1923
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4 January 1923 Two chamber works by Francis Poulenc (23) are performed for the first time in the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Paris: Sonata for clarinet and bassoon and Sonata for horn, trumpet and trombone.
6 January 1923 The United States Senate votes to recall American occupation forces in the Rhineland.
Two puppet plays by Federico García Lorca with incidental music by Manuel de Falla (46) are performed for the first time, at the home of the poet in Granada: La niña que riega la albahaca y el príncipe preguntón, and Misterio de los reyes magos.
7 January 1923 Promenades for piano by Francis Poulenc is performed for the first time, in Brussels, on the composer’s 24th birthday.
8 January 1923 Germany announces it can not meet the reparations requirements for shipments of coal and is declared in default.
The first wireless transmission of a complete opera is accomplished by the BBC from Covent Garden. The opera is Mozart’s (†131) Die Zauberflöte.
10 January 1923 Lithuania occupies the Memel Territory.
The Reparations Commission declares Germany in default of its reparations payments.
Sonata for viola and piano op.25/4 by Paul Hindemith (27) is performed for the first time, in Elberfeld-Barmen. The soloist is the composer.
11 January 1923 French and Belgian troops begin to occupy the Ruhr, Germany’s industrial heartland, to enforce war reparations. The action helps to destroy the German economy and produce wild inflation.
Former King Konstantinos of Greece dies in Palermo.
14 January 1923 Guardando la Santa Teresa del Bernini for orchestra by Pietro Mascagni (59) is performed for the first time, in Teatro Augusteo, Rome.
15 January 1923 Lithuania formally annexes Memel.
19 January 1923 Germany proclaims a policy of passive resistance to occupation.
20 January 1923 Dutch physicist Dirk Coster and Hungarian chemist George von Hevesy publish "On the missing element of atomic number 72" in Nature. It announces their discover of Hafnium in Copenhagen.
22 January 1923 Leslie Raymond Bassett is born in Hanford, California, first of two children born to Archibald Leslie Bassett and Vera Starr.
Hans Pfitzner (53) enters a hospital in Munich-Schwabing for a gallbladder operation. While he is convalescing, he is introduced through a mutual friend to Adolf Hitler. When Hitler expresses the wish that all Jews should kill themselves, Pfitzner remarks that one can not expect that to happen. This causes Hitler to become angry and he leaves.
24 January 1923 That American Boy of Mine, a song by George Gershwin (24) to words of Caesar, is performed for the first time, as part of the musical comedy The Dancing Girl at the Winter Garden Theatre, New York.
25 January 1923 Janis Pauluks replaces Zigfrids Meierovics as Prime Minister of Latvia.
Riots break out in Düsseldorf against the occupation of the Ruhr by French and Belgian troops. Shots are fired by the French to disperse the crowd.
30 January 1923 An agreement signed at Lausanne provides for compulsory exchanges of Greek and Turkish minorities. All Greek inhabitants of Turkey, except those living in Constantinople before 30 October 1918, must be removed to Greece. All Moslems in Greece, except those in western Thrace, must be removed to Turkey. This involves the forced relocation of about 1,650,000 people and is compulsory as of 1 May 1924.
Lied der Waldtaube for chamber orchestra by Arnold Schoenberg (48) to words of Jacobsen is performed for the first time, in Copenhagen.
31 January 1923 Eligiusz Niewiadomski is executed in Warsaw for the murder of President Gabriel Narutowicz.
A Cello Concerto by Frederick Delius (61) is performed for the first time, in Vienna.
Gabriel Fauré (77) receives the Grand Croix de la Légion d’honneur.
3 February 1923 At a performance of Paul Hindemith’s (27) String Quartet op.22 in Prague, the composer meets Leos Janácek (68) for the first time. Janácek gives him a copy of his Violin Sonata and within a few days, Hindemith will give the German premiere of the piece, in Frankfurt.
4 February 1923 Arnold Schoenberg’s (28) Pierrot Lunaire is performed in the western hemisphere for the first time, in the Klaw Theatre, New York. The concert is organized by Edgar Varese (39) and the audience includes George Gershwin (24) and Carl Ruggles (46).
7 February 1923 Chinese warlord Wu Pei-fu (Wu Peifu) orders striking railway workers back to the job. When they refuse, he sends in troops who kill 35 and injure scores. The workers’ leader, Lin Shang-kian, (Lin Xiangqian) is publicly beheaded in Wuhan.
Representatives of the five Central American nations sign twelve agreements in Washington. It is partly an attempt to introduce political stability and constitutional reforms throughout the region.
Violin Sonata no.2 by Béla Bartók (41) is performed for the first time, in Berlin, the composer at the piano.
9 February 1923 Stanley Melbourne Bruce replaces William Morris Hughes as Prime Minister of Australia.
A Piano Quartet by Arnold Bax (39) is performed for the first time, in Aeolian Hall, London.
11 February 1923 While conducting a rehearsal at Reading, Gustav Holst (48) falls off the podium and hits the back of his head. He is able to conduct the evening performance, but this injury will cause greater medical problems in the future.
12 February 1923 Melvin Epstein Powell is born in New York.
17 February 1923 La Roue, a film with music by Arthur Honegger (30), is released in France.
George Gershwin (24) arrives in London to produce The Rainbow.
Tanzsuite aus Klavierstücken von François Couperin for orchestra by Richard Strauss (58) is performed for the first time, in Vienna.
18 February 1923 The orchestral suite Vanishing Midnight by Bohuslav Martinu (32) is performed for the first time, in Prague.
19 February 1923 In the case of United States v. Thind, the US Supreme Court ruled that Bhagat Singh Thind, now living in Oregon, may not be a naturalized citizen because he is not white. This ruling revokes all previous citizenship awards to Indian immigrants.
Symphony no.6 by Jean Sibelius (57) is performed for the first time, in Helsinki, the composer conducting. Also premiered are three orchestrations of piano pieces: Valse chevaleresque, Suite champêtre and Suite caractéristique.
27 February 1923 Karel Capek informs Leos Janácek (68) that, due to contract restrictions, his play The Makropulos Affair, may not be set to music for ten years.
3 March 1923 Time Magazine, founded by Henry Luce and Briton Hadden in New York, is published for the first time.
4 March 1923 La Primavera, a cantata by Ottorino Respighi (43) for solo voices, chorus, and orchestra, to words of Zarian, is performed for the first time, in Teatro Augusteo, Rome.
Hyperprism for nine wind instruments and seven percussionists by Edgard Varèse (39) is performed for the first time, at an International Composers’ Guild concert in the Klaw Theatre, New York, conducted by the composer. The work inspires violent demonstrations and counter-demonstrations. One supporter of the music jumps on the stage while two others are arrested. The work has to be repeated in its entirety. Also premiered is Toys, a song for voice and piano by Carl Ruggles (46).
5 March 1923 Otto Bahr Halvorsen replaces Otto Albert Blehr as Prime Minister of Norway.
6 March 1923 Jardín de Oriente, an opera by Joaquín Turina (40) to words of Martínez Sierra, is performed for the first time, in Teatro Real, Madrid.
The third movement of The Hour Glass for piano by Frank Bridge (44) is performed for the first time, at the Royal College of Music, London.
7 March 1923 The Golan area is transferred by Great Britain from Palestine to French Syria.
Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening, a poem by Robert Frost, is published in the New Republic magazine.
9 March 1923 Lenin suffers a third stroke which effectively ends his participation in the government and party.
12 March 1923 Germans kill two French occupation soldiers in the Ruhr.
Sinfonia sacra op.6 for orchestra by Kurt Weill (23) is performed for the first time, in Berlin.
Incidental music to Binyon’s play King Arthur by Edward Elgar (65) is performed for the first time, at the Old Vic, London conducted by the composer.
13 March 1923 Lee de Forrest demonstrates a process for producing sound motion pictures. It is called the Phonofilm and the sound is music, not talking.
14 March 1923 The the Conference of Ambassadors (France, Great Britain, Italy, and Japan) assign Vilna (Vilnius) and Eastern Galicia to Poland.
15 March 1923 Abdul Fatah Yahya Ibrahim Pasha replaces Mohammed Tawfiq Nasim Pasha as Prime Minister of Egypt.
16 March 1923 Concerto for piano and orchestra op.31 by Hans Pfitzner (53) is performed for the first time, in Dresden.
17 March 1923 Movements three and four of the Suite infantil for piano by Heitor Villa-Lobos (36) are performed for the first time, in São Paulo.
18 March 1923 A general election takes place in the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes. Amidst considerable voter intimidation, ethnically based parties do the best.
21 March 1923 Bulgaria agrees to reparations payments to the Allies.
23 March 1923 El retablo de maese Pedro, a puppet opera by Manuel de Falla (46) to his own words after Cervantes, is performed for the first time, in a concert setting at the Teatro San Fernando, Seville. See 25 June 1923 and 24 October 1924.
24 March 1923 Nursery Songs, three songs for voice and piano by Samuel Barber (13) from Mother Goose, are performed for the first time, in West Chester, Pennsylvania, the composer accompanying his sister.
26 March 1923 Sarah Bernhardt dies in Paris at the age of 78.
27 March 1923 An arrangement of Modest Musorgsky’s opera Sorochintsy Fair by Nikolay Nikolayevich Tcherepnin is performed for the first time, at the Monte Carlo Opéra on the eve of the 42nd anniversary of his death.
Cantique de Pâques, a cantata by Arthur Honegger (31) to his own words, is performed for the first time, in Toulouse.
29 March 1923 A new constitution for Romania goes into effect. Natural resources are nationalized, only Romanian citizens are allowed to own land, and the crown retains extensive power. Universal male suffrage and the secret ballot are new features.
Werner Joseph Meyer marries Elisabeth Karl. Henceforth, he takes the professional name Werner Egk (21).
31 March 1923 The Turkish government declares a general amnesty for all those found guilty of genocide against the Armenians.
53,000 workers at the Krupp factory in Essen attempt to stop French troops from commandeering trucks being used to carry food. The French fire on them, killing 13 and injuring 40.
Incidental music to Rolland’s play Liluli by Arthur Honegger (31) is performed for the first time, in Salle des fêtes de Suresnes.
1 April 1923 On Easter Sunday, Alban Berg (38) has dinner with Arnold Schoenberg (48) and his wife at Schoenberg’s home in Mödling near Vienna. There, Schoenberg unfolds to Berg the concepts of his new twelve-tone method of composition.
3 April 1923 The Rainbow, a musical comedy with book by de Courville, Scott, and Wallace, lyrics by Grey and Hooker and music by George Gershwin (24), is performed for the first time, at the Empire Theatre, London.
5 April 1923 The first regular production of balloon tires is begun by the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company of Akron, Ohio.
6 April 1923 Igor Stravinsky (40) completes the score to Les Noces in Monaco.
7 April 1923 Edward Elgar (65) moves from London back to Worcestershire, to Napoleon Grange, just outside Worcester.
Chant de joie, an orchestral work by Arthur Honegger (31), is performed for the first time, in Victoria Hall, Geneva.
10 April 1923 Divertimento op.5 for small orchestra and male chorus by Kurt Weill (23) is performed completely for the first time, in Philharmonic Hall, Berlin. See 7 December 1922.
11 April 1923 Through the intercession of Alma Mahler, Universal Edition accepts Alban Berg’s (38) Wozzeck and Three Orchestral Pieces for publication.
13 April 1923 A Night Piece for flute and string orchestra by Arthur Foote (70) is performed for the first time, in Boston. This is a reworking of his Nocturne and Scherzo. See 28 January 1919.
14 April 1923 Divertimento verde Velhice for orchestra by Heitor Villa-Lobos (36) is performed for the first time, in São Paulo.
17 April 1923 The Twelfth Congress of the Soviet Communist Party opens. Over the next week it will adopt Stalin’s plan to broaden the Central Committee, allowing him to pack it with his supporters.
21 April 1923 Gustav Holst (48) and his wife sail from England aboard the Aquitania for New York. He is to conduct his music at the University of Michigan.
Suite for piano and orchestra by Heitor Villa-Lobos (36) is performed for the first time, in São Paulo, the composer conducting.
25 April 1923 The Sunshine Trail, a film with a title song by George Gershwin (24), to words of Ira Gershwin, is released in the United States.
26 April 1923 Belfagor, a lyric comedy by Ottorino Respighi (43) to words of Guastalla after Morselli, is performed for the first time, at the Teatro alla Scala, Milan.
27 April 1923 Gustav Holst (48) and his wife arrive in New York from England.
Zigeunerlied op.55/2 for voice and orchestra by Ferruccio Busoni (57) to words of Goethe is performed for the first time, in Philharmonic Hall, Berlin.
28 April 1923 Two piano works by Gabriel Fauré (77) are performed for the first time, by the Société National de Musique, Paris: Barcarolle no.13 op.116 and Nocturne no.13 op.120.
29 April 1923 Ernst Trygger replaces Karl Hjalmar Branting as Prime Minister of Sweden.
Il primo bacio, an operetta by Ruggero Leoncavallo (†3) to words of Bonelli, is performed for the first time, in the Salone di Cura, Montecatini. (There are serious doubts about the authenticity of this work)
30 April 1923 The IRA declares a cease-fire in the civil war with the Irish Free State.
1 May 1923 Prélude pour ‘La Tempête’ for orchestra by Arthur Honegger (31) is performed for the first time, at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Paris.
6 May 1923 Sonata for cello alone op.25/3 by Paul Hindemith (27) is performed for the first time, in Freiburg.
7 May 1923 Béla Bartók (42) and Oxford University Press agree to terms for the publication of his Hungarian Folk Music.
Three days of voting conclude in the Estonian general election. Fourteen parties gain representation led by the agrarian Farmers Union.
10 May 1923 The Soviet delegate to the Lausanne conference, Vaslav Vorovsky, is murdered by Maurice Conradi, a Swiss-Russian, to avenge the deaths of his parents and friends in Russia.
11 May 1923 Songs of Hradcany by Leos Janácek (62) for soprano, female chorus, flute, and harp, to words of Procházka, is performed completely for the first time, in Prague. This includes the first performance of The Weeping Fountain. See 26 December 1916 and 24 November 1918.
12 May 1923 Piano Trio op.120 by Gabriel Fauré is performed for the first time, by the Société National de Musique, Paris, on the occasion of the composer’s 78th birthday.
14 May 1923 The Perfect Fool op.39, an opera by Gustav Holst (48) to his own words, is performed for the first time, in Covent Garden. See 1 December 1921.
17 May 1923 A Fugal Concerto op.40/2 by Gustav Holst (48) is performed for the first time, privately, at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. In the evening, Holst conducts a public performance of his A Dirge for Two Veterans. In the middle he suddenly stops the orchestra, ponders the score, corrects an error, and then begins the work over again.
Symphony no.1 “Nordic” by Howard Hanson (26) is performed for the first time, in Rome, conducted by the composer.
Peter Mennini (Mennin) is born in Erie, Pennsylvania, the son of Attilio and Amelia Mennini, restaurant owners.
18 May 1923 Antoine Barnay applies for the first patent for a rotary telephone, in France.
23 May 1923 Abraham Teodor Berge replaces Otto Bahr Halvorsen as Prime Minister of Norway.
24 May 1923 Republican leader Eamon de Valera proclaims an end to armed resistance to the Irish Free State.
27 May 1923 Stanley Baldwin replaces Andrew Bonar Law as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
The first 24-hour automobile race at Le Mans, France concludes. It is won by André Lagache and René Leonard.
28 May 1923 György Sándor Ligeti is born in Dicsöszentmárton (Diciosânmartin), Romania, now Tîrnáveni, 250 km northwest of Bucharest, first of two children born to Sándor Ligeti, an economist and banker, and Ilona Somogyi, an opthamologist.
Wincenty Witos replaces Wladyslaw Eugeniusz Sikorski as Prime Minister of Poland.
29 May 1923 Henry Cowell (26) departs for Europe. He will give several concerts as pianist and composer throughout the continent.
30 May 1923 La statue retrouvée, a divertissement by Erik Satie (57) to a story by Cocteau, Picasso and Massine, is performed for the first time, in the Paris home of Count Étienne de Beaumont. Also premiered are Ludions, five songs for voice and piano or organ to words of Fargue, the composer at the organ. See 21 December 1923.
A production called Stop Flirting with several already-performed songs by George Gershwin (24) opens at the Shaftesbury Theatre in London. It runs for 418 performances and establishes Gershwin, and Fred Astaire, on the London stage.
1 June 1923 Incidental music to Flecker’s play Hassan by Frederick Delius (61) is performed for the first time, in the Hessische Landes-Theater, Darmstadt.
Padmâvatî op.18, an opera-ballet by Albert Roussel (54) to words of Laloy, is performed for the first time, at the Paris Opéra.
4 June 1923 Fête galante, a dance-dream by Ethel Smyth (65) to words of Shanks and the composer after Baring, is performed for the first time, in the Repertory Theatre, Birmingham, the composer conducting.
5 June 1923 Two of Alban Berg’s (38) Three Pieces for Orchestra op.6 are performed for the first time, in Berlin, conducted by Anton Webern (39). See 14 April 1930.
Old King Cole, a ballet by Ralph Vaughan Williams (50), is performed for the first time, at Trinity College, Cambridge.
Sonatine in A for clarinet and piano by Arthur Honegger (31) is performed for the first time, in the Salle Pleyel, Paris.
George White’s Scandals of 1923, a revue with book by Wells and White, lyrics by DeSylva and Goetz, and eight new songs by George Gershwin (24), is performed for the first time in Nixon’s Apollo Theatre, Atlantic City, New Jersey. See 18 June 1923.
9 June 1923 A coalition of right-wing forces stages a coup and seize Sofiya. Aleksandur Tsolov Tsankov replaces Aleksandur Stroymenov Stamboliiski as Prime Minister of Bulgaria.
11 June 1923 Symphony no.2 by Ernst Krenek (22) is performed for the first time, in Kassel.
12 June 1923 William Walton’s (21) Façade, for reciter and six players to words of Sitwell, is performed publicly for the first time, in Aeolian Hall, London, the composer conducting. The work elicits hisses and threats from the audience. One review will be headlined “Drivel They Paid to Hear.”
13 June 1923 Chang Shao-ts’eng (Zhang Shaozeng) replaces Li Yuan-hung (Li Yuanhong) as President of China in the Canton administration.
Les Noces, choreographic scenes by Igor Stravinsky (40) to his own scenario after a traditional Russian story, is performed for the first time, at Théâtre de la Gaîté Lyrique, Paris.
14 June 1923 Former Prime Minister Alexandur Stamboliiski of Bulgaria is captured by factions of the coup of 9 June. He is tortured, his right hand is severed, and he is then decapitated by Bulgarian Macedonians angry at him for rapprochement with the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes.
The École d’Arcueil is organized and announced by Erik Satie (57) at a Paris concert of his followers. The society is dedicated to Satie’s ideals.
A suite from the ballet with song Zaubernacht entitled Quodlibet (Eine Unterhaltungsmusik) op.9 by Kurt Weill (23) is performed for the first time, in the Friedrichs-Theater, Dessau.
Incidental music to Andreyeff’s play The Black Maskers by Roger Sessions (26) is performed for the first time, in the Academy of Music, Northampton, Massachusetts conducted by the composer.
17 June 1923 An American couple, Gerald and Sara Murphy, are so enthralled by Les Noces that they hire a barge moored in the Seine before the Chambre des Députés and throw a party in its honor. Attending (among others) are Igor Stravinsky (on his 41st birthday), Pablo Picasso, Darius Milhaud (30), Jean Cocteau, Ernest Ansermet, Sergey Diaghilev and Germaine Tailleferre. Ansermet plays the piano while Cocteau puts on the barge captain’s uniform “and went about the barge with a lantern, putting his head in at portholes to announce the ship was sinking. At one point, Ansermet and Boris Kochno managed to take down an enormous laurel wreath bearing the inscription ‘Les Noces-Hommages’ that had been hung from the ceiling and were holding it for Stravinsky who ran the length of the room and leaped nimbly through the center.”
18 June 1923 George White’s Scandals of 1923, a revue with book by Wells and White, lyrics by DeSylva and Goetz, and eight new songs by George Gershwin (24), is performed for the first time in New York, at the Globe Theatre. See 5 June 1923.
20 June 1923 Mexican revolutionary leader General Francisco “Pancho” Villa is murdered in Parral.
22 June 1923 The currency exchange rate in Germany reaches $1.00 = DM136,000.
Suite for two pianos op.6 by Dmitri Shostakovich (16) is performed publicly for the first time, in Petrograd by the composer and his sister.
13 of the 15 songs of Das Marienleben, a song cycle by Paul Hindemith (27) to words of Rilke, are performed for the first time, in Donaueschingen. See 15 October 1923.
24 June 1923 String Quartet no.1 op.8 by Kurt Weill (23) is performed for the first time, in Frankfurt-am-Main.
25 June 1923 El retablo de maese Pedro, a puppet opera by Manuel de Falla (46) to his own words after Cervantes, is staged for the first time, privately, at the home of Princesse Edmond de Polignac, Paris. Present is Falla’s friend, Igor Stravinsky (41) as well as Francis Poulenc (24), Darius Milhaud (30), Pablo Picasso and Paul Valéry. The audience calls for an encore but the musicians refuse to perform it since the Princesse did not invite them to the dinner before the concert. See 23 March 1923 and 24 October 1924.
26 June 1923 Zigfrids Meierovics replaces Janis Pauluks as Prime Minister of Latvia.
27 June 1923 Serbian Millutone Raitch fires six shots at Prime Minister Nikola Pasic of the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes riding in a car through Belgrade. Pasic drops to the floor of his car and receives only a wound in the hand. Raitch is arrested and ascribes his actions to “personal motives.”
Prelude with Theme and Variations for violin by Carl Nielsen (58) is performed for the first time, in Aeolian Hall, London.
28 June 1923 Gustav Holst (48) and his wife return to England after a visit to the United States.
30 June 1923 Heitor Villa-Lobos (36) leaves Brazil aboard the French ship Croix, bound for Europe. Not wealthy enough to afford both of them, his wife Lucília remains home. He tells reporters, “I do not go to France to study. I go to show them what I have done.”
1 July 1923 In the midst of a steelworkers strike in Sydney, Nova Scotia, a detachment of special of mounted police attacks the workers with clubs. Innocent citizens returning from church are caught in the melee. The police fire over the heads of the crowd and bring in a machine gun. At that, the workers disperse. A Royal Inquiry will uncover the order to the police to provoke the strikers to violence. Six people are seriously wounded. The one fatality was a man not connected with the strike, but who was innocently caught in the violence.
3 July 1923 The Happy Forest for orchestra by Arnold Bax (39) is performed for the first time, in Queen’s Hall, London.
4 July 1923 The English Folk Song Suite for band by Ralph Vaughan Williams (50) is performed for the first time, in Kneller Hall, Twickenham.
5 July 1923 Sergey Diaghilev meets John Alden Carpenter (47) in Paris and asks him to write a ballet for the Ballets Russes on an American subject.
William Walton’s (21) String Quartet is performed for the first time with the added third movement, at the Royal College of Music, London. See 4 March 1921.
6 July 1923 The first constitution of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics is adopted. Vladimir Ilyich Lenin is named Chairman of the Council of People’s Commissars.
In the Théâtre Michel in Paris, Tristan Tzara attempts to save Dada, the movement he began in 1916. It is a hodgepodge of music, poetry, and theatre including readings of Cocteau, Soupault, and Eluard, music of Stravinsky (41) and Satie (57), and Tzara’s play Le Coeur à gaz. Fights break out in the hall and onstage, then moving out into the street. The electric footlights are smashed and candles are brought forth. Police are called in twice to restore order. This marks the virtual end of Dada, a movement Jean Cocteau called “Le Suicide-Club.”
7 July 1923 Pogroms against Jews erupt in Wilno (Vilnius).
8 July 1923 The first broadcast of orchestral music by Edward Elgar (66) takes place when the Cockaigne Overture is played over the airwaves of the BBC.
9 July 1923 The third of the Three Poems for piano by Frank Bridge (44) is performed for the first time, at the Royal College of Music, London.
10 July 1923 All non-fascist parties in Italy are dissolved.
20 July 1923 Dmitri Shostakovich (16) and his sister Maria travel to Gaspra in the Crimea so he can recuperate after an operation in the spring and graduation from Petrograd Conservatory. His family is forced to sell their grand piano to pay for the trip. Dmitri and Maria play concerts along the way to help finance the venture.
22 July 1923 Edward Elgar’s (66) Memoriam Chimes for a Carillon is performed for the first time, on the Loughborough War Memorial Carillon.
23 July 1923 Great Britain annexes Antarctica from 150° W to 160° E.
24 July 1923 The Peace of Lausanne is signed by the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Japan, Greece, Romania, the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, and Turkey. Eastern Thrace, Imbros (Gökçeada) and Tenedos (Bozcaada) Islands are returned to Turkey. The remaining Aegean Islands are given to Greece. Italy retains the Dodecanese Islands and Great Britain keeps Cyprus. Turkey is not required to pay any indemnity. Turkey retains sovereignty over Armenia and Kurdistan. The Straits are still demilitarized but the Allied occupation will end. International recognition is given to Mustafa Kemal’s government.
26 July 1923 “Minimax” Repertorium für Militärorchester for string quartet by Paul Hindemith (27) is performed for the first time, in Donaueschingen.
Duke Ellington (24) takes part in a recording for the first time, with Elmer Snowden’s Novelty Band for Victor in New York.
27 July 1923 Triple Jazz op.3 for orchestra by Wallingford Riegger (38) is performed for the first time, in New York.
30 July 1923 The Antarctic claim made by Great Britain on 23 July is transferred to New Zealand.
2 August 1923 Konstantin Päts replaces Juhann Kukk as Head of State of Estonia.
The First Festival of the International Society for Contemporary Music opens in Salzburg. The first concert includes chamber music of Berg (38), Schoenberg (48) and Bartók (42).
United States President Warren G. Harding dies in San Francisco.
3 August 1923 Early morning. Vice-President Calvin Coolidge is awakened at his boyhood home in Plymouth, Vermont. Informed of President Harding’s death, he takes the presidential oath of office from his father, a notary.
String Quartet no.3 by Ernst Krenek (22) is performed for the first time, in Salzburg.
4 August 1923 William Walton (21) meets Arnold Schoenberg (48) and Alban Berg (38) at the ISCM Festival in Salzburg.
7 August 1923 The Clarinet Quintet op.30 of Paul Hindemith (27) is performed for the first time, in Salzburg.
13 August 1923 Gustav Stresemann replaces Wilhelm Carl Josef Cuno as Chancellor of Germany.
14 August 1923 Ali Fethi Okyar Bey replaces Hüseyin Rauf Bey as Prime Minister of Turkey.
15 August 1923 Irish Republican leader Eamon de Valera is arrested in Ennis, County Clare, as a threat to the state.
The first Bauhaus festival opens in Weimar. Concerts over the next six weeks will include music by Igor Stravinsky (41), Feruccio Busoni (67), Ernst Krenek (22), and Paul Hindemith (27).
18 August 1923 Prélude et étude for piano by Ferruccio Busoni (57) is performed for the first time, in the Deutsches Nationaltheater, Weimar. Also premiered are the first three of Busoni’s Five short pieces for the cultivation of part-playing on the pianoforte.
19 August 1923 Igor Stravinsky (41) and Ferruccio Busoni (57) meet for the first time, in Weimar.
22 August 1923 Frank Bridge (44) sails from England for the United States aboard SS Majestic.
23 August 1923 The Turkish congress in Angora (Ankara) ratifies the Lausanne Treaty.
24 August 1923 Japanese Prime Minister Baron Tomosaburo Kato dies in Tokyo.
Allied troops begin to evacuate all positions they hold in Turkey.
Puritan Passions, a film with music supplied by Frederick S. Converse (52), is performed for the first time, in Manchester, Massachusetts the composer at the piano. See 14 October 1923.
27 August 1923 Italian General Enrico Tellini and three aides, part of a team sent by the League of Nations to survey the disputed border between Albania and Greece, are shot to death by persons unknown near Yannina, Greece.
28 August 1923 Shortly after a divorce from his first wife Márta, Béla Bartók (42) marries Ditta Pásztory, a young student of his from the Budapest Academy of Music.
I won’t say I will but I won’t say I won’t, a song by George Gershwin (24) to words of DeSylva and Ira Gershwin, is performed for the first time, as part of the play with music Little Miss Bluebeard at the Lyceum Theatre, New York.
29 August 1923 Mussolini demands the execution of the assassins General Tellini, and 50,000,000 lire.
31 August 1923 After the killing of four Italians in Greece on 27 August, Italy bombards and occupies Corfu.
After a riot by blacks in Johnstown, Pennsylvania leaves several policemen dead, the mayor orders the expulsion of all blacks and Mexicans resident for less than seven years.
1 September 1923 Just before noon. An earthquake centered in Sagami Bay, Japan measuring 7.9 on the Richter Scale destroys Yokohama and causes extensive damage to Tokyo and the surrounding areas. Massive fires are started and will not be doused for days, destroying hundreds of thousands of buildings. A Tsunami as high as 12 meters is caused. Over 100,000 people are killed.
2 September 1923 Count Gombei Yamamoto replaces Baron Tomosaburo Kato as Prime Minister of Japan.
5 September 1923 To the Name Above Every Name for soprano, chorus, and orchestra by Arnold Bax (39) to words of Crashaw, is performed for the first time, in Worcester Cathedral.
7 September 1923 Vier Lieder nach Gedichten von CF Meyer op.32 for voice and piano by Hans Pfitzner (54) are performed for the first time, in Munich.
9 September 1923 Kao Ling-wei (Gao Lingwei) replaces Chang Shao-ts’eng (Zhang Shaozeng) as President of China in the Canton administration.
10 September 1923 The Irish Free State is admitted to the League of Nations.
15 September 1923 The civilian government of Spain under Manuel Garcia Prieto, marqués de Alhucemas resigns. King Alfonso XIII appoints a military government headed by General Miguel Primo de Rivera y Orbaneja, marqués de Estella who institutes a dictatorship.
Governor JC Walton of Oklahoma declares martial law and calls out 6,000 National Guardsmen to deal with the Ku Klux Klan.
19 September 1923 A Song Before Sunrise for small orchestra by Frederick Delius (61) is performed for the first time, in Queen’s Hall, London.
21 September 1923 Great Britain creates the colony of Southern Rhodesia, effective 1 October.
25 September 1923 Two songs by George Gershwin are performed for the first time on the eve of his 25th birthday, as part of the revue Nifties of 1923 to words of DeSylva and Caesar, at the Fulton Theatre, New York: At Half Past Seven, to words of DeSylva, and Nashville Nightingale, to words of Caesar.
26 September 1923 Faced with the collapse of the mark and instability in Bavaria and elsewhere, German Chancellor Gustav Stresemann calls off passive resistance to French and Belgian occupation of the Ruhr. In Munich, the Bavarian cabinet appoints Gustav von Kahr, an opponent of Stresemann, as Staatskomissar with sweeping powers.
27 September 1923 After nearly a month of occupation, and pressure from Great Britain and the League of Nations, Italian forces evacuate Corfu and turn it back to Greece.
Fearful for its sovereignty from the Bavarian threat, the German cabinet declares a state of emergency and gives Defense Minister Otto Gessler powers to maintain order.
28 September 1923 Abyssinia is admitted to the League of Nations.
29 September 1923 The League of Nations mandate over Palestine to Great Britain goes into effect.
Sergey Prokofiev (32) marries the Spanish singer Carolina (Lina) Llubera Codina in Ettal, Germany. The wedding takes place in Villa Christophorus, where he is staying, due to her condition. She is pregnant.
30 September 1923 Adolf Hitler makes his first pilgrimage to Wahnfried, the home of Richard Wagner (†40) in Bayreuth.
1 October 1923 German Paramilitaries led by Major Ernst Buchrucker revolt at Kustrin and Spandau.
Great Britain establishes self-government for the colony of Southern Rhodesia.
2 October 1923 British, French, and Italian troops evacuate Constantinople and turn it over to Turkey.
3 October 1923 The revolt of 1 October is put down by regular Reichswehr units.
Alte Weisen op.33, a song cycle by Hans Pfitzner (54) to words of Keller, is performed for the first time, in Munich.
4 October 1923 The elite of artistic Paris is on hand to witness a concert given by George Antheil in the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Paris, to publicize the upcoming season of the Ballet Suédois. Those present include Erik Satie (57), James Joyce, Ezra Pound, Pablo Picasso and Man Ray. A riot is staged by Margaret Anderson, editor of The Little Review, for a film she is making. Police take away many of the rioters.
5 October 1923 Manuel Texeira Gomes replaces Anonio José de Almeida as President of Portugal.
6 October 1923 American physicians Drs. George Dick and Gladys Dick begin publishing a series of articles on their isolation of the cause of scarlet fever.
10 October 1923 Ts’ao K’un (Cao Kun) replaces Kao Ling-wei (Gao Lingwei) as President of China in the Canton administration.
The USS Shenandoah is christened in Lakehurst, New Jersey. It is the first rigid airship built in the United States and the first one to be lifted by helium instead of hydrogen.
11 October 1923 The German Mark falls to 4,000,000,000 per US dollar.
A Fugal Concerto op.40/2 by Gustav Holst (49) is performed publicly for the first time, in Queen’s Hall, London the composer conducting. See 17 May 1923.
13 October 1923 The Turkish National Assembly declares Angora (Ankara) the capital of the country.
14 October 1923 Puritan Passions, a film with music supplied by Frederick S. Converse (52), is performed for the first time in an orchestral setting, in the Cameo Theatre, New York. See 24 August 1923.
15 October 1923 46 Soviet Communist Party leaders criticize the Soviet regime before the Central Committee.
Das Marienleben, a song cycle by Paul Hindemith (27) to words of Rilke, is performed completely for the first time, in Frankfurt. See 22 June 1923.
The Committee on Public Lands and Surveys of the US Senate begins hearings into the leasing of oil reserves at Teapot Dome, Wyoming. They will continue for the next seven months.
18 October 1923 Mathilde Zemlinsky Schoenberg dies in Mödling.
Igor Stravinsky’s (41) Octet for Winds is performed for the first time, at the Paris Opéra, conducted by the composer. Also on the program is the premiere of the First Violin Concerto op.19 of Sergey Prokofiev (32). Present for the occasion, along with both composers, are Nadia Boulanger (36), members of Les Six, Karol Szymanowski (41), Pablo Picasso, Anna Pavlova, Arthur Rubinstein and Josef Szigeti.
19 October 1923 Martial law and censorship are ended in Greece.
20 October 1923 A Dance Rhapsody no.2 by Frederick Delius (61) is performed for the first time, in Queen’s Hall, London.
The Boar’s Head for male chorus by Arnold Bax (39) is performed for the first time, in the Old Opera House, Blackpool.
22 October 1923 The Bavarian section of the Reichswehr take an oath of loyalty to the state government of Gustav von Kahr, a monarchist holding dictatorial powers.
23 October 1923 Communists attempt a half-hearted uprising in Hamburg. It is easily put down.
Ned Rorem is born in Richmond, Indiana, the youngest of two children born to Clarence Rufus Rorem, a medical economist and a founder of Blue Cross, and Gladys Miller, a peace activist.
Former Secretary of the Interior Albert B. Fall appears before the US Senate committee investigating the Teapot Dome scandal.
Two movements of the Suite for voice and violin by Heitor Villa-Lobos (36) is performed for the first time, at the Salle des agriculteurs, Paris. See 9 April 1924.
24 October 1923 Lt.-Gen. Otto von Lossow, commander of the Bavarian Reichswehr, speaks to a meeting of officers and civil servants in Munich. He explains that the aims of the current Bavarian government are regime change in Berlin, by force if necessary.
25 October 1923 Secretary of the Navy Edwin Denby appears before the US Senate committee investigating the Teapot Dome scandal.
The Piano Trio no.1 op.8 by Dmitri Shostakovich (17) is performed for the first time during the screening of a film, at the Harlequinade Cinema, Petrograd, the composer at the piano. See 13 December 1923.
La Création du monde, a ballet by Darius Milhaud (31) to a scenario by Cendrars, is performed for the first time, in Paris. On the same program is Cole Porter’s jazz ballet Within the Quota.
Deux chorals pour petit orchestre op.76/2 by Charles Koechlin (55) are performed for the first time, in Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Paris.
29 October 1923 The constitution of the Republic of Turkey goes into effect. Mustafa Kemal is named the first President.
Worried about Communist attempts at revolution, the German government takes over direct rule of Saxony and sends troops into the area.
30 October 1923 Mustafa Ismet Pasha replaces Ali Fethi Okyar Bey as Prime Minister of Turkey.
Irish Rhapsody no.6 for violin and orchestra by Charles Villiers Stanford (71) is performed for possibly the first time, in York.
1 November 1923 In perhaps the first inclusion of jazz in an American concert hall, George Gershwin (25) is one of two pianists used to accompany Canadian soprano Eva Gauthier in an eclectic recital in Aeolian Hall, New York including some contemporary popular song.
Luxembourgeois inventor Hugo Gernsback demonstrates his Staccatophone over New York radio station WJZ. It is an electronic piano with vacuum tubes producing all the pitches of the keyboard.
2 November 1923 This Worldes Joie, a motet by Arnold Bax (39) for chorus, is performed for the first time, in Queen’s Hall, London.
3 November 1923 In a speech to a party meeting in Nuremberg, Adolf Hitler says, “We perceive Wagner (†40) as so great an artist because he presents in all his works the heroic essence of the folk, the German people. The heroic is the great. That is what our people desire.”
4 November 1923 Arnold Schoenberg (49) writes from Mödling to Roberto Gerhard (27) accepting his request to teach him and inviting him to Vienna.
5 November 1923 In the midst of hyperinflation, Germany inaugurates a new currency, the rentenmark.
String Quartet no.5 op.32 by Paul Hindemith (27) is performed for the first time, in Vienna.
Frank Bridge (44) sees Niagara Falls and visits the Eastman School of Music in Rochester to look into a job opening. When he finds it is for a string teacher, he does not pursue it.
6 November 1923 German federal troops march into a second state, Thuringia, in an attempt to head off a Communist insurrection.
Jacob Schick receives a US patent for an electric shaver.
Jean Sibelius (57) is awarded a 100,000 mark scholarship from the Kordelin Foundation in Helsinki, for his promotion and diffusion of Finnish music.
8 November 1923 At a large meeting in the Burgerbräukeller, Munich, Bavarian leader Gustav von Kahr is speaking on the necessity of dictatorship. Adolf Hitler enters at the head of his paramilitaries, the SA. He persuades von Kahr and Bavarian Reichswehr commander Otto von Lossow to join him in his putsch. The intent of Hitler and his co-conspirator, General Eric Ludendorff, is to take the government of Bavaria by force, then march on Berlin.
The Polish military puts down a general strike against economic chaos, over the last three days.
9 November 1923 Early morning. With lower officers and enlisted men remaining loyal to the Berlin government, Gustav von Kahr and Gen. Otto von Lossow change their minds and renounce Hitler and Ludendorff. Hitler leads a large group of paramilitaries into the center of Munich. At first, crowds seem friendly. But in front of the royal palace, police fire on the putschists. Hitler is saved from the first volley by his bodyguard who, falling, clutches at Hitler’s arm pulling him to the ground. 22 people are killed. Hitler’s supporters flee and the putsch fails.
11 November 1923 11:00 For the first time on Armistice Day, the BBC broadcasts two minutes of silence and The Last Post.
Adolf Hitler is arrested and placed in Landsberg Prison, 65 km west of Munich.
The Piano Quintet of Ernest Bloch (43) is performed for the first time, in the Klaw Theatre, New York. Joining Bloch in the audience is his Cleveland Institute colleague, Roger Sessions (26).
13 November 1923 The electoral law is changed by the fascist government in Italy. The party which comes in first automatically receives two-thirds of the seats in Parliament.
Two works for male chorus by Edward Elgar (66) are performed for the first time, in Wigmore Hall, London: The Wanderer, to words of the composer after Wit and Drollery, and Zut! Zut! Zut!, to words of Mardon (pseud. of the composer).
14 November 1923 The Oberfrankische Zeitung of Bayreuth prints an open letter from Winifred Wagner about the recent events in Munich. “The whole of Bayreuth knows that we have a friendly relationship with Adolf Hitler...this German man who, filled with ardent love for his fatherland, is sacrificing his life for his idea of a purified, united, national greater Germany, who has set himself the hazardous task of opening the eyes of the working class to the enemy within and to Marxism and its consequences, who as no other has managed to bring people together in brotherly reconciliation, has been able to do away with the almost insuperable class hatred, who has restored to thousands upon thousands of despairing people the joyous hope of a reviving, dignified fatherland and a firm belief in it.”
15 November 1923 The currency exchange in Germany is now $1.00=RM4,200,000,000,000.
António Ginestal Machado replaces António Maria da Silva as Prime Minister of Portugal.
Edward Elgar (66) sails from Liverpool aboard the Hildebrand for a trip up the Amazon River.
16 November 1923 Swiss-Russian Maurice Conradi is acquitted in a Swiss court of killing Russian diplomat Vaslav Vorovski.
19 November 1923 Pope Pius XI accepts an ambassador from France, thus resuming diplomatic relations between France and the Vatican.
For the fiftieth anniversary of the union of Pest, Buda, and Obuda into Budapest, two works by the leading Hungarian composers are performed for the first time: Dance Suite for orchestra by Béla Bartók (42) and Psalmus Hungaricus op.13 for tenor, chorus, orchestra, and organ by Zoltán Kodály (40) to words of Kecskeméti Vég after the Psalms.
20 November 1923 Hyperinflation in Germany is stabilized with the introduction of a new mark. Each new mark equals 1,000,000,000,000 old marks.
26 November 1923 John Philip Sousa (69) is awarded an honorary doctorate from Marquette University.
30 November 1923 Wilhelm Marx replaces Gustav Stresemann as Chancellor of Germany.
1 December 1923 Arnold Schoenberg (49) writes from Mödling to Josef Hauer (40), acknowledging their simultaneous, independent invention of the Twelve-Tone method and suggesting they collaborate on a book and a school. Nothing ever comes of it.
Der Dämon op.28, a dance pantomime by Paul Hindemith (28) to words of Krell, is performed for the first time, at the Darmstadt Landestheater.
2 December 1923 Elections to the Greek Parliament are won by the Liberal Party of Eleftherios Venizelos, who receive 250 of 397 seats.
3 December 1923 The Sixty-eighth Congress of the United States convenes in Washington. President Coolidge’s Republican Party holds reduced majorities in both houses.
5 December 1923 Lev Trotsky openly criticizes Stalin’s practice of appointing rather than electing party officials.
6 December 1923 Voting in the British general election produces a hung Parliament. Conservatives lose over 80 seats but remain the largest party. The Labour and Liberal parties make considerable gains.
7 December 1923 Frank Bridge (44) returns to England from the United States. He will accept the offer of financial support which Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge made in September. He is the only composer to receive an annual stipend from the Coolidge Foundation.
10 December 1923 La Brebis égarée, a roman musical by Darius Milhaud (31) is performed for the first time, at the Opéra-Comique, Paris.
The first of the Two Movements for Piano by Henry Cowell (26) is performed for the first time, in Aeolian Hall, London by the composer. It is Cowell’s European debut.
13 December 1923 The Piano Trio no.1 op.8 by Dmitri Shostakovich (17) is performed for the first time in a concert setting, at Petrograd Conservatory, the composer at the piano. See 25 October 1923.
17 December 1923 Sevillana op.29 for guitar by Joaquín Turina (41) is performed for the first time, in Madrid by Andrés Segovia.
18 December 1923 Alvaro Xavier de Castro replaces António Ginestal Machado as Prime Minister of Portugal.
Scarecrow Sketches, a symphonic suite from the opera Puritan Passions by Frederick S. Converse (52), is performed for the first time, in Boston.
19 December 1923 King Georgios II departs Greece for Romania while the National Assembly decides whether to continue with the monarchy. He does not abdicate. Pavlos Theodorou Koundouriotis returns as Regent.
Piano Concerto no.1 op.18 by Ernst Krenek (23) is performed for the first time, in Winterthur.
20 December 1923 Wladyslaw Grabski replaces Wincenty Witos as Prime Minister of Poland.
The Perfect Lady, a musical comedy with book by Mandel and Schwab, lyrics by DeSylva and seven new songs by George Gershwin (25), is performed for the first time in the Shubert Theatre, Boston. Before it hits New York it will be renamed Sweet Little Devil. See 21 January 1924.
21 December 1923 Ludions (Bottle Imps), a cycle of five songs by Erik Satie (57) to words of Fargue, are performed publicly for the first time, at the Salle des agriculteurs, Paris, the composer at the piano. See 30 May 1923.
26 December 1923 Romanian troops enter the Universities of Bucharest, Iasi, and Cluj to put down anti-Semitic riots.
27 December 1923 In response to a recent government crackdown on Communists, Daisuke Nanba fires at a limousine carrying Prince-regent Hirohito of Japan. The prince is unharmed.
28 December 1923 The first Hebrew opera house opens in Tel Aviv.
29 December 1923 Vladimir Zworykin applies for a US patent for his Iconoscope Television Camera. It is a completely electronic approach to television. The patent will not be issued until 1938.
31 December 1923 Charles Villiers Stanford (71) resigns as Professor of Music at Cambridge University effective 1 April 1924.
©2004-2011 Paul Scharfenberger
18 September 2011
Last Updated (Monday, 19 September 2011 08:40)