1929
| 
| 
1 January 1929 The Proletarian Musician begins publication in Moscow. It is the monthly journal of the Russian Association of Proletarian Musicians. It publishes the manifesto of the group.
6 January 1929 In view of the increasing paralysis between Serb and Croat parties, King Aleksandar of the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes proclaims a royal dictatorship, suspends the constitution, dissolves Parliament and abolishes religious or ethnic parties.
7 January 1929 Petar Zivkovic replaces Antun Korosec as Prime Minister of the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes.
9 January 1929 Béla Bartók (47) begins a tour of Russia with a concert in Kharkov. He will also perform in Odessa, Leningrad, and Moscow.
A setting of the Stabat mater (tr. Jankowski) for solo voices, chorus. and orchestra by Karol Szymanowski (46) is performed for the first time, in Warsaw. While taking the cure at Edlach in Lower Austria, the composer hears the performance over the radio, perhaps his first encounter with the medium. He is ecstatic to be able to hear his music from so far away.
10 January 1929 Arthur Honegger (36) conducts the first of three all-Honegger concerts with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, this one in Cambridge. His wife Vaura plays the Concertino for piano and orchestra.
12 January 1929 Il re, a novella by Umberto Giordano (61) to words of Forzano, is performed for the first time, in Teatro alla Scala, Milan.
Maurice Ravel’s (54) orchestral work La Valse is staged as a ballet for the first time, in the Théâtre de Monte Carlo, as a try out for the Paris premiere on 23 May. See 12 December 1920.
13 January 1929 Arthur Honegger (36) and his wife travel by train from Boston to New York. The composer rides as far as Providence in the locomotive.
17 January 1929 The Red Army Ensemble is founded in Moscow.
Kleine Suite for chamber orchestra by Franz Schreker (50) is performed for the first time, in a nationwide broadcast over German radio.
19 January 1929 Sonata for flute and harp by Arnold Bax (45) is performed for the first time, privately, in Ipswich Central Library. See 28 January 1929.
23 January 1929 Alma Wertheim incorporates Cos Cob Press. Over the next nine years it will publish 34 volumes of music by Americans.
26 January 1929 String Sextet op.92 by Vincent d’Indy (77) is performed for the first time, in Paris.
Suite for two pianos by Arthur Honegger (36), adapted from his incidental music to L’Impératrice aux rochers, is performed for the first time, in Detroit by the composer and his wife, Andrée “Vaura” Vaurabourg.
28 January 1929 Sonata for flute and harp by Arnold Bax (45) is performed publicly for the first time, in Wigmore Hall, London. See 19 January 1929.
29 January 1929 Im Westen nichts Neues (All Quiet on the Western Front) by Erich Maria Remarque is published in book form by Propyläen Verlag. It was serialized last year.
31 January 1929 Lev Trotsky is expelled from the Soviet Union.
Dmitri Shostakovich (22) begins teaching music theory and appreciation at the Leningrad Choreographic Technikum. He will remain there until 15 April.
Alban Berg’s (43) Three Pieces from the Lyric Suite, for orchestra, is performed for the first time, in Berlin.
1 February 1929 Frantisek Udrzal replaces Antonín Svehla as Prime Minister of Czechoslovakia.
2 February 1929 Hardanger for two pianos by Arnold Bax (45) is performed for the first time, in Aeolian Hall, London.
4 February 1929 Violin Sonata no.3 by Arnold Bax (45) is performed for the first time, in the Arts Theatre, London, the composer at the keyboard.
7 February 1929 Kleine Dreigroschenmusik für Blasorchester by Kurt Weill (28) is performed for the first time, in the Berlin Staatsoper am Platz der Republik.
9 February 1929 Meeting in Moscow, representatives of Estonia, Latvia, Poland, Romania, and the USSR sign the Litvinov Protocol, an agreement renouncing war as an instrument of foreign policy.
11 February 1929 The Lateran Treaty, between Pope Pius XI and the Kingdom of Italy, is agreed to. It creates the State of the Vatican City, ending the “stateless” nature that the papacy has held since the absorption of the Papal States into Italy in 1870. The treaty also makes Roman Catholicism the official religion of Italy.
Prince Johann II of Liechtenstein dies and is succeeded by his brother, Franz von Paula.
13 February 1929 Incidental music to Mayakovsky’s play The Bedbug by Dmitri Shostakovich (22) is performed for the first time, in the Meyerhold Theatre, Moscow. Although the Party is not convinced, the public loves it. It will run over two years.
14 February 1929 In an incident forever to be known as the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre, gangsters gun down seven of their fellow capitalists in Chicago.
15 February 1929 Virgil Thomson (32) sings through Four Saints in Three Acts in the Manhattan apartment of Carl Van Vechten before a small contingent of invited, influential guests. Reaction is mixed.
16 February 1929 Vitebsk, for violin, cello, and piano by Aaron Copland (28), is performed for the first time, in Town Hall, New York.
20 February 1929 Toshiro Mayuzumi is born in Yokohama.
Sergey Prokofiev (37) goes to the Soviet embassy in Paris to look at scores by Russian composers. While there, an embassy official asks him to play at a reception there on 5 March. Prokofiev is greatly conflicted. “It is necessary, apparently, to choose either Russia or emigration. It is clear, that of the two I choose Russia.” He will perform on 5 March.
21 February 1929 Roman Festivals, a tone poem by Ottorino Respighi (49), is performed for the first time, in Carnegie Hall, New York.
22 February 1929 String Quartet no.4 by Béla Bartók (47) is performed for the first time, in London.
Concerto for piano and wind octet by Colin McPhee (28) is performed for the first time, in Rochester, New York the composer at the keyboard and Howard Hanson (32) conducting.
24 February 1929 Piano Sonata by Roy Harris (31) is performed for the first time, in the Little Theatre, New York.
1 March 1929 By decree of King George V, Frederick Delius (67) is made a Companion of Honor.
4 March 1929 Herbert Clark Hoover replaces Calvin Coolidge as President of the United States. The Seventy-first Congress convenes in Washington. Hoover’s Republican Party holds comfortable majorities in both houses.
The Partido Nacional Revolucionario is founded in Mexico, largely through the efforts of Plutarco Elías Calles. In 1946 it will become the Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI).
L’Eventail de Jeanne, a ballet to a scenario by Franck and Bourgat, and music by Albert Roussel (59), Florent Schmitt (58), Maurice Ravel (53), Jacques Ibert (38), Roland-Manuel (37), Darius Milhaud (36), Delannoy (30), Francis Poulenc (30), Georges Auric (30) and Pierre-Octave Ferroud (29) is performed publicly for the first time, at the Paris Opéra. See 16 June 1927.
The Rhapsody no.1 for violin and piano by Béla Bartók (47) is performed for the first time, in London, the composer at the keyboard.
6 March 1929 Before a concert of his chamber music in Houston, Arthur Honegger (36) gives a lecture in English at Rice University.
8 March 1929 A concert version of the first scene from Karol Szymanowski’s (46) unfinished ballet Harnasie is performed for the first time, in Warsaw. See 11 May 1935.
11 March 1929 Irish Suite, a concerto for piano, strings, and chamber orchestra by Henry Cowell, is performed for the first time, in Boston, the composer at the keyboard on his 32nd birthday.
12 March 1929 Lev Sergeyevich Termen (Leon Theremin) (32) and Yuri Mikhailovich Goldberg sign an agreement with the Radio Corporation of America. RCA will pay Goldberg and Sons $100,000 for a two-year option on the patent rights for the Thereminovox, a royalty of 5% on all units sold with a minimum annual royalty of $25,000. RCA also has the option, at the end of two years, to buy the patent outright for $500,000 or continue the option.
13 March 1929 Sea Shanty Suite for baritone, male chorus, two pianos, and timpani by Colin McPhee (28) is performed for the first time, in Carnegie Hall, New York.
14 March 1929 An Entr’acte and a Finale for Erwin Dressel’s opera Der armer Columbus by Dmitri Shostakovich (22) are performed for the first time, in the Malyi Opera Theatre, Leningrad.
15 March 1929 The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences publishes “A Relation Between Distance and Radial Velocity Among Extra-Galactic Nebulae” by Edwin Hubble. He explains his work with Milton LaSalle Humason that shows that galaxies are moving away from us and at what rate.
Two songs by Charles Ives (54) are performed for the first time, in Carnegie Chamber Music Hall, New York: Serenity, to words of Whittier, and The Things Our Fathers Loved to his own words.
17 March 1929 In the face of student unrest, the Spanish government closes Madrid University.
18 March 1929 The New Babylon, a film with music by Dmitri Shostakovich (22) is shown for the first time at the Piccadilly cinema in Leningrad. After the composition of the score, censors required the filmmakers to introduce substantial re-editing which left the composer to make last minute changes. The result is a disaster and Shostakovich’s music will be removed within two or three days.
19 March 1929 Danse villageoise for violin and piano by Claude Champagne (37) is performed for the first time, in Montreal.
21 March 1929 Sir John in Love, an opera by Ralph Vaughan Williams (56) to his own words (after Shakespeare), is performed for the first time, at the Royal College of Music, London.
27 March 1929 For the first time, a telephone is installed at the desk of the President of the United States.
Piano Sonata no.2 by Ernst Krenek (28) is performed for the first time, in the Grotrian-Steinweg Saal, Berlin.
Frau Musica op.45/1, a cantata for chorus and orchestra by Paul Hindemith (33) to words of Luther, is performed for the first time, in Nuremberg. Also performed is Hindemith’s Ein Jäger aus Kurpfalz op.45/3 for strings and winds.
Television Laboratories, Inc. is established by the backers of Philo T. Farnsworth.
28 March 1929 A formal agreement is signed wherein Japan agrees to withdraw from the Shantung (Shandong) Peninsula of China.
Arthur Honegger (37) and his wife depart New York for France aboard the Rochambeau. They have spent the last three months performing his music throughout the United States.
29 March 1929 After three months in the United States, Virgil Thomson (32) boards ship in New York to return to Paris.
30 March 1929 Maurice Martenot receives a French patent for his Ondes Martenot.
1 April 1929 The Free State of Waldek-Pyrmont is joined to Prussia.
3 April 1929 William Schuman (18) drops out of the New York University School of Commerce, unsure of his future path.
4 April 1929 Gustav Holst (54) boards ship in Liverpool and sails for North America.
7 April 1929 The government of the USSR forbids the Russian Orthodox Church to teach or own property.
Police and communists battle in the streets of Bucharest.
11 April 1929 The first and third movements of Albert Roussel’s (60) Little Suite op.39 for orchestra are performed for the first time, at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Paris. See 6 February 1930.
Quartet for strings in one movement op.89 by Amy Beach (61) is performed for the first time, at the American Academy in Rome.
13 April 1929 Two works for voice and piano by Albert Roussel (60) are performed for the first time, in the Salle l’Ancien Conservatoire, Paris, to celebrate the composer’s 60th birthday: Vocalise no.2 and O bon vin, ou as-tu crû?, to anonymous words. On the same program is the first performance of Arthur Honegger’s (37) piano work Hommage à Albert Roussel.
14 April 1929 Kazimierz Switalski replaces Kazimierz Bartel as Prime Minister of Poland.
Vom ewigen Leben for soprano and orchestra by Franz Schreker (51) to words of Whitman is performed for the first time, in Leipzig.
After a very rough crossing, Gustav Holst (54) disembarks from the Scythia at Halifax, Nova Scotia.
15 April 1929 New York City police raid Margaret Sanger’s Birth Control Clinical Research Bureau, arresting two doctors and three nurses. They confiscate equipment and published materials. The case will be dismissed.
16 April 1929 Gustav Holst (54) arrives in New Haven from Halifax by train to lecture at Yale University.
18 April 1929 Jazz dans la nuit for voice and piano by Albert Roussel (60) to words of Dommange, is performed for the first time, at the Salle Gaveau, Paris. Also premiered is Pièce brève sur le nom d’Albert Roussel for piano by Francis Poulenc (30).
20 April 1929 Gustav Holst (54) arrives in New York from New Haven to attend the meeting of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
21 April 1929 Neville Henderson, British Minister in Paris, travels to Grez-sur-Loing and invests Frederick Delius (67) with the Companion of Honour.
Elections for the Senate in Greece are won by the Liberal Party. The Senate is a new body, invented by the Constitution of 1927.
22 April 1929 Lev Sergeyevich Termen (Leon Theremin) (32) founds the Migos Corporation to fulfill the RCA contract of 12 March.
24 April 1929 A general election takes place to the Danish Folketing resulting in gains for the Social Democratic Party at the expense of the Conservative Peoples Party and the Left Party.
25 April 1929 A setting of Psalm 80 for tenor, chorus, and orchestra and Fanfare pour un sacre païen for brass and percussion, both by Albert Roussel (60), are performed for the first time, at the Paris Opéra. Aaron Copland (28) and Marc Blitzstein (24) join Frederick Jacobi and Louis Gruenberg as pianists under the baton of Leopold Stokowski in the American premiere of Les Noces by Igor Stravinsky (46) at the Metropolitan Opera, New York.
26 April 1929 A cello concerto in A major by Antonín Dvorák (†24) is performed for the first time, in Prague, 64 years after it was composed.
Gustav Holst (54) arrives in Boston from New York where he gives a lecture at Harvard University.
27 April 1929 Gustav Holst (54) boards the Samaria in Boston making for England.
28 April 1929 Serge Koussevitzky asks John Alden Carpenter (53) to compose a work as part of the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
29 April 1929 Peter Joshua Sculthorpe is born in Launceston, Tasmania, the first of two children born to Joshua Tasman Sculthorpe, a general store owner, and Edna Moorehouse, an English immigrant, the daughter of an engine-fitter for mines.
The Gambler op.24, an opera by Sergey Prokofiev (38) to his own words after Dostoyevsky, is performed for the first time, at the Théâtre de la Monnaie, Brussels. See 12 March 1932.
30 April 1929 Thorvald August Marinus Stauning replaces Thomas Madsen-Mygdal as Prime Minister of Denmark.
1 May 1929 Despite the prohibition against May Day celebrations by the federal government, Communists demonstrate in Berlin. They are attacked by police who fire into the crowd. 32 people are killed, hundreds are injured. Battles continue for two more days.
String Quartet no.2 by Karol Szymanowski (46) is performed for the first time, at Warsaw Conservatory.
3 May 1929 Concert champêtre for harpsichord and orchestra by Francis Poulenc (30) is performed publicly for the first time, in the Salle Pleyel, Paris.
4 May 1929 Ernst Streeruwitz replaces Ignaz Seipel as Chancellor of Austria.
5 May 1929 Gustav Holst (54) arrives in Liverpool from Boston aboard the Samaria.
6 May 1929 Triple-Sec, an opera farce by Marc Blitzstein (24) to words of Jeans, is performed for the first time, in the Bellevue-Stratford Ballroom, Philadelphia.
7 May 1929 Members of the National Socialist Party throw stink bombs during a performance of Kurt Weill’s (29) Die Dreigroschenoper at the Berlin State Opera.
10 May 1929 While visiting Munich, Amy Beach (61) finds a trunk and three boxes that were confiscated from her in 1914. They have been held in Munich ever since.
11 May 1929 Two Panamanians found the Theremin Patents Corporation in Panama City to manage the Theremin (32) patents outside the United States. It is largely a front for Soviet spying on the Panama Canal.
13 May 1929 Manuel de Falla (52) is admitted to the Orden de Alfonso XII.
Three days of voting concludes in the Estonian general election. The Socialist Workers Party and the Conservative Farmers Union continue to be the largest in the Parliament.
14 May 1929 A judge in New York City dismisses all charges against those arrested in the raid of 15 April. He finds insufficient evidence.
16 May 1929 The first Academy Awards® are presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Hollywood.
17 May 1929 Symphony no.3 op.44 by Sergey Prokofiev (38) is performed for the first time, in the Salle Pleyel, Paris.
18 May 1929 Due Canzoni di Grado for voice, female chorus, and chamber orchestra by Luigi Dallapiccola (25) to words of Marin are performed for the first time, at Conservatorio Luigi Cherubini in Florence.
19 May 1929 Two days before he is to set sail for America, Charles Koechlin (61) learns that he has won the Hollywood Bowl Prize for his 1910 composition La joie païenne.
20 May 1929 Pursuant to the agreement of 28 March, Japanese forces evacuate the Shantung (Shandong) Peninsula of China.
21 May 1929 Sergey Prokofiev’s (38) ballet The Prodigal Son op.46, to a scenario by Kochno, is performed for the first time, at the Théâtre Sarah Bernhardt, Paris the composer conducting. Press and public are very positive. See 7 March 1931.
22 May 1929 Kurt Weill’s (29) cantata Das Berliner Requiem, to words of Brecht, for tenor, baritone, male chorus, and winds, is performed for the first time, over the airwaves of Frankfurt Radio.
23 May 1929 Maurice Ravel’s (54) orchestral work La Valse is staged as a ballet in the Paris Opéra. See 12 December 1920 and 12 January 1929.
24 May 1929 The Cocoanuts opens at the Rialto Theatre in Los Angeles. It is the first film to star the Marx Brothers.
25 May 1929 Amy Beach (61) returns to Hoboken aboard the SS America eleven days out of Bremerhaven, thus ending her third European tour.
28 May 1929 The first version of Antonín Dvorák’s (†25) comic opera King and Charcoal Burner, to words of Lobesky, is performed for the first time, in the National Theatre, Prague, 58 years after it was composed.
29 May 1929 Alexander Fleming publishes the discovery of penicillin and its ability to kill bacteria in the British Journal of Experimental Pathology. Since he cannot produce it in great quantities, he concludes his research deeming it impractical.
30 May 1929 The greatly revised and edited second version of Amériques by Edgard Varèse (45) is performed for the first time, in the Maison Gaveau, Paris. On the same program is the premiere of Amazonas, a ballet by Heitor Villa-Lobos (42).
Voting in the British general election results in a hung Parliament. For the first time, the Labour Party wins a plurality of seats. The ruling Conservative Party wins the most votes but loses over 150 seats. The Liberal Party makes modest gains. Women under 30 years of age vote for the first time.
31 May 1929 Olivier Messiaen (20) wins the first prize in organ at the Paris Conservatoire.
3 June 1929 A 46-year territorial dispute between Peru and Chile is settled amicably through mediation by the United States. Chile receives Arica province while Tacna province goes to Peru.
Nouvelle sonatine op.87/3 for piano by Charles Koechlin (61) is performed for the first time, in Salle Pleyel, Paris.
5 June 1929 Gesänge des Orients op.77 for voice and piano by Richard Strauss (64) to words translated by Bethge, is performed for the first time, in Berlin the composer at the keyboard.
6 June 1929 Walsinghame, for tenor, chorus, and orchestra by Arnold Bax (45) is performed for the first time, in Queen’s Hall, London.
7 June 1929 The Young Committee, headed by Owen D. Young and JP Morgan, makes its recommendations to Germany and the allies on the question of reparations. They work out a plan whereby Germany can afford payments, and they are to be made to a new Bank for International Settlements. Everyone assumes the problem has been solved.
Police in Gastonia, North Carolina raid a tent city of workers striking Loray Mills, a textile company. Strikers return fire. Ten people are killed. Seven strike leaders are arrested on charges of murder. They will eventually jump bail and escape to the Soviet Union.
8 June 1929 James Ramsay Macdonald replaces Stanley Baldwin as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom at the head of a minority Labour government.
Neues vom Tage, a comic opera by Paul Hindemith (33) to words of Schiffer, is performed for the first time, in the Kroll Opera House, Berlin. See 7 April 1954.
14 June 1929 The ruling National Party of Prime Minister Hertzog wins an outright majority in voting for the House of Assembly of the Union of South Africa.
16 June 1929 James Kirtland Randall is born in Cleveland.
The Nose, an opera by Dmitri Shostakovich (22) to words of Zamyatin, Ionin, Preys, and the composer after Gogol, is performed for the first time, in a concert setting in Leningrad. See 25 November 1928, 14 January 1930, and 18 January 1930.
17 June 1929 A concert entitled “Concert d’Oeuvres de Jeunes Compositeurs Américains”, organized by Aaron Copland (28), takes place at the Salle Chopin, Paris. Featured on the program are works by Copland, Carlos Chávez (30) and Roy Harris (31). Several works for voice and piano by Virgil Thomson (32) are performed for the first time, the composer at the piano: Susie Asado, La Seine and the cycle Preciosilla, all to words of Stein, Le Berceau de Gertrude Stein, ou La Mystère de la Rue de Fleurus and the cycle La Valse grégorienne, both to words of Hugnet.
University of Illinois, a march by John Philip Sousa (74), is performed for the first time.
18 June 1929 RCA orders 500 Theremins, 300 made by General Electric and 200 by Westinghouse. They plan to see if there is a market for the device.
19 June 1929 Aubade, a “choreographic concerto” for piano and 18 instruments by Francis Poulenc (30), is performed for the first time, at the home of Vicomte and Vicomtesse de Noailles, Paris the composer at the piano. See 1 December 1929 and 21 January 1930.
23 June 1929 Henri Léon Marie Thérèse Pousseur is born in Malmédy, Belgium.
24 June 1929 Denes von Mihaly is granted permission by the German post office to broadcast television signals from their Witzleben transmitter.
Show Girl, a musical comedy with book by McGuire and McEvoy, lyrics by Kahn and Ira Gershwin, and music by George Gershwin (30), is performed for the first time in Boston. See 24 June 1929.
27 June 1929 A color television system developed by HE Ives is demonstrated by the Bell Telephone Laboratories in New York.
30 June 1929 Blackmail, a film by Alfred Hitchcock, is released in Great Britain. It is the first British film with entirely spoken dialogue.
1 July 1929 Ruth Crawford (27) arrives at the MacDowell Colony in Peterborough, New Hampshire, for the first time. Here she will compose the Five Songs to Poems by Carl Sandburg.
2 July 1929 Show Girl, a musical comedy with book by McGuire and McEvoy, lyrics by Kahn and Ira Gershwin, and music by George Gershwin (30), is performed for the first time in New York, in the Ziegfeld Theatre. It runs for 111 performances. See 24 June 1929.
3 July 1929 Osachi Hamaguchi replaces Baron Gi-ichi Tanaka as Prime Minister of Japan.
Voting in the Dutch general election returns the Roman Catholic Party and the Social Democratic Workers Party as the two largest groups.
4 July 1929 Arthur Fiedler begins a new series of open-air concerts on the Charles River in Boston called the Esplanade Concerts.
7 July 1929 Regular transcontinental passenger air service begins today between New York and Los Angeles. The trip takes approximately 48 hours.
Robert Goddard launches another liquid fuel rocket from his aunt’s farm in Auburn, Massachusetts. The rocket, carrying a thermometer, barometer, and a camera, reaches an altitude of 27 meters and travels 52 meters downrange before exploding. The flight takes 8.5 seconds. Frightened neighbors call the police who arrive. The state fire marshal will ban Goddard’s tests, calling them a menace to public safety.
8 July 1929 40 members of the fascist Iron Guard are arrested on charges of plotting to overthrow the government of Romania. 26 will be acquitted, the rest will receive token sentences.
Alma Schindler Mahler Gropius marries the author Franz Werfel in Vienna.
9 July 1929 Arturo Ivens Ferraz replaces José Vicente de Freitas as Prime Minister of Portugal.
Otto Strandman replaces August Rei as Head of State of Estonia.
15 July 1929 Five days after sending the revisions to the libretto of Act I of Arabella to Richard Strauss (65) and two days after his son’s suicide, Hugo von Hofmannsthal dies of a stroke while preparing to attend his son’s funeral.
27 July 1929 Der Lindberghflug, a radio play by Bertolt Brecht with music by Paul Hindemith (33) and Kurt Weill (29), is performed for the first time, in Baden-Baden. See 5 December 1929.
28 July 1929 William Walton (27) meets with Paul Hindemith (33) in Baden-Baden to discuss his Viola Concerto. Hindemith agrees to perform the solo.
Paul Hindemith’s (33) music theatre work Lehrstück, to words of Brecht, is performed for the first time, in Baden-Baden. The story leaves the audience aghast.
29 July 1929 Aristide Briand replaces Raymond Nicolas Landry Poincaré as Prime Minister of France.
5 August 1929 Jan Mayen officially becomes a dependency of Norway.
6 August 1929 An international conference convenes in The Hague to discuss the Young Plan of 7 June.
10 August 1929 Charles Joseph Maria Ruys de Beerenbrouck replaces Dirk Jan de Geer as first minister of the Netherlands.
13 August 1929 Cirandas, a piano cycle by Heitor Villa-Lobos (42), is performed for the first time, in Teatro Lírico, Rio de Janeiro.
La joie païenne op.46/5 for orchestra by Charles Koechlin (61), the last part of Études antiques, is performed for the first time, in Hollywood Bowl.
16 August 1929 Kyösti Kallio replaces Oskari Mantere as Prime Minister of Finland.
A mob of Moslems attacks Jewish worshippers at the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem, burning prayer books.
19 August 1929 06:00 Sergey Diaghilev dies in Venice. He will be buried on the island of San Michele.
23 August 1929 Urged on by their clergy at Friday prayers, Moslems riot in Jerusalem. Over two days, 17 Jews are killed.
24 August 1929 Over 60 Jews are killed by rampaging Moslems in Hebron. Throughout the British mandate, 249 people are killed in the riots.
26 August 1929 George Gershwin (30) makes his conducting debut, directing members of the New York Philharmonic in An American in Paris, at Lewisohn Stadium, New York.
Two works by Heitor Villa-Lobos (42) are performed for the first time, in Teatro Lirico, Rio de Janeiro: Epigramas irônicos e sentimentais for voice and orchestra to words of de Carvalho, and Suíte sugestiva for voice and piano to words of Andrade, Chalupt, and Bandeira. See 3 April 1930.
29 August 1929 The lighter-than-air craft Graf Zeppelin completes a circumnavigation of the earth. The LZ-127 has flown 35,000 km in 21 days and six hours.
Incidental music to Pirandello’s play Six Characters in Search of an Author by Bohuslav Martinu (38) is performed for the first time, in Policka.
30 August 1929 A Cantata for the Centenary of the Polytechnic High School for reciter, chorus, and orchestra by Carl Nielsen (64) to words of Pedersen, is performed for the first time.
31 August 1929 Due to failing health and struggles with faculty and administration, Karol Szymanowski (46) suspends his duties as director of the Warsaw Conservatory.
An international conference at The Hague, including Germany, agrees to the Young Plan to settle Germany’s reparations debts to the victorious allies. The allies agree to withdraw from the Rhineland by next June.
2 September 1929 The British soap manufacturer Lever Brothers merges with the Dutch Margarine Union Ltd./ Margarine Unie NV to form Unilever.
Baird Television Ltd. demonstrates its television system in New York.
Happy End, a comedy by Kurt Weill (29) to words of Hauptmann and Brecht, is performed for the first time, in the Theater am Schiffbauerdamm, Berlin. Things are going well until strongly anti-capitalist lines appear in Act III. The audience reacts badly. The work is a complete fiasco. After three performances, it is never performed again during the lifetimes of the authors.
3 September 1929 The Dow Jones Industrial Average reaches a record high of 381.2.
5 September 1929 Ruth Crawford (28) arrives in New York from the MacDowell Colony to take up residence.
9 September 1929 Amy Beach (62) suffers a gall bladder attack at her home in Centerville, Massachusetts. See 11 October 1929.
12 September 1929 A peace agreement is reached between Bolivia and Paraguay. The situation is returned to status quo ante.
13 September 1929 RCA buys an option from Lev Sergeyevich Termen (Leon Theremin) (33) for his prototype television.
15 September 1929 Olivier Messiaen (20) gives his first public recital on organ, in Tencin near Grenoble.
23 September 1929 Juozas Tubelis replaces Augustinas Voldemaras as Prime Minister of Lithuania.
The New York Times announces that the RCA Theremin is about to go on sale to the public for $175 per unit. On the same day, the instrument is exhibited at the opening of the Radio World’s Fair in Madison Square Garden, New York.
25 September 1929 A Theremin is heard on the radio for the first time when the inventor, Lev Sergeyevich Termen (Leon Theremin) (33) plays music of Chopin (†80) and Rubinstein (†34) from the Radio World’s Fair in Madison Square Garden, New York over the WJZ network.
26 September 1929 Johann Schober replaces Ernst Steeruwitz as Chancellor of Austria.
27 September 1929 A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway is published by Charles Scribner’s Sons. It has been serialized in Scribner’s Magazine.
30 September 1929 The first television broadcast service begins by inventor John Logie Baird using a BBC transmitter in England.
George Gershwin (31) signs a contract with the Metropolitan Opera, New York to compose an opera based on Rappoport’s play The Dybbuk.
1 October 1929 Great Britain resumes diplomatic relations with the USSR.
3 October 1929 The name of the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes is changed to the Kingdom of Yugoslavia by King Aleksandar II. He divides the country into nine districts which disregard ethnic considerations.
Adli Yegen Pasha replaces Mohammed Mahmud Pasha as Prime Minister of Egypt.
The Viola Concerto of William Walton (27) is performed for the first time, in Queen’s Hall, London. Paul Hindemith (33) is the soloist with the composer at the podium. Also premiered is the Overture, Elegy and Rondo for orchestra by Arnold Bax (45).
7 October 1929 Ramsay MacDonald becomes the first British Prime Minister to address the US Congress.
The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner is published by Jonathan Cape and Harrison Smith.
8 October 1929 Ruth Crawford (28) attends a concert of American folk music, spirituals, and mountain songs, in Washington. It is an eye-opening experience that will affect her later life.
9 October 1929 Frederick Delius (67) and his wife arrive in London for a Delius festival organized by Thomas Beecham and Philip Heseltine. They will stay three weeks and he will receive acclaim never before afforded him.
11 October 1929 Amy Beach (62) enters Massachusetts General Hospital for a gall bladder operation. The operation is successful but an abscess develops and she will be hospitalized again in December.
12 October 1929 Less than a year after the last election, Australians go to the polls to defeat the ruling Nationalist/Country coalition in favor of the Labor Party, who win an outright majority.
A Late Lark for tenor and orchestra by Frederick Delius (67) to words of Henley is performed for the first time, in Queen’s Hall, London.
Hymn to Art for soprano, tenor, chorus, and winds by Carl Nielsen (64) to words of Michaelis, is performed for the first time, the composer conducting.
13 October 1929 A revised version of Orpheus by Carl Orff (34) to a translation of Striggio by Günther, is performed for the first time, in Munich. See 17 April 1925 and 13 October 1929.
16 October 1929 Air and Dance for string orchestra by Frederick Delius (67) is performed publicly for the first time, in Aeolian Hall, London.
18 October 1929 Cynara for baritone and orchestra by Frederick Delius (67) to words of Dowson is performed for the first time, in Queen’s Hall, London.
Heitor Villa-Lobos (42) departs Rio de Janeiro for Barcelona and Paris.
21 October 1929 A Greek nationalist, anti-British demonstration in Nicosia turns violent. They burn Government House, seat of the British administration, to the ground.
22 October 1929 James Henry Scullin replaces Stanley Melbourne Bruce as Prime Minister of Australia.
The Trio for flute, viola, and cello op.40 by Albert Roussel (60) is performed for the first time, in Prague.
24 October 1929 George Henry Crumb, Jr. is born in Charleston, West Virginia, eldest of two children born to George Henry Crumb, Sr. a professional clarinetist, copyist, and arranger, and Vivian Reed, a professional cellist.
After weeks of falling prices, investors in the New York Stock Exchange begin panic selling of 13,000,000 shares.
25 October 1929 US President Herbert Hoover states that “the fundamental business of the country...is on a sound and prosperous basis.”
Former Secretary of the Interior Albert B. Fall is convicted in Washington of taking a bribe in the Teapot Dome scandal. He will be sentenced to one year in jail and a $100,000 fine.
28 October 1929 Serge Koussevitzky writes to George Gershwin (31) asking him to compose a work for the upcoming 50th anniversary of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. He types the letter personally. Gershwin will accept and create his Second Rhapsody. See 29 January 1932.
29 October 1929 16,000,000 shares are dumped onto the New York Stock Exchange causing prices to collapse and the loss of billions of dollars. This day is hereafter known as “Black Tuesday.”
Black and Tan, a film with music by Duke Ellington (30), is released in the United States. Ellington and his orchestra appear in the film.
30 October 1929 Sergey Prokofiev (38) arrives in the Soviet Union for his second visit since the revolution. He will stay three weeks but will do no performing.
Two works for voice and piano by William Walton (27) are performed for the first time, in Aeolian Hall, London: The Winds to words of Swinburne, and Tritons to words of Drummond. Also premiered is a Piano Quartet by Walton. (The Winds was probably performed in the early 1920s. The Piano Quartet could have been performed already.)
31 October 1929 Lord Irwin, Viceroy of India, announces that a round table conference will take place in London to discuss dominion status for India.
Close to 100 Polish army officers pack the lobby of the Sejm in an attempt to influence the government. The Sejm postpones its opening to 5 November.
1 November 1929 The Delius (67) Festival concludes in London with a performance of A Mass of Life. The composer and his wife will leave shortly for home at Grez-sur-Loing.
Rhapsody no.1 for violin and orchestra by Béla Bartók (48) is performed for the first time, in Königsberg.
2 November 1929 André Pierre Gabriel Amédée Tardieu replaces Aristide Briand as Prime Minister of France.
4 November 1929 Piano Trio (1929) by Frank Bridge (50) is performed for the first time, in Langham Hotel.
7 November 1929 Two of the Five Irish Fantasies for voice and orchestra, The Hosting of the Sidhe and Ballad of the Foxhunter, by Charles Martin Loeffler (68) to words of Yeats, are performed for the first time, in Severance Hall, Cleveland. See 10 March 1922.
8 November 1929 After an opening to invited guests yesterday, the Museum of Modern Art opens to the public in New York.
9 November 1929 Ten of Gustav Holst’s (55) Twelve Songs op.48 for voice and piano, to words of Wolfe, are performed for the first time, at the home of Louise Dyer in Paris. See 5 February 1930.
12 November 1929 Violin Concerto by Josef Matthias Hauer (46) is performed for the first time, in Berlin.
13 November 1929 Pursuant to the Young Plan, the Bank for International Settlements begins operations in Basel as a conduit for German reparations payments to the Allies.
14 November 1929 Ruth Crawford (28) submits an application for a Guggenheim grant. She will be awarded $2,500. On the same day she begins formal lessons in dissonant counterpoint with Charles Seeger in New York.
15 November 1929 Two Preludes and Fugues for organ by Johannes Brahms (†32) are performed for the first time, in Berlin, 72 years after they were composed.
17 November 1929 Nikolay Ivanovich Bukharin, leader of the right wing of the Soviet Communist Party, is expelled from the Politburo.
20 November 1929 Richard Strauss (65) meets the writer Stefan Zweig for the first time, at the Hotel Vier Jahreszeiten in Munich. They begin discussion on a new project, Die schweigsame Frau.
21 November 1929 Gesänge nach altern Gedichten for mezzo-soprano and piano by Ernst Krenek (29) to words of Günther, Weckherlin, and Fleming, is performed for the first time, in the Berlin Schwechtensaal.
26 November 1929 Rhapsody no.2 for violin and orchestra by Béla Bartók (48) is performed for the first time, in Budapest. See 19 November 1928.
28 November 1929 The First Airphonic Suite for Thereminovox and orchestra by Joseph Schillinger is performed for the first time, in Cleveland with Lev Sergeyevich Termen (Leon Theremin) (33) as soloist.
29 November 1929 Richard E. Byrd and three others become the first humans to cross the South Pole by air.
30 November 1929 The Second Rhineland Occupation Zone (Coblenz) is evacuated by the Allies.
1 December 1929 Aubade, a “choreographic concerto” for piano and 18 instruments by Francis Poulenc (30), is performed publicly for the first time, in a concert setting in the Salle Pleyel, Paris the composer at the piano. See 18 June 1929 and 21 January 1930.
2 December 1929 Part of a skull of Peking Man is found 65 km from Peking just outside the village of Choukoutien (Zhoukoudian) by WC Pei (Pei Wenzhong). It is an important missing link between humans and their non-human ancestors.
3 December 1929 On his first visit to the United States, Alyeksandr Glazunov (64) conducts his own works at the Metropolitan Opera House, New York.
5 December 1929 Tajikistan is separated from Uzbekistan and becomes a union republic of the USSR.
The second version of Der Lindberghflug, a cantata by Kurt Weill (29) to words of Brecht, is performed for the first time, in Berlin. See 28 July 1929.
Concerto for viola and orchestra op.108 by Darius Milhaud (37) is performed for the first time, in Amsterdam. The soloist is Paul Hindemith (33).
6 December 1929 Turkey extends voting rights to women.
The Capriccio for piano and orchestra by Igor Stravinsky (47) is performed for the first time, in Paris the composer at the keyboard.
7 December 1929 Legend for viola and piano by Arnold Bax (46) is performed for the first time, in Aeolian Hall, London the composer at the piano.
9 December 1929 Goodmorrow, a carol for the king’s recovery for chorus by Edward Elgar (72) to words of Gascoigne, is performed for the first time, in a broadcast from Windsor the composer conducting.
10 December 1929 Sonata for two pianos by Arnold Bax (46) is performed for the first time, in the Music Club, Westminster.
12 December 1929 Igor Stravinsky (47) signs a contract with the Boston Symphony Orchestra for a symphony to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the orchestra.
Three works by Ruth Crawford (28) are performed for the first time, in New York: Suite no.1 for five winds and piano, Five Songs on Poems of Carl Sandburg for voice and piano, and Suite no.2 for four strings and piano.
13 December 1929 The Second Symphony of Arnold Bax (46) is performed for the first time, in Symphony Hall, Boston.
An orchestral version of incidental music to Lord Dunsany’s play The Gods of the Mountain by Arthur Farwell (57) is performed for the first time, in Minneapolis.
14 December 1929 Incidental music to Bezimensky’s play The Shot by Dmitri Shostakovich (23) is performed for the first time, at the Working Youth Theatre, Leningrad.
After a performance of Rhapsody in Blue by the New York Philharmonic, the composer at the piano, Alyeksandr Glazunov (64) goes backstage and is introduced to Gershwin (31). Gershwin expresses the desire to travel to Russia and study orchestration with Glazunov. The Russian declines.
15 December 1929 Alexandros Thrasivoulou Zaimis replaces Pavlos Theodorou Koundouriotis as President of Greece.
18 December 1929 Symphony op.21 by Anton Webern (46) is performed for the first time, at a League of Composers concert in Town Hall, New York. The work was commissioned by the League.
21 December 1929 Serenade no.2 op.2 by Vincent Persichetti (14) is performed for the first time, at Combs Conservatory, Philadelphia by the composer.
22 December 1929 Divertissement for orchestra by Sergey Prokofiev (38) is performed for the first time, in Paris under the baton of the composer.
25 December 1929 The second version of Strike Up the Band, an operetta with a book by Ryskind, after Kaufman, lyrics by Ira Gershwin, and music by George Gershwin (31), is performed for the first time, in Boston. See 5 September 1927 and 14 January 1930.
26 December 1929 Incidental music to Shakespeare’s (tr. Pourtalès) play The Tempest by Arthur Honegger (37) is performed for the first time, at the Monte Carlo Opera.
29 December 1929 Sukarno and other Indonesian nationalist leaders are arrested by Dutch authorities.
Kazimierz Bartel replaces Kazimierz Switalski as Prime Minister of Poland.
31 December 1929 The Indian National Congress, meeting in Lahore, votes to adopt a policy of advocating complete independence from Great Britain.
Harry Partch (28) signs on in Philadelphia as a seaman aboard an oil tanker. He will work at this employment for three weeks.
©2004-2011 Paul Scharfenberger
18 September 2011
Last Updated (Monday, 19 September 2011 08:46)