1933
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1 January 1933 Juan Sacasa is sworn in as President of Nicaragua.
France divides the Colony of Haute-Volta (Burkina Faso) between Niger, Côte d’Ivoire, and French Sudan (Mali).
2 January 1933 The last United States troops leave Nicaragua from Corinto.
4 January 1933 Piano Sonata no.1 by Karl Amadeus Hartmann (27) is performed for the first time, in Munich.
7 January 1933 Writing in the Northwest Musical Herald, Henry Cowell (35) nominates Arnold Schoenberg (58) as the “greatest living composer.”
8 January 1933 Anarchists and others begin an armed uprising in Barcelona. It will be put down by the Spanish military.
The New York School of Music confers on Duke Ellington (33) its award for the best composition of the year, for Creole Rhapsody.
16 January 1933 Alexandru Vaida-Voievod replaces Iuliu Maniu as Prime Minister of Romania.
17 January 1933 The US Congress overrides President Hoover’s veto of the Hare-Hawes-Cutting Act which provides for the independence of the Philippines. However, the Philippine Senate will reject the Act, desiring one more favorable to their interests.
Works by Dmitri Shostakovich (26) are performed for the first time, in the Leningrad Philharmonic Bolshoy Hall: The first eight of the 24 Preludes op.34 for piano, performed by the composer, Passacagli for organ, and an orchestral suite from his ballet The Bolt. See 8 April 1931 and 24 May 1933.
Republican Eleftherios Kiriakou Venizelos replaces Panagiotis Tsaldaris as Prime Minister of Greece.
19 January 1933 Joaquín Rodrigo (31) marries Victoria Kamhi, a professional pianist and daughter of a Turkish drug manufacturer, in Valencia.
20 January 1933 Bolivian forces attack the Paraguayan defenders of Nanawa.
Chile begins to stop arms crossing its territory for Bolivia. Bolivia claims this is a violation of their 1904 peace treaty.
Violin Sonata no.2 by Bohuslav Martinu (42) is performed for the first time, in Paris.
Pardon My English, a musical comedy with a book by Fields, lyrics by Ira Gershwin, and music by George Gershwin (34), is performed for the first time in New York, in the Majestic Theatre. It is a failure, receiving only 46 performances. See 2 December 1932.
21 January 1933 Japanese forces occupy Jehol (Rehe) Province and attach it to Manchukuo as a buffer with China.
Czech fascists attack an army base in Brno in an unsuccessful coup attempt.
Bolivians attack Fernandez for four days without strategic result. They will lose one-quarter of their force in the attempt.
22 January 1933 Partita for orchestra with solo soprano by Luigi Dallapiccola (28) is performed for the first time, in Teatro Comunale, Florence.
23 January 1933 Piano Concerto no.2 by Béla Bartók (51) is performed for the first time, in Frankfurt-am-Main the composer at the piano. This is Bartók’s last appearance in Germany.
26 January 1933 After a week of furious, sometimes hand-to-hand fighting, Paraguayan defenders still hold their lines at Nanawa.
30 January 1933 Adolf Hitler replaces Kurt von Schleicher as Chancellor of Germany. He brings to his coalition cabinet Wilhelm Frick as minister of home affairs.
Igor Stravinsky (50) is in Wiesbaden and discusses a May concert with Hans Rosbaud of Frankfurt Radio.
John Alden Carpenter (56) marries his second wife, Ellen Borden, in the Cambridge, Massachusetts home of A. Kingsley Porter, a relative of the bride. Carpenter, having forgotten to get a marriage license, is required to go to city hall to get one before the wedding can proceed.
Scherzo for chamber orchestra op.13 by Wallingford Riegger (47) is performed for the first time, in New York.
31 January 1933 Édouard Deladier replaces Joseph Paul-Boncour as Prime Minister of France.
Sinfonietta op.1 by Benjamin Britten (19) is performed for the first time, in the Ballet Club (Mercury Theatre), London.
1 February 1933 Piano Concerto by Ralph Vaughan Williams (60) is performed for the first time, in Queen’s Hall, London.
2 February 1933 The German government bans all meetings and demonstrations of the German Communist Party.
A peace treaty is signed by President Juan Sacasa of Nicaragua and rebel leader Augusto Sandino. The rebels are granted amnesty and land for a cooperative farm.
3 February 1933 Rhythmic Etudes for violin and piano by Bohuslav Martinu (42) is performed for the first time, in Prague.
4 February 1933 Devant sa main nue op.122 for female voices by Darius Milhaud (40) to words of Raval is performed for the first time, in Paris.
Improvisations for piano by Francis Poulenc (34) is performed for the first time, in Paris by the composer.
5 February 1933 A suite from the ballet Les noces d’Amour et Psyche by Arthur Honegger (40) is performed for the first time, in Paris.
6 February 1933 Three songs by Charles Ives (58) are performed for the first time, in Steinway Hall, New York: Afterglow to words of Cooper, Like a Sick Eagle to words of Keats, and Ann Street to words of Morris.
Angels and Devils for 76 flutes by Henry Brant (19) is performed for the first time, in New York.
8 February 1933 Hans Heinsheimer of Universal Edition writes to Kurt Weill (32) expressing his view that the Nazis will not go away in a few months. He is very pessimistic. “I believe that we should be prepared for anything...”
During a London performance of the BBC Orchestra wherein Arnold Schoenberg (58) conducts his Variations for Orchestra, Benjamin Britten (19) briefly meets the illustrious composer.
Fantaisie burlesque for piano by Olivier Messiaen (24) is performed for the first time, at École Normale de musique, Paris.
9 February 1933 The Oxford Union passes the following resolution: This House will in no circumstances fight for its King and Country.
10 February 1933 Thomas Mann delivers a lecture at Munich University to mark the 50th anniversary of the death of Richard Wagner. He disapproves of the Nazis using Wagner “for an unholy alliance of Macht and Kultur.”
12 February 1933 Marie Eugène Henri Duparc dies at Mont-de-Marsan, aged 85 years and 22 days.
Le Tombeau resplendissant for orchestra by Olivier Messiaen (24) is performed for the first time, in Salle Pleyel, Paris.
How Mighty are the Sabbaths, the fifth of the Six Choruses op.53 by Gustav Holst (58) to medieval lyrics (tr. Waddell), is performed for the first time, in Her Majesty’s Theatre, Carlisle the composer conducting.
13 February 1933 The surviving sections of Richard Wagner’s opera Die Hochzeit are performed for the first time, in the Rostock Stadttheater, 100 years after they were composed, and on the 50th anniversary of the composer’s death. All that remains is the Introduction, a chorus and a septet. Wagner destroyed the libretto.
The 50th anniversary of Wagner’s death is celebrated in Leipzig in a large ceremony attended by Chancellor Hitler, Winifred and Wieland Wagner, cabinet members, diplomats, and artistic figures.
15 February 1933 Anarchist Joseph Zangara shoots from a crowd at United States President-elect Franklin Roosevelt in Miami. A woman near the assassin grabs his arm and the shot wounds Chicago Mayor Anton J. Cermak. Cermak will die on 6 March. Zangara will be executed on 20 March.
16 February 1933 The Senate of the Free City of Danzig unilaterally denounces its agreement with Poland regulating administration of the port.
17 February 1933 News-Week is published for the first time, in New York.
18 February 1933 Kurt Weill’s (32) play with music Der Silbersee: ein Wintermärchen, to words of Kaiser, is performed for the first time, simultaneously in Leipzig, Erfurt, and Magdeburg. Even though the Nazis try to intimidate the management and the performance, the work is a hit with the audience and the press, except for Nazi newspapers.
19 February 1933 Hans Rosbaud of Frankfurt Radio writes to Igor Stravinsky (50) to withdraw his invitation for a concert in May. “...I must tell you, with most bitter regrets, that for the present it is totally impossible to invite you to a concert at Frankfurt Radio...Let us hope for better times.”
Six Choruses for female voices and orchestra by Florent Schmitt (62) are performed for the first time, in Paris.
21 February 1933 German Communists call for armed action against the SA and SS.
Chile rescinds its embargo of arms to Bolivia.
23 February 1933 Soviet Music begins publication in Moscow.
The Migos Corporation assigns all patents of Lev Sergeyevich Termen (Leon Theremin) (36) to Teletouch Corporation. See 22 December 1932.
24 February 1933 The League of Nations votes not to recognize the Japanese puppet-state of Manchukuo, but neither does it impose sanctions on Japan.
26 February 1933 Bolivians attack the Paraguayan defenders of Toledo but are beaten back.
27 February 1933 Marinus van der Lubbe, a Dutch member of a tiny Communist splinter group opposed to Stalin and the German Communist Party, sets fire to the Reichstag. He is captured at the scene.
28 February 1933 Prussian Minister of Interior Herman Göring speaks to the German nation on radio, telling them that the burning of the Reichstag is part of a massive Communist conspiracy to carry out terrorist acts and instigate a general revolution.
The Emergency Regulation for the Protection of People and State is signed by German President Hindenburg. It abolishes basic rights, freedom of expression, freedom of the press and assembly. It ends privacy in the mail, telegraph, telephone, homes, and property.
Bertolt Brecht leaves Germany, going first to Prague.
Manuel de Falla (56) arrives in Majorca, fleeing the social unrest in Spain.
1 March 1933 At a meeting of the Senate of the Prussian Academy of Arts in Berlin, at which member Arnold Schoenberg (58) is present, President Max von Schillings announces the government’s intention to remove “Jewish elements” from the academy and further, “to break the Jewish stranglehold on western music.” Schoenberg takes this action as his dismissal.
Bolivians again assault the Paraguayans at Toledo and again are beaten back in fierce fighting.
Incidental music to Giraudoux’s play Intermezzo by Francis Poulenc (34) is performed for the first time, at the Comédie des Champs-Elysées, Paris.
2 March 1933 Johan Ludwig Mowinckel replaces Jens Hundseld as Prime Minister of Norway.
Marc Blitzstein marries Eva Goldbeck in Philadelphia City Hall on his 28th birthday. She is a novelist, reviewer and translator, the daughter of a journalist and a professional singer. He is a homosexual, a fact of which she is aware.
4 March 1933 Chancellor Dollfuss suspends parliamentary government in Austria and institutes a conservative, authoritarian regime.
Today’s production of Der Silbersee marks the last performance in Germany of any work by Kurt Weill (33) until the end of World War II. The Nazis close all productions of the play.
The communist theatrical group Die Truppe 1931, whose composer and pianist is Stefan Wolpe (30), is banned by the Berlin police.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt replaces Herbert Clark Hoover as President of the United States. The Seventy-third Congress of the United States convenes in Washington. Roosevelt’s Democratic Party holds majorities in both houses and a mandate to deal with the depression. Frances Perkins is sworn in as Secretary of Labor. She is the first female member of a United States cabinet.
5 March 1933 In national elections in Germany the Nazi party wins 43.9% of the vote and 288 of 647 seats in the Reichstag. Combined with his conservative allies, Hitler now controls a majority in the Reichstag.
In the Greek national election, the conservative/monarchist Peoples Party becomes the largest party, almost gaining a majority.
A suite from Ernst Krenek’s (32) incidental music Triumph der Empfindsamkeit is withdrawn from a program in Mannheim in an apparent attempt to avoid trouble with the new Nazi government.
Two works by Samuel Barber (22) are performed publicly for the first time, in New York: the Cello Sonata op.6, the composer at the piano, and Dover Beach, for solo voice and string quartet to words of Arnold. See 12 May 1932.
6 March 1933 Fritz Busch, perceived as an opponent to the new regime, is attacked by SA members as he begins a rehearsal of Rigoletto in Dresden. When he insists the show will go on tomorrow, half the tickets are bought by the SA, who shout him down before the music begins.
All banks in the United States are closed by order of President Roosevelt.
Alexandros Othonaios replaces Eleftherios Kiriakou Venizelos as Prime Minister of Greece.
Ionisation for 13 percussionists by Edgard Varèse (49) is performed for the first time, in Carnegie Hall, New York. Among the performers are Henry Cowell (35) and William Schuman (22). On the same program is the premiere of Sacco, Vanzetti, a ricercar for voice and piano by Ruth Crawford Seeger (31) to words of Tsiang.
7 March 1933 King Kong, a film by Cooper and Schoedsack, is shown for the first time, in New York.
8 March 1933 Carl Ebert is sacked from his position of Intendant of the Berlin Städtische Oper for criticizing the new regime.
9 March 1933 The United States Congress grants President Roosevelt almost dictatorial powers over credit and currency.
10 March 1933 Panagiotis Tsaldaris replaces Alexandros Othonaios as Prime Minister of Greece.
A Paraguayan attack out of Toledo causes the Bolivians to retreat in orderly fashion towards Puesto Betty.
11 March 1933 In Switzerland, Thomas Mann decides not to return to Germany after a pleading telephone call from his daughter.
Bolivians advance through the Paraguayan lines and head towards Alihuata which they occupy after the Paraguayans abandon it.
Rapsodia sinfónica for piano and strings by Joaquín Turina (50) is performed for the first time, in Madrid.
12 March 1933 Japan completes its occupation of China north of the Great Wall.
Chinaman, Laundryman, a ricercar by Ruth Crawford Seeger (31) to words of Tsiang, is performed for the first time, at the MacDowell Club, New York.
President Roosevelt makes his first radio “fireside chat” from the White House.
13 March 1933 German Chancellor Adolf Hitler names Joseph Goebbels as Minister of Information and Propaganda.
14 March 1933 In the fourth of a weekly series of lectures entitled The Path to the New Music Anton Webern (49) says, “What’s going on in Germany at the moment amounts to the destruction of spiritual life!”
15 March 1933 The director of Radio Berlin issues a directive forbidding the broadcast of black jazz.
In The Physical Review, American physicist Carl Anderson publishes his discovery of the positron, the first form of antimatter to be seen.
Incidental music to Sophocles’ play Philoctetes by Elliott Carter (24) is performed for the first time, in Lowell House Dining Hall, Harvard University.
Concertino for pianoforte and orchestra by Frederick S. Converse (62) is performed for the first time, in Boston.
16 March 1933 A concert to be directed by Jewish conductor Bruno Walter in Leipzig is cancelled by authorities who claim that his appearance might endanger “public order and security.”
Benjamin Britten’s (19) Sinfonietta op.1 is played at the Royal College of Music, London the only one of his works performed there during his college days.
17 March 1933 String Trio no.2 by Paul Hindemith (37) is performed for the first time, in Antwerp, the composer performing the viola part.
18 March 1933 Arnold Schoenberg (58) and Franz Schreker (54) attend a meeting of the music section of the Prussian Academy of the Arts in Berlin for the last time. They are soon told that they will not remain in their present positions at the Academy.
19 March 1933 Reported results from a national plebiscite shows the Portuguese electorate support a new constitution, a mixture of republican and fascist ideas. It institutes the Estado Novo dictatorship.
21 March 1933 Chancellor Adolf Hitler opens the First Reichstag of the Third Reich in the garrison church, Potsdam. In the evening, a special performance of Richard Wagner’s (†50) Die Meistersinger takes place. At the chorus “Wach auf” the singers are instructed to turn and sing it to Hitler’s box, thus transferring their allegiance from Hans Sachs to the new order.
Kurt Weill (33) is driven from Berlin to the French border by Caspar and Erika Neher.
The first prisoners are brought by the SA to Oranienburg concentration camp outside Berlin. By the end of the month, 15,000 people will be interned there.
22 March 1933 Kurt Weill (33) is driven across the border from Germany into France by Caspar and Erika Neher. They go to Paris.
A Nazi concentration camp begins operations near Dachau, northwest of Munich. It is intended to hold political prisoners.
23 March 1933 Adolfs Blodnieks replaces Margers Skujenieks as Prime Minister of Latvia.
The Enabling Act is passed 441-94 by the Reichstag. Only the Social Democratic Party is opposed. The act gives the government full power to rule by decree for four years, essentially beginning the Nazi dictatorship.
Symphony op.36a by Hans Pfitzner (63) is performed for the first time, in Munich. It is an orchestration of his String Quartet op.36. See 6 November 1925.
Kurt Weill (33) arrives in Paris after crossing the frontier from Germany.
Hymne au Saint-Sacrement for orchestra by Olivier Messiaen (24) is performed for the first time, in Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Paris.
25 March 1933 Another Bolivian assault on Fernandez is repulsed by Paraguayan defenders.
26 March 1933 Mouvement symphonique no.3 by Arthur Honegger (41) is performed for the first time, in Berlin. Owing to the new cultural atmosphere in Germany, the work is not received well.
An Alla Marcia for string quartet by Benjamin Britten (19) is performed for the first time, privately, at the home of the composer’s teacher, Frank Bridge (54), in Friston, Sussex. Bridge plays the viola part. The work will be withdrawn and used in Les Illuminations.
27 March 1933 After the League of Nations identifies Japan as the aggressor in Manchuria, Japan withdraws from the League.
Nazis riot in Vienna.
Two Songs for voice and piano by Ruth Crawford Seeger (31) to words of Tsiang are performed for the first time, in Philadelphia. The critics are very negative.
29 March 1933 Willy Strecker of B. Schotts Söhne writes to Igor Stravinsky (50) telling him that his name is on a list of Jewish composers collected by the Kultur Kampfbund.
30 March 1933 Arnold Schoenberg (58) tenders his resignation from the Prussian Academy of Arts.
31 March 1933 Acciaio, a film with music by Gian Francesco Malipiero (51), is released in Italy.
US President Roosevelt signs an act creating the Civilian Conservation Corps. It will provide training and jobs for thousands of unemployed Americans, and create many public works improvements.
1 April 1933 10:00 The first blow against German Jews comes with a Nazi boycott of all Jewish-owned businesses, the stationing of guards outside Jewish shops warning Germans against entering and a massive propaganda campaign. Chancellor Adolf Hitler begins the boycott in Berlin saying: “I believe that I act today in unison with the Almighty Creator’s intention: by fighting the Jews I do battle for the Lord.”
Winnifred Wagner meets with Chancellor Hitler at the Reich Chancellery in Berlin. He assures her of his support to Bayreuth and the music, in spite of some in the Nazi Party who oppose them. He tells her that he plans to attend the festival every summer.
A cable is sent from the United States to German Chancellor Adolf Hitler protesting the treatment of Jewish musicians in Germany. It is signed by Arturo Toscanini, Walter Damrosch, Frank Damrosch, Serge Koussevitzky, Artur Bodanzky, Harold Bauer, Ossip Gabrilowitsch, Alfred Hertz, Charles Martin Loeffler (72), Fritz Reiner, and Rubin Goldmark.
2 April 1933 The first suite from the ballet Bacchus et Ariane by Albert Roussel (63) is performed for the first time, in the Salle Pleyel, Paris. See 22 May 1931.
Two new chamber works are performed for the first time, on the same program in New York: Soli I for oboe, clarinet, trumpet, and bassoon by Carlos Chávez (33) and Elegies for violin and viola by Aaron Copland (32).
3 April 1933 Kurt Weill’s (33) monthly stipend from Universal Edition is cut in half.
Richard Strauss (65) is scheduled to conduct a concert today by the Berlin Philharmonic that should have been conducted by Bruno Walter. Walter has been removed because he is Jewish. So many subscribers return their tickets after hearing of the treachery of Strauss that the performance is cancelled.
4 April 1933 Due to protests from abroad, the Nazis halt the Jewish boycott claiming it has achieved its purpose.
Conductor Otto Klemperer flees Germany by taking a train from Berlin to Zürich.
German Chancellor Adolf Hitler responds to the cable of 1 April by banning broadcast of any recordings or compositions by the signers.
5 April 1933 The Court of International Justice rules in favor of Denmark in their sovereignty dispute with Norway over the east coast of Greenland.
US President Franklin Roosevelt orders all gold coins and certificates of more than $100 turned in for other types of currency.
Introduzione, aria e toccata for orchestra by Alfredo Casella (49) is performed for the first time, in Teatro Augusteo, Rome.
7 April 1933 In Germany, the Law for the Restoration of the Civil Service bars Jews and opponents of the regime from the civil service, including state-run orchestras. All Jewish professors of music at German universities are sacked. They are also prohibited from being commercial judges or serving on juries.
Songs of a Fairy-tale Princess for voice and orchestra by Karol Szymanowski (50), to words of Szymanowska, is performed for the first time, in Warsaw.
8 April 1933 Herbert von Karajan joins the Austrian Nazi Party in Salzburg.
Miss Lonelyhearts by Nathaniel West is published in New York.
11 April 1933 An implementation order for the law of 7 April defines a non-Aryan as anyone who has at least one non-Aryan parent.
A letter of protest to Joseph Goebbels from Wilhelm Furtwängler is printed in Vossiche Zeitung. He criticizes attacks on Jewish artists like Bruno Walter and Otto Klemperer.
Police sent by Nazi authorities physically close the Bauhaus in Berlin.
13 April 1933 An English translation by Cochran and Krimsky of Die Dreigroschenoper by Kurt Weill (33) and Bertolt Brecht opens in the Empire Theatre, New York. It is a complete flop and will last only twelve performances.
14 April 1933 Igor Stravinsky (50) sends to Willy Strecker of B. Schotts Söhne a statement to be used should the need arise. It explains his genealogy and his political views, which are strongly anti-communist.
Morton Leon Subotnick is born in Los Angeles.
Gustav Holst (58) checks himself into Beaufort House nursing home in Ealing after feeling ill for two days.
String Quartet no.2 by Virgil Thomson (36) is performed for the first time, at the home of Philip Johnson in New York.
15 April 1933 The first issue of Cruz y Raya is published in Spain to present a more moderate and intellectual Catholic view of contemporary Spain. One of the board members is Manuel de Falla (56).
17 April 1933 The Münchener neueste Nachrichten publishes an open letter condemning Thomas Mann. Mann gave a lecture commemorating the 50th anniversary of the death of Richard Wagner and criticized Wagner for his anti-Semitism and attacks on the music of Felix Mendelssohn (†85).
18 April 1933 Willy Strecker of B. Schotts Söhne writes to Igor Stravinsky (50) telling him that the Nazis’ influence on music is really quite positive. He shouldn’t worry about it.
21 April 1933 Easley Blackwood is born in Indianapolis.
22 April 1933 Jews in Germany are barred from being patent lawyers and panel physicians in state social-insurance institutions.
25 April 1933 The German government issues a Law Against Crowding in Schools and Institutions of Higher Learning. It limits the number of Jewish pupils in all schools to 1.5% of the student body.
Canada abandons the gold standard.
Incidental music to Shakespeare’s play Macbeth by Aram Khachaturian (29) is performed for the first time, in Sundukian Dramatic Theatre, Yerevan.
String Sextet by Bohuslav Martinu (42) is performed for the first time, in Washington.
26 April 1933 Prussian Interior Minister Hermann Göring creates the Geheime Staatspolizei (Gestapo).
Dutch voters go to the polls to elect a Parliament. The two largest parties, the Roman Catholic Party and the Social Democratic Workers Party, both lose two seats.
28 April 1933 German Chancellor Adolf Hitler names Hermann Göring as Aviation Minister.
29 April 1933 Two Ballads to folksong texts for alto and piano by Bohuslav Martinu (42) is performed for the first time, in Prague.
30 April 1933 The United States abandons the gold standard.
13:00 As he leaves a race track in Lima where he reviewed troops for the war in Colombia, President Luis Sánchez Cerro of Peru is shot twice by Hurtado de Mendoza, a member of the Aprista Party. He is taken to hospital where he dies within minutes. Mendoza is seized by soldiers and police and beaten to death. Major General Óscar Raymundo Benavides Larrea is named to succeed to the presidency. Martial law is declared throughout the country.
1 May 1933 A Humanist Manifesto is published with 34 signatures by the New Humanist.
2 May 1933 The German government seizes all labor union offices and assets, jailing many labor leaders and turning over the union apparatus to the Nazi-led Labor Front.
3 May 1933 The oath of allegiance to the British crown is removed from the Irish constitution.
5 May 1933 La Guiablesse, a ballet by William Grant Still (37) to a scenario by Page, after Hearn, is performed for the first time, at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York under the baton of Howard Hanson (36).
6 May 1933 In Germany, the Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service is extended to honorary professors, university lecturers, and notaries.
8 May 1933 As Mahatma Gandhi begins a 21-day fast for self-purification, the British release him from jail.
The Czechoslovak government bans 334 newspapers for spreading Nazi propaganda.
Cantiga de roda for female chorus and orchestra by Heitor Villa-Lobos (46) is performed for the first time, in Rio de Janeiro, the composer conducting.
9 May 1933 Diego Rivera stops work on his mural Man at the Crossroads in Rockefeller Center. The painting is immediately covered and will be destroyed early next year. Nelson Rockefeller objects to a depiction of Lenin in the painting. Rivera will recreate the mural in Mexico.
10 May 1933 After almost a year of fighting, Paraguay formally declares war on Bolivia.
Janusz Jedrzejewicz replaces Aleksander Blazej Prystor as Prime Minister of Poland.
Throughout Germany, officials seize Social Democratic Party offices, money, and over 100 newspapers. Within a few days, all independent labor organizations will be dissolved.
After a torchlight parade through Berlin, 20,000 books are burned opposite the university. Among the authors so honored are Thomas Mann, Stefan Zweig, Erich Maria Remarque, Lion Feuchtwanger, Albert Einstein, Walther Rathenau, Hugo Preuss, Sigmund Freud, Arthur Schnitzler, Jack London, Upton Sinclair, HG Wells, André Gide, Emile Zola, and Marcel Proust.
The third movement of Symphony no.4 by Charles Ives (58) is performed for the first time, in New York. See 29 January 1927 and 26 April 1965.
11 May 1933 Based on yesterday’s declaration of war, Bolivia asks the League of Nations to impose sanctions on Paraguay as an aggressor.
Concerto a cinque for oboe, trumpet, violin, double bass, piano, and string orchestra by Ottorino Respighi (53) is performed for the first time, at his Villa “The Pines” in Rome.
13 May 1933 Bolivians assault the Paraguayan defenses of Arce and are thrown back.
String Quartet no.8 by Darius Milhaud (40) is performed for the first time.
A canção do barqueiro do Volga for voice and orchestra by Heitor Villa-Lobos (46) is performed for the first time, in the Teatro Municipal, Rio de Janeiro the composer conducting.
16 May 1933 With both sides exhausted from four days of fighting at Arce, both Bolivian and Paraguayan troops settle in to trench warfare.
17 May 1933 After receiving a telegram from his brother-in-law which reads “Change of climate urgently recommended,” Arnold Schoenberg (58) and his wife immediately leave Berlin for Paris, never to return.
In voting for the House of Assembly of the Union South Africa, the ruling National Party wins exactly half of the seats. This is the first general election under universal white suffrage.
Reel for small orchestra by Henry Cowell (36) is performed for the first time, at the New School in New York.
18 May 1933 Jaan Tõnisson replaces Konstantin Päts as Head of State of Estonia.
US President Roosevelt signs an act creating the Tennessee Valley Authority to provide for electricity and flood control in a large region of the country.
The Woodland Stream for unison chorus by Edward Elgar (75) to words of Mackay is performed for the first time, in Worcester.
20 May 1933 Subway service is inaugurated in Osaka.
Merry Mount, an opera by Howard Hanson (36) to words of Stokes, is performed for the first time, in a concert setting in Ann Arbor, Michigan. See 10 February 1934.
21 May 1933 Balada de Mallorca for chorus by Manuel de Falla (56) to words of Verdaguer, is performed for the first time, at the Monastery of Valldemosa, Majorca.
Piano Sonata in d minor by Ross Lee Finney (26) is performed for the first time, in Sage Hall, Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts.
23 May 1933 Arnold Schoenberg (58) and Franz Schreker (55) are sent an official confirmation that they are suspended from their positions at the Prussian Academy of the Arts. Their salaries will continue pending further notice.
24 May 1933 Dmitri Shostakovich (26) plays the first complete performance of his 24 Preludes op.34 for piano in the Moscow Conservatory Malyi Hall. See 17 January 1933.
25 May 1933 Stalin orders the release of one half of all inmates presently held in labor camps.
La mort d’un tyran op.116 for chorus and orchestra by Darius Milhaud (40) to words of Lampride and Diderot is performed for the first time, in Paris.
26 May 1933 Hendrikus Colijn replaces Charles Joseph Maria Ruys de Beerenbrouck as first minister of the Netherlands.
27 May 1933 Sergey Prokofiev (42) accepts a position as “consultant professor” at Moscow Conservatory. He will hold it for almost four years.
28 May 1933 Nazis receive about half the vote in elections in Danzig (Gdansk).
Arturo Toscanini cancels his commitment to conduct Parsifal and Die Meistersinger at Bayreuth because of “painful events which have wounded my feelings as a man and artist.”
Edward Elgar (75) flies in an airplane for the first time, from Croydon to Paris.
Haroun al Rashid for orchestra by Witold Lutoslawski (20) is performed for the first time, in Philharmonic Hall, Warsaw.
29 May 1933 Marc Blitzstein (28), his wife, and a German Shepherd puppy named Very Tentative, move to a house near Bethany Beach, Delaware for the summer. Here he will compose Piano Solo.
Songs Sacred and Profane, a cycle for voice and piano by John Ireland (53) to words of Meynell, Warner, and Yeats, is performed for the first time, over the airwaves of the BBC originating in London, the composer at the keyboard.
30 May 1933 Arnold Schoenberg (58) and Franz Schreker (55) are placed on a “leave of absence” by the Prussian Academy of Arts.
Edward Elgar (75) visits Frederick Delius (71) at his home in Grez-sur-Loing, France. The two have been estranged for many years, but now come together as friends late in their lives.
Drinking Song, the third of the Six Choruses op.53 by Gustav Holst (58) to medieval lyrics (tr. Waddell), is performed for the first time, in Aeolian Hall, London.
31 May 1933 Representatives of China and Japan sign a truce at Tangku (Tanggu).
2 June 1933 Jews in Germany are barred from being dentists and dental technicians in state social-insurance institutions.
The Duke Ellington (34) band sails from New York aboard the Olympia making for England.
The orchestral suite Cuauhnáhuac by Silvestre Revueltas (33) is performed for the first time, in Teatro Hidalgo, Mexico City.
3 June 1933 Edward Elgar (76) is named GCVO, Knight of the Grand Cross of the Victorian Order.
6 June 1933 An agreement is signed in Rome by France, Germany, Italy, and Great Britain. It reaffirms the Locarno Treaty and the Kellogg-Briand Pact.
7 June 1933 Die sieben Todsünden, a ballet chanté by Kurt Weill (33) to words of Brecht, is performed for the first time, in the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Paris. Both Weill and Brecht are present, but the reaction is disappointment.
9 June 1933 The memorial sculpture The Herd Boy playing a Wooden Flute is unveiled at Nørre Lyndelse, the birthplace of Carl Nielsen (†1) on the 68th anniversary of his birth. It was created by the composer’s wife, Anne Marie Carl-Nielsen,
The Duke Ellington (34) band disembarks at Southampton, met by a large crowd with reporters and photographers.
12 June 1933 The Duke Ellington (34) band appears at the London Palladium for the first of several shows. The audiences are large and appreciative. The critics are unhappy.
13 June 1933 Australia lays claim to part of the Antarctic continent from 160°E to 142°E and 136°E to 45°E.
Halewijn, a symphonic drama by Willem Pijper (38) to words of van Lokhorst, is performed for the first time, in the Stadsschouwburg, Amsterdam.
Novembre op.22/2 for voice and piano by Charles Koechlin (65) to words of Bourget is performed for the first time, in Salle Pleyel, Paris, the composer at the keyboard, 32 years after it was composed.
14 June 1933 Prayers of Steel, a song for alto, oboe, percussion, and piano by Ruth Crawford Seeger (31) to words of Sandburg, is performed for the first time, in Amsterdam.
15 June 1933 Symphony in e minor by Florence Price (46) is performed for the first time, in Chicago. It is the first work by an African-American woman to be performed by a major symphony orchestra.
16 June 1933 US President Roosevelt signs the National Recovery Act, providing for the creation of Public Works Administration and giving him the power to regulate industry to stimulate the economy. He also signs the Glass-Steagall Act which provides for reforms in banking to cut down on speculation, and creating the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.
19 June 1933 Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss dissolves the Austrian Nazi Party.
22 June 1933 The German Social Democratic Party is outlawed and its leaders arrested.
Parts of the Dance Suite for orchestra by Aram Khachaturian (30) are performed for the first time, in Bolshoy Hall of Moscow Conservatory.
23 June 1933 Invocação à cruz for chorus by Heitor Villa-Lobos (46) to words of Estrada, is performed for the first time, conducted by the composer.
Gertrude Stein and Virgil Thomson (36) sign contracts for the production of Four Saints in Three Acts. They have decided to share the profits equally.
24 June 1933 Phraya Phaholphonphayuhasena replaces Phraya Manopakornnitithada as Prime Minister of Siam.
30 June 1933 An evening performance in the Hôtel Singer-Polignac in Paris is apparently the first entire concert conducted by Nadia Boulanger (45). She directs a chorus and orchestra in cantata excerpts by JS Bach (†182), an organ transcription of a Vivaldi (†192) concerto, and the Brandenburg Concerto no.5. One of the bass choristers is an American named Elliott Carter (24). It is the first of 19 of Mlle. Boulanger’s concerts for the Princesse de Polignac over the next five years.
1 July 1933 Arabella, a lyrische Komödie by Richard Strauss (69) to words of Hofmannsthal, is performed for the first time, at the Dresden Staatsoper. Strauss tried to withdraw the work because Fritz Busch, who was scheduled to conduct the premiere, was removed from his post in Dresden for criticism of the Nazis. Strauss, however, was held to his contract and the work goes on as scheduled. “The work ended with a storm of approval such as had seldom been demonstrated in the history of operatic first performance,” Strauss will remember.
3 July 1933 Joseph Louis Anne Avenol of France replaces Sir James Eric Drummond of Great Britain as Secretary-General of the League of Nations.
Voting for the Finnish Eduskunta concludes. The Social Democratic Party makes gains, largely at the expense of the right.
4 July 1933 Bolivian forces begin a second assault on Nanawa. They make some gains.
5 July 1933 Fritz Todt is appointed inspector of highways in Germany. His task is to create an integrated autobahn throughout the country.
A Paraguayan counterattack at Nanawa regains the losses of yesterday.
8 July 1933 Germany and the Papacy sign a concordat in Rome, the first such agreement between the Pope and the German Reich since the Renaissance.
Bolivians give up their attempt to take Nanawa from the Paraguayans.
13 July 1933 Columbus: Bericht und Bildnis, an opera by Werner Egk (32) to his own words, is performed for the first time, over the airwaves of Bavarian Radio. See 13 January 1942.
14 July 1933 The German government decrees that the National Socialist Party is the sole legal political party.
A law is promulgated in Germany authorizing the sterilization (forced if necessary) of people with certain hereditary diseases.
The German government issues a Law Establishing the Cinema Office, giving the Minister of Propaganda power to decide who makes films in Germany.
A Glorious Day op.48 for brass by Albert Roussel (64) is performed for the first time, in Paris.
16 July 1933 Nicholas Slonimsky conducts Ionisation by Edgard Varèse (49) at the Hollywood Bowl. In the audience is a fascinated Californian named John Cage (20).
18 July 1933 Raymond Murray Schafer is born in Sarnia, Ontario, one of two children of an accountant. Both parents are amateur musicians.
24 July 1933 In a ceremony in Paris, Arnold Schoenberg (58) returns to the Jewish faith. Among the witnesses is Marc Chagall. Schoenberg became a Lutheran in 1898.
Duke Ellington (34) and his band depart Britain for engagements on the continent.
27 July 1933 The Duke Ellington (34) band performs the first of three concerts at the Salle Pleyel, Paris.
1 August 1933 Mahatma Gandhi is once again arrested and sentenced to one year imprisonment in Yeravda Prison, Poona.
An orchestral suite from incidental music to Flecker’s play Hassan by Frederick Delius (71) is performed for the first time, over the airwaves of the BBC. See 20 September 1933.
2 August 1933 The White Sea Canal, completing a water link between the Arctic Ocean and the Baltic Sea, opens.
3 August 1933 Edgard Varèse (49) departs Paris heading for Catalonia where he will meet Joan Miró and Roberto Gerhard (36).
6 August 1933 The Bayreuth Festival opens with a new production of Die Meistersinger. It is the first visit to the festival by Adolf Hitler since he became Chancellor.
Phantasy for oboe quartet op.2 by Benjamin Britten (19) is performed for the first time, over the airwaves of the BBC National.
9 August 1933 Duke Ellington (34) and his band return to New York after a two-month tour of Europe.
14 August 1933 A forest fire breaks out in Gales Creek Canyon near Tillamook, Oregon. It goes on to destroy over 1,200 sq km of wood over the next three weeks.
15 August 1933 Ruth Crawford Seeger (32) gives birth to her first child, Michael, in New York.
16 August 1933 Mahatma Gandhi begins a fast unto death because prison authorities refuse to allow him to work for untouchables.
21 August 1933 Gandhi is moved to Sassoon Hospital, near death.
23 August 1933 After three weeks in jail, Gandhi is released unconditionally in Poona. He began a fast eight days ago to protest his imprisonment. At his release he weighs 40 kg.
30 August 1933 Samuel Barber’s (23) overture The School for Scandal is performed for the first time, in Philadelphia.
1 September 1933 A Bundle of Blues, a film with music by Duke Ellington (34), is released in the United States.
The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas by Gertrude Stein is published in the United States.
12 September 1933 Alejandro Lerroux y García replaces Manuel Azaña y Díaz as Prime Minister of Spain.
Earle Haas of Denver receives a US patent for a “catamenial device”, a two tube tampon. Next month, Haas will sell the patent to Denver businesswoman Gertrude Tenderich for $32,000. She will create Tampax, Inc. to market the device.
15 September 1933 The trial of four communists accused by the Nazis of setting fire to the Reichstag begins in Leipzig. The arsonist, Marinus van der Lubbe, consistently admits his guilt and despite the exhortations of Hermann Göring, who “helps” prosecute, the other three defendants will be acquitted. See 10 January 1934.
Black Mountain College opens near Asheville, North Carolina.
16 September 1933 After being surrounded by Paraguayans for over a week, a large number of Bolivians surrender at Campo Grande.
18 September 1933 The German Ministry of Culture informs Arnold Schoenberg (59) that he has been dismissed from the Prussian Academy of the Arts effective 1 October.
A divorce between Kurt Weill (33) and Lotte Lenja is finalized in Potsdam.
Edgard Varèse (49) boards ship in Vigo, making for New York where he hopes to enlist support for his Quatrieme Internationale des Arts.
19 September 1933 Spalicek, a cycle of folksongs, miming, and dancing for women’s chorus and orchestra by Bohuslav Martinu (42) is performed for the first time, in Prague.
21 September 1933 Eight Canons for chorus by Gustav Holst to medieval words (tr. Waddell) is performed in an informal setting at St. Paul’s School, London on the occasion of the composer’s 59th birthday. It is probably the first complete performance of the entire set.
The German Ministry of Culture informs Franz Schreker (55) that he has been dismissed from the Prussian Academy of the Arts effective 31 December.
22 September 1933 German Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels creates the Reichskulturkammer to oversee all areas of culture in the Third Reich. Inner chambers will be for fine art, theatre, literature, press, radio, film, and music.
25 September 1933 James Thurber dates the preface to his autobiography My Life and Hard Times.
26 September 1933 Three songs by Charles Ives (58) are performed for the first time, at the studio of Doris Barr in San Francisco: General William Booth Enters Into Heaven to words of Lindsay, Swimmers to words of Untermeyer, and Hymn to words of Wesley after Tersteegen.
27 September 1933 Edgard Varèse (49) and his wife Louise arrive in New York and decide to live there once again.
28 September 1933 In Germany, government officials are barred from hiring non-Aryans.
29 September 1933 Incidental music to Romains’ play M. Le Trouhadec saisi par la débauche by Francis Poulenc (34) is performed for the first time, in Paris.
30 September 1933 Six Casual Developments for clarinet and piano by Henry Cowell (36) is performed for the first time, in Saratoga Springs, New York.
1 October 1933 Concerto for string sextet by Roy Harris (35) is performed for the first time, at the Yaddo Estate, Saratoga Springs, New York. Also premiered is Charles Ives’ (58) song Where the eagle cannot see to words of Turnbull. The pianist in the Ives is Aaron Copland (32).
2 October 1933 Let ‘em Eat Cake, an operetta with a book by Kaufman and Ryskind, lyrics by Ira Gershwin, and music by George Gershwin (35) is performed for the first time, in Boston. See 21 October 1933.
3 October 1933 Universal Edition suspends its publishing contract with Kurt Weill (33).
Cuban army units defeat a coup by US backed rebels from the National Hotel in Havana. 119 people are killed.
Idyll: Once I Passed Through a Populous City, for soprano, baritone, and orchestra by Frederick Delius (71) to words of Whitman, is performed for the first time, in Queen’s Hall, London.
Red Autumn for two pianos by Arnold Bax (49) is performed for the first time, in the College of Nursing Hall, London.
4 October 1933 The National Press Law goes into effect in Germany. All political newspapers are placed under state control. Jews are barred from the mass media.
The Czechoslovak government abolishes the German National Socialist Party and the German Nationalist Party.
6 October 1933 Violin Concerto no.2 by Karol Szymanowski (51) is performed for the first time, in Warsaw.
7 October 1933 Albert Einstein departs Europe to take up a position at Princeton University.
Five French airlines merge to form Air France.
8 October 1933 Edward Elgar (76) undergoes exploratory surgery at South Bank Nursing Home. It reveals that cancer has spread throughout his body.
9 October 1933 Diego Martínez Barrio replaces Alejandro Lerroux y García as Prime Minister of Spain.
Kantate von der Vergänglichkeit des Irdischen for soprano, chorus, and piano by Ernst Krenek (33) to words of various 17th century authors, is performed for the first time, in Zürich the composer at the keyboard.
10 October 1933 Two works by Heitor Villa-Lobos (46) are performed for the first time, in Rio de Janeiro, under the baton of the composer: Canção da saudade for chorus, and O contra-baixo for children’s chorus to words of Salema.
13 October 1933 Litany to the Virgin Mary for soprano, female chorus, and orchestra by Karol Szymanowski (51) to words of Liebert, is performed for the first time, in Warsaw.
Janitzio for orchestra by Silvestre Revueltas (33) is performed for the first time, in Teatro Hidalgo, Mexico City directed by the composer.
14 October 1933 Chancellor Adolf Hitler announces that Germany is withdrawing from the League of Nations and the Disarmament Conference.
Concerto Ballata for cello and orchestra by Alyeksandr Glazunov (68) is performed for the first time, in Paris the composer conducting.
15 October 1933 Piano Concerto no.1 op. 35 by Dmitri Shostakovich (27) is performed for the first time, in the Philarmonic Bolshoy Hall, Leningrad the composer at the keyboard.
17 October 1933 Albert Einstein arrives in the United States fleeing persecution by the Nazis.
George Gershwin (35) and DuBose Heyward sign a contract with Broadway’s Theatre Guild to compose Porgy and Bess.
21 October 1933 Konstantin Päts replaces Jaan Tönisson as Head of State of Estonia.
Germany formally withdraws from the League of Nations.
Saga Fragment for piano, trumpet, two percussionists, and strings by Arnold Bax (49) is performed for the first time, in Queen’s Hall, London.
Let ‘em Eat Cake, an operetta with a book by Kaufman and Ryskind, lyrics by Ira Gershwin and music by George Gershwin (35), is performed for the first time in New York, in the Imperial Theatre. The critics are not impressed. It will receive 90 performances. See 2 October 1933.
22 October 1933 Three Variations on a Theme (String Quartet no.2) by Roy Harris (35) is performed for the first time, in Orchestra Hall, Chicago.
Horn Pipe for orchestra by Henry Cowell (36) is performed for the first time, in Havana.
23 October 1933 New works by Hungary’s two leading composers are performed for the first time, in Budapest: Five Hungarian Folksongs, set for solo voice and orchestra by Béla Bartók (52), and Dances of Galánta for orchestra by Zoltán Kodály (50).
25 October 1933 Arnold Schoenberg (59) and his wife leave Europe aboard a ship from France heading for the United States.
26 October 1933 The German government takes over directorship of the Berlin Philharmonic making the musicians civil servants. Since Jews are barred from the civil service, this ends participation by Jewish musicians in the orchestra.
Albert Pierre Sarraut replaces Édouard Deladier as Prime Minister of France.
27 October 1933 Police battle with Arab protesters in Jaffa who oppose Jewish immigration to Palestine. Arabs also attack police stations in Haifa and Nablus. Over 20 people are killed and 130 injured.
31 October 1933 Having been suspended from his publishing contract with the German company Universal Edition, Kurt Weill (33) signs a new contract with Heugel in Paris.
Arnold Schoenberg (59) and his family arrive in the United States at the port of New York, never to return to Germany. His employment at the Prussian Academy is officially ended as of this date.
3 November 1933 La grande complainte de Fantômas by Kurt Weill (33) to words of Desnos is performed for the first time, over the airwaves of Radio Paris.
6 November 1933 Soviet Foreign Commissar Maxim Litvinov arrives in Washington to personally oversee negotiations with the United States over diplomatic recognition.
7 November 1933 String Quartet no.4 by Silvestre Revueltas (33) is performed for the first time, in Teatro Hidalgo, Mexico City.
8 November 1933 King Nadir Shah of Afghanistan is shot to death at a high school graduation ceremony in Kabul. He is succeeded by his son, Mohammed Zahir Shah.
11 November 1933 Arnold Schoenberg (59) is given a welcoming concert of his music in New York.
12 November 1933 In a national plebiscite, held conspicuously one day after Armistice Day, German voters (95.1%) confirm Hitler’s decision to withdraw the country from the League of Nations. In concurrent Reichstag elections, the only party on the ballot, the Nazis, win 92.2% of the vote.
13 November 1933 Grantchester, a song by Charles Ives (59) to words of Brooke, is performed for the first time, in New York.
String Quartet by Ruth Crawford Seeger (32) is performed for the first time, at the New School for Social Research in New York.
14 November 1933 Ion Gheorghe Duca replaces Alexandru Vaida-Voievod as Prime Minister of Romania.
15 November 1933 The Reichskulturkammer is inaugurated with ceremonies in Berlin. Richard Strauss (70), the President of the Reichsmusikkammer, a state music bureau within the Reichskulturkammer, conducts his Festliches Präludium for the event.
16 November 1933 The United States and the USSR establish diplomatic relations.
The world’s highest waterfalls are first sighted by American pilot Jimmie Angel on a branch of the Carrao River in Venezuela. They will be named for him.
23-year-old Soulima Stravinsky performs the solo part in his father’s Capriccio for piano and orchestra under the baton of the composer, in Barcelona. It is very successful and they go on a concert tour together.
17 November 1933 Concerto for piano, violin, cello, and orchestra by Alfredo Casella (50) is performed for the first time, in Berlin.
18 November 1933 A committee from the League of Nations visits Asuncion. They will speak with President Ayala and tour the Chaco area.
19 November 1933 Kurt Weill (33) and Universal Edition reach agreement over the termination of his publishing contract. They will retain the rights to works they have already published.
For the first time ever, Manuel de Falla (56) votes, in elections in Granada.
Frenetic Rhythms: Three Dances of Daemoniacal Possession op.16 by Wallingford Riegger (48) to a scenario by Graham is performed for the first time, in New York.
23 November 1933 Krzysztof Penderecki is born in Debica, Krakow District, Poland, the second of three children born to Tadeusz Penderecki, a lawyer, and Zofia Wittgenstein, daughter of a bank director.
L’annonce faite à Marie op.117 for vocal quartet and chamber ensemble by Darius Milhaud (41) to words of Claudel is performed for the first time, in Paris. See 21 January 1934.
26 November 1933 An anti-Semitic, pro-Nazi demonstration takes place in Paris at a performance which includes three songs from Der Silbersee by Kurt Weill (33). The demonstrations are led by Florent Schmitt (63) who cries out “Vive Hitler!”
27 November 1933 Camille Chautemps replaces Albert Pierre Sarraut as Prime Minister of France.
30 November 1933 Sea-Drift, a symphonic poem by John Alden Carpenter (57), is performed for the first time, in Orchestra Hall, Chicago.
1 December 1933 Hitler announces a new law establishing the unity of party and state.
The New World Quartet records the Andante movement from Ruth Crawford Seeger’s (32) String Quartet on a twelve-inch shellac disc at Capital Sound Studios, New York. It is among the first recordings of music by an American modernist, or an American woman.
3 December 1933 A major Paraguayan offensive begins. By mid-afternoon they have cut the road between Alihuata and Saavedra.
4 December 1933 Stefan George dies near Locarno, Switzerland at the age of 65.
The orchestration of the Sonatine française op.60/4 by Charles Koechlin (66) is performed for the first time, over the airwaves of Radio Coloniale.
5 December 1933 The 21st amendment to the United States Constitution, ending prohibition of alcoholic beverages, is ratified in the shortest time of any amendment ratification.
The committee from the League of Nations departs Asunción heading for La Paz, Bolivia by way of Formosa, Argentina.
6 December 1933 Henryk Mikolaj Jozef Górecki is born in Czernica, near Rybnik, Poland, the only child of Roman Górecki, a railway worker, and Otylia Slota, a pianist and stepdaughter of a restaurant and hotel owner.
7 December 1933 Paraguayan forces capture Pozo Negro, cutting off the Bolivian retreat.
8 December 1933 Incidental music to Achard’s play Petrus by Francis Poulenc (34) is performed for the first time, at the Comédie des Champs-Elysées, Paris.
10 December 1933 Saxophone Quartet op.109 by Alyeksandr Glazunov (68) is performed for the first time, at the Russian Conservatory, Paris.
Two new works by Henry Cowell (36) are performed for the first time, in New York: Four Continuations for String Orchestra, and Three Dances of Activity to a scenario by Delza.
11 December 1933 Surrounded without hope of relief, two Bolivian divisions surrender to Paraguayans at Campo Via near Alihuata. It is a disaster for Bolivia.
Two Two-Part Songs for chorus and piano by Benjamin Britten (20) to words of Wither and Graves are performed for the first time, at the Ballet Club (Mercury Theatre) in London. Also premiered are three movements from Britten’s Alla Quartetto Serioso “Go Play, Boy, Play” for string quartet.
13 December 1933 Benjamin Britten (20) passes the ARCM examination and leaves the Royal College of Music.
15 December 1933 William Grant Still’s (38) orchestral suite A Deserted Plantation is performed for the first time, at the Metropolitan Opera House, New York.
Sinfónia de Antígona by Carlos Chávez (34) is performed for the first time, in the Teatro Hidalgo, Mexico City the composer conducting.
16 December 1933 Alejandro Lerroux y García replaces Diego Martínez Barrio as Prime Minister of Spain.
19 December 1933 Paraguayan forces capture Muñoz, traditionally the Bolivian center of operations in the Chaco. An agreed on truce goes into effect at midnight. (Bolivia claims that Muñoz is taken on the morning of the 20th, after the truce begins)
20 December 1933 Midi op.15/2 for voice and orchestra by Charles Koechlin (66) to words of Leconte de Lisle is performed publicly for the first time, in Paris 33 years after it was composed. See 7 February 1906.
22 December 1933 Gustav Holst (59) is admitted to New Lodge Clinic, Windsor Forest for treatment and tests.
26 December 1933 Edwin Armstrong, an American electrical engineer, receives a US patent for wideband frequency modulation radio (FM). He invented it in the basement of Philosophy Hall of Columbia University.
27 December 1933 Les 12 coups de minuit, a radio mystery by Arthur Honegger (41) to words of Larronde, is performed for the first time, over the airwaves of Radio-Colonial originating in Paris.
29 December 1933 Members of the fascist Iron Guard murder Prime Minister Ion Gheorghe Duca of Romania. He is shot to death at the railroad station in Sinaia. Martial law is proclaimed, leaders of the Iron Guard are arrested. The murderers will be acquitted. Duca is replaced by Constantin Angelescu.
31 December 1933 In Mohall, Ireland an anti-jazz parade is held, complete with banners reading “Down with jazz and paganism.”
©2004-2011 Paul Scharfenberger
19 September 2011
Last Updated (Monday, 19 September 2011 08:49)