading musicians of the Russian nation sign a letter to the press demanding political reforms. It includes the following: “When life is in shackles, art cannot be free...When there is no freedom of thought, no freedom of religion, no freedom of expression, and no freedom of the press, all living artistic ideas of the nation are constrained, and creative art withers.”
17 February 1905 A student and social-revolutionary named Ivan Platonovich Kalyayev kills Grand Duke Sergey Alyeksandrovich, uncle of Tsar Nikolay II, by throwing a bomb into his carriage in St. Petersburg.
18 February 1905 The dean of Russian composers, Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov (60), publicly endorses the letter to the press demanding political reforms.
L’Isle joyeuse and Masques for piano, by Claude Debussy (42), are performed for the first time, in the Salle Pleyel, Paris.
20 February 1905 Ten Songs for Male Choir op.83 by Max Reger (31) are performed for the first time, in Leipzig.
22 February 1905 Edgard Varèse (21) receives a letter from Auguste Rodin giving directions to the master’s house in Meudon. Varèse has been hired to do light clerical and other duties.
At a private performance for Rimsky-Korsakov (60) and his circle in St. Petersburg, a Piano Sonata in f# minor by Igor Stravinsky (22) is performed for the first time.
Desiring more income from his published works, Jean Sibelius (39) leaves Breitkopf & Härtel and signs a contract with Robert Lienau, head of Schlesingerische Buch- und Musikhandlung. He must compose four major works per year and will receive a minimum of 8,000 Reichsmarks.
The play Damaged Goods reopens in Paris. It was banned because it deals with syphilis.
23 February 1905 The student body of St. Petersburg Conservatory votes 451-146 to stop attending classes. “We, both as citizens and as artistic individuals, are unable to ignore the general call to protest and to quietly continue our studies given the current conditions of Russian life.”
25 February 1905 Russian and Japanese forces begin eleven days of fighting near Mukden (Shenyang).
The Concerto for double bass in f# minor by Sergey Koussevitzky is performed for the first time, in Moscow. The composer is soloist.
27 February 1905 Sigmund Freud meets Carl Gustav Jung for the first time, in Freud’s Vienna office.
1 March 1905 Variations and Fugue on an Original Theme op.73 for organ by Max Reger (31) is performed for the first time, in Berlin.
Incidental music to Aristophanes’ play The Clouds by Hubert Parry (57) is performed for the first time, at the University of Oxford.
2 March 1905 Marcus Samuel Blitzstein is born in Philadelphia, second of two children born to Samuel Marcus Blitzstein, a steamship ticket agent at his father’s bank, and Anna Levitt (Lewytski). Her father is in the clothing business.
3 March 1905 Tsar Nikolay II issues a manifesto calling on all classes to support the throne, issues a decree to the Senate insuring the right of all citizens to be heard by the throne, and announces that, although the autocratic principle is not changed, he would be willing to be advised by an elected duma.
In Berlin, zoologist Fritz Schaudinn and dermatologist Erich Hoffmann discover the microorganism that causes syphilis.
The Mystic Trumpeter, a symphonic poem by Frederick S. Converse (34), is performed for the first time, in Philadelphia.
4 March 1905 The Violin Concerto in A by Alyeksandr Glazunov (39) is performed for the first time, in St. Petersburg, the composer conducting.
US President Theodore Roosevelt is inaugurated for a second term. The Fifty-ninth Congress of the United States convenes in Washington. Republicans hold increased majorities in both houses.
6 March 1905 Union and Liberty op.60 for chorus and orchestra or band by Horatio Parker (41) is performed for the first time, in Washington as part of celebrations surrounding the inaugural of President Roosevelt.
7 March 1905 Sonata for violin and piano no.5 op.84 by Max Reger (31) is performed for the first time, in Berlin, the composer at the keyboard.
8 March 1905 Alexander, Baron Dusch replaces Artur von Brauer as Prime Minister of Baden.
Introduction and Allegro op.47 for string quartet and string orchestra and the Pomp and Circumstance March no.3 by Edward Elgar (47) are performed for the first time, in Queen’s Hall, London, the composer conducting. Arnold Bax (21) is in the audience.
10 March 1905 After 14 days of fighting, the Battle of Mukden (Shenyang) ends with moderate gains by the Japanese over the Russians. The Russians withdraw to new defensive positions south of Tiehling. The battle costs 150,000 killed and wounded.
12 March 1905 Re Enzo, a comic opera by Ottorino Respighi (25) to words of Donini, is performed for the first time, in Teatro del Corso, Bologna.
16 March 1905 Edward Elgar (47) gives the first of his Birmingham Lectures entitled “A Future for English Music.” He attacks some current English composers such as Charles Villiers Stanford (52) although not by name, and claims that current English music is held in no regard abroad. Formerly friends, Elgar and Stanford cease communication.
The Italian Somaliland colony is created.
The dramma Amica by Pietro Mascagni (41) to words of Bérel (tr. Targioni-Tozzetti), is performed for the first time, in the Opera de Monte Carlo, the composer conducting. The press and the public are enthusiastic.
Nadia Boulanger (17) makes her public performing debut in Paris.
17 March 1905 Students at the Moscow Conservatory take a vote of solidarity with Moscow musicians and workers.
Albert Einstein publishes "On a heuristic viewpoint concerning the production and transformation of light” in Annalen der Physik. He shows that energy is made up of localized units called “quanta.”
Incidental music to Maeterlinck’s (tr. Gripenberg) play Pelléas et Mélisande by Jean Sibelius (39) is performed for the first time, at the Swedish Theatre, Helsinki, directed by the composer.
18 March 1905 Béla Bartók (23) meets Zoltán Kodály (22) for the first time at the home of Emma Gruber (the future Mrs. Kodály) in Budapest.
21 March 1905 After being told that his position as second violinist in the Royal Chapel Orchestra will remain unchanged, Carl Nielsen (39) resigns to devote himself to composition. He was hoping that his stint as a deputy conductor would lead to a conducting position.
Sleep op.18, a work for chorus and orchestra by Carl Nielsen (39) to words of Jørgensen, is performed for the first time, at Copenhagen, directed by the composer.
22 March 1905 Children working as miners are limited to an eight hour day by the British Parliament.
24 March 1905 Jules Verne dies at his home in Amiens at the age of 77.
25 March 1905 Francesca from the Three Dante Rhapsodies op.92 for piano by Charles Villiers Stanford (52) is performed for the first time, in Bechstein Hall, London. See 13 February 1905.
27 March 1905 Alessandro Fortis replaces Giovanni Giolitti as Prime Minister of Italy.
29 March 1905 The Imperial authorities try to reopen St. Petersburg Conservatory. Striking students attempt to physically keep the school closed. Police use force to end the blockade.
30 March 1905 Striking students manage to get into St. Petersburg Conservatory. They ransack the place and set off a stink bomb. Faculty and students inside are forced to flee. Russian Bulletin publishes a letter written by Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov (61). He attacks the Imperial Russian Musical Society for not suspending classes until September, leaving the school and its students “to the tender mercies of the police; while those who have not gone on strike are guarded by the same police.” He questions the competence of the board of the IRMS, calling them a “circle of dilettantes” who are “utterly indifferent to the fate of its pupils.”
Greek residents of Crete, led by Eleftherios Venizelos, revolt against Turkish rule causing the Greek governor, Prince Georgios, to return to Athens.
31 March 1905 In a gesture of defiance against the Anglo-French agreement on spheres of influence, Kaiser Wilhelm II goes to Tangier to speak. He demands that Morocco remain independent, outside French influence.
Enrique Granados (37) makes his first Paris appearance as a mature artist at the Salle Pleyel.
1 April 1905 The board of the Imperial Russian Musical Society accepts the resignation of Avgust Rudolfovich Berngard as director of St. Petersburg Conservatory, expels all the student protesters, and dismisses Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov (61) from the faculty because of his letter of 30 March.
A direct telephone line is instituted between Paris and Berlin.
Great Britain establishes the Colony of Uganda out of its Buganda Protectorate.
4 April 1905 An earthquake centered in Kangra, India kills 19,800 people.
Alyeksandr Glazunov (39) resigns his position as professor at St. Petersburg Conservatory to protest the dismissal of Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov (61).
A Connemara Revel for orchestra by Arnold Bax (21) is performed for the first time, in Queen’s Hall, London, at a student concert of the Royal Academy of Music. It is the first performance of an orchestral work by Bax.
7 April 1905 Sylvania: A Wedding Cantata op.46 for solo voices, chorus and orchestra by Amy Cheney Beach (37) to words of Bancroft after Bloem is performed for the first time, in Chickering Hall, Boston. Present are George Whitefield Chadwick (50) and John Knowles Paine (66) who consider it a triumph.
9 April 1905 After Alyeksandr Glazunov (39) conducts a student performance of Rimsky-Korsakov’s (61) Kashchey, a political demonstration in favor of Rimsky-Korsakov breaks out. Thereafter, the police temporarily forbid the performance of his music.
Leos Janácek’s (50) Spring Song for solo voice and piano to words of Tichy (pseud. of Rypacek) is performed for the first time, at the Friends of Art Club, Brünn (Brno).
Romance WoO.2 for voice and piano by Alyeksandr Skryabin (33) is performed for the first time, in the Salle Erard, Paris, the composer at the keyboard.
11 April 1905 Sergey Prokofiev (13) writes to his father that he has signed a letter, along with other theory students at St. Petersburg Conservatory, asking dismissal from the school since Rimsky-Korsakov (61) and others no longer teach there.
13 April 1905 Johan Olof Ramstedt replaces Erich Gustaf Boström as Prime Minister of Sweden.
Sonata no.2 for cello and piano op.123 by Camille Saint-Saëns (69) is performed for the first time, in Paris, the composer at the keyboard.
14 April 1905 Engelbert Humperdinck’s (50) comic opera Die Heirat wider Willen, to words of H. Humperdinck after Dumas, is performed for the first time, at the Royal Opera House, Berlin, conducted by Richard Strauss (40).
16 April 1905 The Sergeant’s Song op.15/3 for solo voices and piano by Gustav Holst (30) to words of Hardy, is performed for the first time, in London, the composer at the piano.
18 April 1905 The symphonic sketch Vendanges by Albert Roussel (36) is performed for the first time, in the Nouveau-Théâtre, Paris.
19 April 1905 Joseph Goldberger of the US Public Health Service announces that Pellagra is caused by deficient diet.
20 April 1905 The Cretan Assembly proclaims union with Greece and requests that the Governor, Prince Giorgios, inform the great powers. They will refuse to recognize it.
Arthur Farwell (32) meets with Henry Gilbert (36) and other interested people in Boston to form the American Music Society to promote the music of living American composers.
21 April 1905 The New York Telephone Company and the New York Electric Music Company sign a contract allowing music to be transmitted over telephone wires.
24 April 1905 Manuel de Falla (28) wins the Ortiz y Cussó prize in piano performance in a competition at the Madrid Conservatory of Music. The prize consists of a grand piano.
Incidental music to Jonson’s play Pan’s Anniversary by Ralph Vaughan Williams (32) is performed for the first time, in Bancroft Gardens, Stratford-on-Avon conducted by the composer. In addition, Gustav Holst (30) contributes orchestrations of keyboard music and traditional melodies.
30 April 1905 Béla Bartók (24) applies for state aid to collect folksongs in the Székely region of Hungary. It is granted.
Albert Einstein submits his doctoral dissertation, “A New Determination of Molecular Dimensions,” to the University of Zürich. In it he shows how to determine the size of molecules and Avogadro’s number.
Cortège for orchestra by Jean Sibelius (39) is performed for the first time, in Helsinki directed by the composer.
1 May 1905 Russian troops fire into protesting crowds in Warsaw killing 100.
A general strike takes place in Vienna with a massive march by tens of thousands of workers in support of the socialist revolution.
Having both encountered the May Day demonstration in Vienna, Gustav Mahler (44) and Hans Pfitzner (35) have a lengthy argument lasting several hours about class and the merits of socialism, Mahler in favor, Pfitzner against.
Max Reger (32) enters upon duties as a professor at the Akademie der Tonkunst, Munich. He will resign in little more than a year because of differences with the conservative staff.
2 May 1905 Maurice Ravel (30) fails in his third and final attempt to win the Prix de Rome.
3 May 1905 Fea y con gracia, a zarzuela by Joaquín Turina (22) to words of S. and J. Alvárez Quintero, is performed for the first time, in Teatro Moderna, Madrid.
The chorus at the Metropolitan Opera in New York goes out on strike.
4 May 1905 Emma Bardac, the mistress of Claude Debussy (42), receives a divorce from her husband, Sigismond Bardac, a banker.
11 May 1905 Albert Einstein’s article "On the motion of small particles suspended in liquids at rest required by the molecular-kinetic theory of heat” is received by Annalen der Physik. It establishes Brownian Motion and proves the existence of the atom.
13 May 1905 Horatio Parker (41) is elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters, only the second musician to be so honored.
15 May 1905 Striking workers in a St. Petersburg textile mill elect a group to carry demands to the owners. It is the first soviet.
Allegro de concierto for piano by Manuel de Falla (28) is performed for the first time, in the Madrid Ateneo by the composer. It was entered in a composition competition sponsored by the Madrid Conservatory of Music. The competition was won by Enrique Granados (37). Falla received honorable mention.
17 May 1905 Zoologist Fritz Schaudinn and dermatologist Erich Hoffmann present their discovery of 3 March to a meeting of the Berlin Medical Society.
20 May 1905 Capriccio no.1 for piano by Frank Bridge (26) is performed for the first time, in Bechstein Hall, London. It was the winner in a competition sponsored by the pianist Mark Hambourg who plays the premiere.
23 May 1905 Ivan Platonovich Kalyayev is hanged for killing Grand Duke Sergey Alyeksandrovich, uncle to Russian Tsar Nikolay II.
Romania demands full recognition of Romanian communities in the Ottoman Empire comparable to that given Bulgarians and Greeks. The Turks will comply.
Man and Superman by George Bernard Shaw is first performed at the Royal Court Theatre in London.
24 May 1905 Béla Bartók (24) learns that he has received a grant of 1,000 kronen for field work in the Székely district.
25 May 1905 The Rhapsody for piano no.1 by Béla Bartók (24) is performed for the first time, by the composer, in Ujpest. See 15 November 1909.
27 May 1905 A Russian fleet sent from Europe to the Asian war zone is annihilated within a few hours after being attacked by Japanese naval forces in the Tsushima Strait between Japan and Korea. Russian commander Admiral Zinovy Petrovich Rozhdestvensky is captured. Through the night, as the surviving Russian ships try to make Vladivostok, they are set upon by Japanese torpedo craft. Four more ships are lost. The result of the battle fundamentally changes the ways in which Europeans and Asians view each other.
28 May 1905 The surviving Russian ships from the Battle of Tsushima are surrounded by superior Japanese forces and surrender off Takeshima. Only one Russian ship escapes to Vladivostok but it runs aground in a fog near Vladimir Bay.
Ljubomir Stojanovic replaces Nikola Pasic as Prime Minister of Serbia.
29 May 1905 Alban Berg (20) is present for a private performance of Pandora’s Box, a play by Frank Wedekind, in Vienna. It has been banned from public theatres because of its licentious story. The name of the heroine is Lulu. See 2 June 1937.
Symphony no.3 “Le poème divin”, by Alyeksandr Skryabin (33), is performed for the first time, in the Théâtre du Châtelet, Paris.
31 May 1905 Spirit of Beauty op.61, an ode by Horatio Parker (41) to words of Detmers, is performed for the first time, at the dedication of the Albright Art Gallery in Buffalo, New York.
6 June 1905 At the insistence of Germany, Prime Minister Maurice Rouvier of France sacks Foreign Minister Théophile Delcassé, a friend of Britain and Spain. Rouvier takes the foreign ministry himself.
7 June 1905 The Norwegian Storting votes for separation from Sweden. They request that King Oscar II provide a king for them from his family. King Oscar strongly protests the action. Edvard Grieg (61) is on a steamship between Christiania (Oslo) and Bergen when he hears the news. Thousands of demonstrators go to the royal palace in Stockholm to express their support for the King.
Artists Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Fritz Bleyl, Erich Heckel, and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff form Die Brücke in Dresden to further German expressionism.
Three measures into a performance by Arthur Foote (52) in Peoria, Illinois, the electricity fails plunging the church into darkness. Foote completes all three of his planned pieces in the dark, to the amazement and delight of the audience.
8 June 1905 US President Theodore Roosevelt offers to mediate an end to the Russo-Japanese War.
9 June 1905 Edward Elgar (48) and his wife board the Deutschland at Dover for a voyage to America.
11 June 1905 Prime Minister Johan Olof Ramstedt of Sweden announces that his government will not recognize the unilateral independence of Norway.
13 June 1905 Gabriel Fauré (60) is appointed director of the Paris Conservatoire, to take effect 1 October.
15 June 1905 Edward Elgar (48) and his wife arrive at New York.
A Sea Idyll for piano by Frank Bridge (26) is performed for the first time, in Bechstein Hall, London.
18 June 1905 Géza, Baron Fejérváry de Komlós-Keresztes replaces István, Count Tisza de Borosjenö et Szeged as Prime Minister of Hungary.
20 June 1905 In a lecture before the Royal College of Physicians in London, British physiologist Ernest Starling first uses the term “hormone.”
Intermezzo for string trio by Zoltán Kodály (22) is performed for the first time, in Budapest.
21 June 1905 The Swedish Riksdag requests of King Oscar and the Council of State the power to grant independence to Norway and to enter into negotiations with Norway to that end.
22 June 1905 Demetrios Rallis replaces Theodoros Pangaiou Diligiannis as Prime Minister of Greece.
The first movement of the Piano Sonata in f minor by Charles T. Griffes (20) is performed for the first time, in the Beethovensaal, Berlin by the composer.
A severe epidemic of yellow fever begins in New Orleans. As it plays out through October, 3,000 people will contract the disease resulting in 400 deaths.
23 June 1905 Eugenio Montero Rios replaces Raimundo Fernández Villaverde, marqués de Pozo Rubio as Prime Minister of Spain.
Giacomo Puccini (46) and his wife arrive in Buenos Aires after a difficult crossing from Italy. He is there on an invitation from the Argentine newspaper La Prensa.
27 June 1905 Raising the Red flag in mutiny, the crew of the Russian battleship Potemkin take over their ship in Odessa harbor. They kill the captain and most of the officers, dumping the bodies overboard. Crews of two other Russian ships also mutiny.
About two hundred delegates assemble in Chicago for the founding convention of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW).
28 June 1905 Prime Minister Johan Olof Ramstedt of Sweden tenders his resignation to King Oscar but the king does not accept it.
Edward Elgar (48) receives an honorary doctorate at the Yale University commencement. The Yale music professor, Horatio Parker (41), plays Pomp and Circumstance March no.1 on the organ. It is the first time that this work is performed at an American academic ritual.
Since the name “The School of Musical Art of the City of New York” is already in use, a second charter is granted to the school now called the Institute of Musical Art. It will eventually be called the Juilliard School. See 27 June 1904.
29 June 1905 The Mystic Trumpeter op.18 for soprano and orchestra by Gustav Holst (30) to words of Whitman, is performed for the first time, in Queen’s Hall, London, conducted by the composer.
30 June 1905 Annalen der Physik publishes the article "On the electrodynamics of moving bodies" by Albert Einstein. In it he develops the Special Theory of Relativity.
4 July 1905 The armed forces of Sweden are ordered mobilized as a show of force in forthcoming negotiations with Norway.
5 July 1905 Alfred Deakin replaces George Houston Reid as Prime Minister of Australia.
8 July 1905 Russian forces on Sakhalin Island capitulate to invading Japanese.
Mutineers aboard the Russian battleship Potemkin reach Romania and surrender to authorities there.
France and Germany both agree to attend a conference on Morocco suggested by Ottoman Sultan Abdülhamid II.
The founding convention of the Industrial Workers of the World closes in Chicago.
11 July 1905 Count Pavel Pavlovich Shuvalov, the military governor of Moscow, is shot to death by a social-revolutionary in the Prefecture of Police, Moscow.
Edward Elgar (48) and his wife board ship in New York bound for Liverpool.
Gabriel Fauré (60) signs a contract with the publisher Henri Heugel to produce thirty compositions between 1 January 1906 and 1 January 1909.
A group of African-American intellectuals including WEB Dubois and William Monroe Trotter meet near Niagara Falls and adopt demands for full equality. This is the beginning of the Niagara Movement.
12 July 1905 Alyeksandr Skryabin (33) leaves his wife and children in Geneva to go to Italy and his lover Tatyana Fyodorovna Schloezer, who is pregnant.
15 July 1905 The first born child of Alyeksandr Skryabin dies in Geneva. Skryabin is stricken with guilt, but not enough to return to his wife.
20 July 1905 Due to restrictive US immigration policies, China begins a boycott of all trade with the United States.
25 July 1905 Leos Janácek’s (51) chorus Ah, the War is performed in Spa, Belgium. It is the first time a work by Janácek is heard outside Bohemia or Moravia.
30 July 1905 Faced with a growing Greek insurgency, the consuls of the great powers on Crete declare martial law. Cretans will respond by forming a militia.
31 July 1905 Inhabitants of German East Africa destroy a trading post at Samanga and burn crops. Their spiritual leader distributes a medicine which he says will turn the German bullets to water. The rebellion becomes known as Maji Maji, the Swahili word for water.
2 August 1905 Christian Lundeberg replaces Johan Olof Ramstedt as Prime Minister of Sweden. He is chosen to oversee negotiations with Norway over separation.
Claude Debussy (42) receives a divorce from his wife, Rosalie “Lily” Texier.
Karl Amadeus Hartmann is born in Munich, the youngest of four children born to Friedrich Richard Hartmann, schoolteacher and painter, and Gerturd Schwarm.
3 August 1905 Béla Bartók (24) performs before a jury for the Rubinstein Prize in Paris. He will receive no recognition.
5 August 1905 A syndicate of US companies is granted a monopoly over minerals and railroad building in one-third of Nicaragua.
7 August 1905 Incidental music for Shakespeare’s (tr. F.-V. Hugo) play Jules César by Gabriel Fauré (60) is performed for the first time, in the Théâtre antique d’Orange, Paris.
8 August 1905 The entries of Béla Bartók (24) in the composition division of the Rubinstein Prize in Paris are rejected.
10 August 1905 A peace conference to negotiate an end to the Russo-Japanese War opens in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
11 August 1905 The Sacred Congregation of the Rites of the Vatican approves the Vatican edition of Gregorian Chant.
13 August 1905 A plebiscite in Norway votes overwhelmingly to separate from Sweden.
14 August 1905 Maji Maji warriors attack a party of Christian missionaries, killing all five of them, including the Roman Catholic Bishop of Dar es Salaam.
16 August 1905 Theodoor Herman de Meester replaces Abraham Kuyper as first minister of the Netherlands.
Maji Maji capture Ifakara, East Africa, destroying the German force there.
19 August 1905 Tsar Nikolay II announces the formation of a consultative duma and calls for elections.
Bohuslav Martinu (14) makes his professional debut as a solo violinist in an inn in Borová, Bohemia.
22 August 1905 The Russian governor of Poland declares a state of emergency in the face of a general strike.
24 August 1905 With No Dirges for chorus by Jean Sibelius (39) to words of Runeberg is performed for the first time, at the funeral of the composer’s friend, the painter Albert Edelfelt, in Helsinki.
28 August 1905 Igor Stravinsky (23) announces his engagement to his cousin, Yekaterina Gavrilovna Nosenko, in St. Petersburg.
29 August 1905 The sale of JP Morgan’s American China Development Company to China for $6,750,000 is approved by the stockholders, despite attempts by President Roosevelt to dissuade them.
30 August 1905 A large force of Maji Maji attack the German garrison at Mahenge, East Africa but are beaten back with machine guns.
31 August 1905 Negotiations between Norway and Sweden on the secession of Norway begin in Karlstad.
1 September 1905 The Canadian provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan are created.
5 September 1905 15:47 A peace treaty between Russia and Japan, negotiated by US President Theodore Roosevelt, is signed in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Japan gains the Russian lease of the Liaotung (Liaodong) Peninsula, the Russian railway from Port Arthur (Lüshun) to Changchun, the northern Kurile Islands, one-half of Sakhalin Island and, indirectly, a sphere of influence over southern Manchuria. For his efforts, Roosevelt will win the Nobel Prize for Peace.
7 September 1905 The Norwegian and Swedish negotiators at Karlstad adjourn their meetings to consult with their governments. Over the past few days, Norwegian troops have been massing near the border.
9 September 1905 The Russian government establishes full autonomy for universities, giving the greatest opportunity for free speech yet seen in the country.
12 September 1905 Edward Elgar (48) is granted the Freedom of the City of Worcester.
14 September 1905 In Bergen, Edvard Grieg (62) sends telegrams to two of his acquaintances, King Edward VII of Great Britain and Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany. “I implore Your Majesty through arbitration to prevent the shame and disaster of a war between Norway and Sweden.”
15 September 1905 100,000 workers stage a general strike in Budapest to back their economic and political demands.
16 September 1905 Maurice Ravel (30) authorizes the publication of his Sonatine for piano by Durand. This begins a lifelong relationship between composer and publisher.
22 September 1905 Gustav Mahler (45) writes to Richard Strauss (41) informing him that the Austrian censor has refused to allow the performance of Salome on “religious and moral grounds.” Mahler intended to stage the premiere at the Hofoper.
23 September 1905 Swedish and Norwegian representatives reach agreement at Karlstad on the separation of Norway from Sweden.
24 September 1905 Romania breaks diplomatic relations with Greece because Greeks in Macedonia have been forcibly converting Romanians.
27 September 1905 For the fourth time this year, Annalen der Physik publishes a paper by Albert Einstein. This one is called "Does the inertia of a body depend on its energy content?" Intended as a follow up to his 30 June article, Einstein proposes the equation E=mc2.
29 September 1905 Cleopatra, a symphonic poem by George Whitefield Chadwick (50), is performed for the first time, in Mechanics Hall, Worcester, Massachusetts.
1 October 1905 Gabriel Fauré (60) takes up duties as director of the Paris Conservatoire. On the same day, he plays for the last time on the organ of the Madeleine.
Protests and counter-protests by German and Czech citizens take place in Brünn (Brno) over Czech requests for a Czech-speaking university in the city. Police and soldiers are called in. One Czech is killed. See 27 January 1906.
2 October 1905 In a Ladies Home Journal article, former US President Grover Cleveland states that “sensible and responsible women do not want to vote. The relative positions to be assumed by men and women...were assigned long ago by a higher intelligence than ours.”
7 October 1905 A general strike begins in Moscow. The workers demand an eight-hour day, improved working conditions, a general amnesty, and a constitutional convention. Strikes spread throughout the country.
8 October 1905 Max Reger’s (32) Sinfonietta op.90 is performed for the first time, in Essen.
9 October 1905 The Norwegian Parliament ratifies the secession agreement with Sweden.
11 October 1905 The Institute of Musical Art in New York (Juilliard School) begins instruction, although the formal opening is not until the end of the month.
15 October 1905 La Mer, for orchestra by Claude Debussy (43), is performed for the first time, in Paris. The critics are confused and generally hostile.
17 October 1905 After seeing an exhibition in the Salon d’Automne, Paris, art critic Louis Vauxcelles calls what he sees “Donatello au millieu des fauves.” (Donatello among the wild beasts) From then on, the group of artists exhibited, which includes Matisse and Rousseau, are called Les Fauves.
19 October 1905 Incidental music to von Kleist’s play Das Käthchen von Heilbronn, by Hans Pfitzner (36), is performed for the first time, in Berlin.
Richard Strauss (41) conducts the premiere of the revised version of Jean Sibelius’ (39) Violin Concerto, in Berlin.
21 October 1905 German forces attack the Ngoni people, part of the Maji Maji uprising, and utterly defeat them, killing many noncombatants.
Charles T. Griffes (21) visits Engelbert Humperdinck (51) at his home in Grunewald near Berlin. Griffes plays some of his compositions and Humperdinck agrees to take him as a student.
A suite from the incidental music to Gozzi’s play Turandot by Ferruccio Busoni (39) is performed for the first time, in the Beethovensaal, Berlin.
24 October 1905 A general strike, begun 7 October, has effectively shut down Russia from Poland to the Urals.
25 October 1905 Leopold IV replaces Leopold, Count zur Lippe Biesterfeld as Prince of Lippe.
26 October 1905 A Soviet of Workers’ Deputies, eventually to reach 500, is organized in St. Petersburg.
King Oscar II of Sweden formally abdicates the Norwegian crown.
The Pied Piper of Hamelin, a cantata by Hubert Parry (57) to words of Browning, is performed for the first time, in Norwich.
27 October 1905 Charles T. Griffes (21) has his first lesson with Engelbert Humperdinck (51) at Humperdinck’s home in Grunewald near Berlin.
The opera Matinada, by Filipe Pedrell (64) is performed for the first time, in Barcelona.
30 October 1905 A daughter, Claude-Emma (Chou-chou), is born to Claude Debussy (43) and his mistress, with whom he is living, Emma (Moyse) Bardac. See 20 January 1908.
Tsar Nikolay II signs the “October Manifesto” granting civil liberties, a Duma, freedom of speech, press, association, conscience, and freedom from arbitrary arrest.
31 October 1905 The Norwegian Parliament authorizes the government to negotiate with Prince Carl of Denmark to accept the throne of the country.
The Institute of Musical Art (Juilliard School) is formally opened in a ceremony in New York. Among the speakers is the President of Princeton University, Woodrow Wilson.
Dreamland, a song by Ralph Vaughan Williams (33) to words of C. Rossetti, is performed for the first time, in Aeolian Hall, London.
2 November 1905 The Greek government reaches agreement with the great powers which diffuses the current crisis in Crete.
4 November 1905 In response to a general strike, Tsar Nikolay II removes many of his autocratic measures in Finland and prepares to grant universal suffrage and guarantee basic rights.
5 November 1905 The report of a Commission of Inquiry empowered by King Leopold to investigate charges of brutality in the Congo Free State is published. It confirms that horrific human rights abuses are taking place.
7 November 1905 Karl Albert Staaff replaces Christian Lundeberg as Prime Minister of Sweden.
British physicist John Ambrose Fleming receives a US patent for a diode valve, the first vacuum tube. The patent will be voided next year by the US Supreme Court.
8 November 1905 Sailors in the Russian Navy barracks at Kronstadt mutiny and control the fortress for two days.
9 November 1905 Gustav Mahler (45) makes three pianola rolls using the Welte-Mignon system, in Leipzig. They are Ich ging mit Lust, Ging heut’ Morgens übers Feld and Das himmlische Leben.
Incidental music to Shakespeare’s play (tr. Schlegel) Der Kaufmann von Venedig, by Engelbert Humperdinck (51), is performed for the first time, at the Deutsches Theater, Berlin.
13 November 1905 A referendum in Norway favors Prince Carl of Denmark as king over a republic.
Manuel de Falla’s (28) lyrica drama La Vida breve wins the prize of the Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando.
14 November 1905 Father Grigori Yefimovich Novykh (Rasputin) moves into the Tsar’s household.
15 November 1905 Prince Carl of Denmark accepts his election as King Haakon VII of Norway.
Mrs. Edward MacDowell hires a nurse, Anna Baetz, who will attend MacDowell through the entirety of his final illness.
16 November 1905 Sonata no.2 for violin alone op.42/2 by Max Reger (32) is performed for the first time, in Berlin.
17 November 1905 Grand Duke Adolf of Luxembourg dies in Hohenberg, Württemberg, and is succeeded by his son Guillaume IV.
18 November 1905 Japan establishes a protectorate over Korea.
Gilbert John Elliot-Murray-Kynynmound, Earl of Minto replaces George Nathaniel Curzon as Viceroy of India.
Prince Carl of Denmark is elected King Haakon VII of Norway by the Parliament.
21 November 1905 After a concert by the Society of Young British Composers at the Royal Academy of Music, Hubert Parry (57) is helped to his home, about to have a serious angina attack.
25 November 1905 Prince Carl of Denmark arrives in Christiania (Oslo) aboard the Danish royal yacht Dannebrog to take the throne of Norway.
26 November 1905 Two choruses for male voices by Leos Janácek (51), If You Knew and The
Evening Witch, both to words of Prikryl, are performed for the first time, in Prerov.
27 November 1905 Prince Carl of Denmark takes the oath as King Haakon VII of Norway.
28 November 1905 Sinn Fein, founded in 1899, declares itself a political party in Dublin.
When I am Dead, My Dearest, a song by Ralph Vaughan Williams (33) to words of C. Rossetti, is performed for the first time, in Aeolian Hall, London.
Welcoming festivities for the new King Haakon VII of Norway and Queen Maud conclude in Christiania (Oslo) with a performance of Sigurd Jorsalfar. At the conclusion the composer and poet, Edvard Grieg (62) and Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson are called to the royal box. Grieg decides to begin a diary this night. “This first meeting with free Norway’s first King and Queen struck me as something beautiful and meaningful.”
Major Barbara by George Bernard Shaw is first performed at the Royal Court Theatre, London.
29 November 1905 When Jean Sibelius (39) arrives at Dover, officials of His Majesty’s Customs and Immigration fine him £2 6s. for smuggling cigars.
Three movements of Béla Bartók’s (24) Suite no.1 for orchestra op.3 are performed for the first time, in Vienna. See 1 March 1909.
30 November 1905 Autonomy for Russia’s universities, granted on 9 September, is extended to its conservatories.
1 December 1905 Segismundo Moret y Prendergast replaces Eugenio Montero Rios as Prime Minister of Spain.
2 December 1905 On his first visit to Britain, at the invitation of Granville Bantock (37), Jean Sibelius (39) conducts his Symphony no.1 and Finlandia in Liverpool.
6 December 1905 Voting for the New Zealand Parliament results in continued rule by the Liberal Party.
7 December 1905 Austrian ophthamologist Eduard Zirm performs the first human tissue transplant when he successfully transfers the corneas of one patient into another.
9 December 1905 Barricades are set up in St. Petersburg and workers battle soldiers.
Salome op.54, a Musikdrama by Richard Strauss (41) to words of Oscar Wilde (tr. Lachmann), is performed for the first time, at the Dresden Court Opera. Although one critic called it the “ultimate in salacious and blasphemous art”, the opera is a great success.
10 December 1905 Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman replaces Arthur James Balfour as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
Five years of legislative attempts to reduce Catholic Church influence in education and politics culminates in the official separation of church and state in France, reversing the Concordat of 1801 between Napoleon and the Pope.
On his first visit to America, Vincent d’Indy (54) takes part in a performance of the Rhapsodies by Charles Martin Loeffler (44) in Arthur Whiting’s studio in New York. Whiting plays piano, Georges Longy, oboe and Loeffler, viola. The French poems upon which the music is based are read aloud by d’Indy. All this before a small audience of some of the most important musicians in the United States.
14 December 1905 Alyeksandr Glazunov (40) returns to St. Petersburg Conservatory after most of the demands of the professors are met.
The Piano Quintet of Ralph Vaughan Williams (33) is performed for the first time, in Aeolian Hall, London.
16 December 1905 The headquarters of the St. Petersburg Soviet are surrounded by troops. 270 members, led by Lev Trotsky, are arrested, effectively breaking the soviet’s power.
Pietro Mascagni (42) begins conducting for the Società Teatrale Internazione in Rome with a performance of Tristan und Isolde.
Variety is published for the first time, in New York.
18 December 1905 Anti-foreign Chinese riot in Shanghai and declare a general strike. Foreign troops are sent in and fire on the crowd killing 20.
Alyeksandr Glazunov (40) is elected to direct the St. Petersburg Conservatory. This comes as a result of the government’s concession to grant conservatories limited autonomy, including election of their directors. Glazunov’s first action is to ask Rimsky-Korsakov (61) back to the faculty.
Hubert Parry (57) is made a Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order by King Edward VII.
19 December 1905 Large scale strikes begin in Moscow.
In an effort to forestall a Russian-style uprising, Prince Nikola of Montenegro proclaims a constitution and representative government.
20 December 1905 Hundreds of thousands of workers strike in St. Petersburg, Minsk, and Taganrog.
21 December 1905 Georgios Theotokis replaces Demetrios Rallis as Prime Minister of Greece.
23 December 1905 German physical chemist Walther Hermann Nernst presents the Nernst Heat Theorem, now known as the Third Law of Thermodynamics, to a meeting of the Royal Academy of Sciences in Göttingen.
30 December 1905 Imperial troops manage to end the month-long revolt in St. Petersburg.
The Merry Widow by Franz Lehár opens at the Theater-an-der-Wien, Vienna.
©Paul Scharfenberger 2004-2012
16 August 2012
Last Updated (Thursday, 16 August 2012 05:20)