MusicAndHistory.com

1 January 1831 William Lloyd Garrison begins publication of The Liberator in Boston.  It will become the leading abolitionist journal in the United States.

3 January 1831 The Polish Diet issues a manifesto demanding the reunion of all of ancient Poland.

5 January 1831 Hector Berlioz (27) reaches his home in La Côte-St.-André on his way to Rome.  It is the first time he has been there in two years, during which he won the Prix de Rome, participated in the July Revolution, saw the premiere of Symphonie fantastique, and almost got married.

9 January 1831 A new constitution is announced in Hesse-Kassel.  During the celebrations, Louis Spohr's (46) Jessonda is performed as is a play by Niemeyer.  In the play is a new hymn by Spohr: Hessens Feiergesang for chorus and winds to words of Wolf.

10 January 1831 King Willem of the Netherlands makes his arbitration of the border dispute between Great Britain and the United States between the St. Croix and St. Lawrence Rivers.  Essentially, he splits the difference.  It will be rejected by the United States.

17 January 1831 General Józef Chlopicki resigns as dictator of Poland.

20 January 1831 Austria, France, Great Britain, Prussia and Russia set the boundaries of the Netherlands and Belgium and agree to the perpetual neutrality of Belgium.

20 January 1831 Six months after receiving a patent for the first practical sewing machine, Barthélemy Thimonnier is assaulted in his Paris factory.  About 200 tailors, fearful of the competition, ransack the factory in the rue de Sèvres and destroy all the machines.  Thimonnier flees for his life.

21 January 1831 Giacomo Meyerbeer (39) is appointed a member of the Commission d’Enseignement du Conservatoire de Paris.

24 January 1831 Gaetano Donizetti’s (33) Cantata for the Wedding of Ferdinand of Austria is performed for the first time, in Milan.

25 January 1831 The Polish Diet declares independence from Russia and votes an act of deposition removing Tsar Nikolai of Russia as king of Poland.  All present sign the document.

30 January 1831 A Polish national government is created.  Adam Czartoryski is made president.

31 January 1831 Gaetano Donizetti (33) leaves Milan for Rome.  He will find the city in turmoil.

1 February 1831 Giacomo Meyerbeer (39) enters into a contract with the librettist Eugène Scribe to produce an opéra comque entitled Le Portefaix.  The composer will be unhappy with the libretto and back out.

2 February 1831 After almost two months of the papal enclave, Bartolomeo Alberto-Mauro-Cappelari is elected Pope Gregory XVI.  Among the crowd receiving his first blessing is a visiting German, Felix Mendelssohn, on the eve of his 22nd birthday.

3 February 1831 The Belgian Congress proclaims Louis-Charles-Philippe-Raphaël d'Orléans, duc de Nemours, son of King Louis-Philippe of France, to be king.  His father refuses the throne for his son.

Revolution breaks out in Modena, Parma and the Papal States.  Revolutionaries in the Duchy of Modena proclaim the Duke of Reichstadt (Napoléon’s only legitimate son) as king of Italy.  He is presently the prisoner of Metternich in Vienna.

4 February 1831 Gioachino Rossini (38) departs Paris for Spain in the company of the banker Alejandro Maria Aguado.

7 February 1831 A constitution is proclaimed for the Kingdom of Belgium.  It calls for a hereditary king, governing through ministers responsible to the legislature, a judiciary, freedom of religion, education and press.

9 February 1831 Duke Francesco having fled, citizens of Reggio and Modena set up provisional governments.

13 February 1831 Gioachino Rossini (38) conducts a production of Il barbiere di Siviglia before King Fernando and the Spanish court in Madrid.  He becomes the toast of the court.

15 February 1831 After being captured last month, former President Vicente Ramón Guerrero Saldaña of Mexico is shot at Oaxaca.

17 February 1831 The territory of Luxembourg is divided between the Grand Duchy and the Belgian province of Luxembourg.

18 February 1831 Reverend Adam Sedgwick, Woodwardian Professor of Geology at Cambridge University, addresses the Geological Society announces his break with the theory of one great flood.

22 February 1831 The provisional governments of Modena and Reggio are joined.

23 February 1831 Richard Wagner (17) matriculates at Leipzig University as a music student.

Polish and Russian forces clash at Grochów.  They will fight for three days, without strategic result.

24 February 1831 Paul Devaux replaces Charles Rogier as head of the provisional Belgian government.

25 February 1831 Erasme Louis, Baron Surlet de Chokier becomes regent and head of state for Belgium.

26 February 1831 Albert Joseph Goblet d’Alviella replaces Paul Devaux as head of government for Belgium.

27 February 1831 Étienne Constantin de Gerlache replaces Albert Joseph Goblet d’Alviella as head of government for Belgium.

28 February 1831 The Paris Opéra is privatized through a leasehold agreement with the entrepreneur Louis-Désiré Véron, who has no previous theatre experience.  But the director is watched over by a government-appointed Commission de Surveillance.

1 March 1831 A reform bill designed to reduce the electoral dominance of the landed aristocracy is introduced in the British House of Commons.

6 March 1831 La sonnambula, a melodramma by Vincenzo Bellini (29) to words of Romani after Scribe and Aumer, is performed for the first time, in Teatro Carcano, Milan, to great success.  A sojourning Russian named Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka (26) is in the audience.  “Shterich and I...embraced one another and shed a flood of tears from emotion and joy.”

8 March 1831 Hector Berlioz (27) arrives at the Villa Medici in Rome.

9 March 1831 With the help of Austrian soldiers, Duke Francesco IV d’Este reasserts his power in Reggio and Modena, thus bringing to an end the one-month-old provisional government.

One day after his arrival in Rome, Hector Berlioz (27) meets Felix Mendelssohn (22).  The two will spend a lot of time in each other’s company over the next few weeks.

Nicolò Paganini (48) performs in Paris for the first time, at the Opéra to wild enthusiasm.  Present are Luigi Cherubini (70), Friedrich Kalkbrenner (45), Giacomo Meyerbeer (39), Fromental Halévy (31), Adolphe Adam, Heinrich Heine, George Sand and Victor Hugo, in short, most of artistic Paris.

10 March 1831 Albert Joseph Goblet d’Alviella replaces Étienne Constantin de Gerlache as head of government for Belgium.

13 March 1831 Casimir Pierre Périer replaces Jacques Lafitte as Prime Minister of France.

16 March 1831 Notre-Dame de Paris (The Hunchback of Notre Dame) by Victor Hugo is published in France.

18 March 1831 Der Bayerische Schützen-Marsch, a cantata for four singers and brass by Giacomo Meyerbeer (39) to words of King Ludwig I of Bavaria, is performed for the first time, in Munich.

21 March 1831 Giacomo Meyerbeer (39) hosts a dinner in Paris for Nicolò Paganini (48).  Among the guests are Luigi Cherubini (70), François-Adrien Boieldieu (55), Daniel-François-Esprit Auber (49), and Gioachino Rossini (39).

22 March 1831 A new French law makes National Guard service mandatory for all French men from age 20-60.

Johann Nepomuk Hummel (52) departs Weimar for a second tour to England.

23 March 1831 Étienne Noël Joseph, chevalier de Sauvage replaces Albert Joseph Goblet d’Alviella as head of government for Belgium.

25 March 1831 Austrian troops defeat liberal revolutionaries from Modena and Bologna at Rimini thus effectively ending the United Italian Provinces of northern Italy.

27 March 1831 Samuel Sebastian Wesley (20) resigns his position as organist at St. John, Waterloo Road, London.

29 March 1831 Exeter Hall is opened in London as a meeting place for various societies.

1 April 1831 Polish forces defeat Russians and capture Minsk Mazowiecki, 38 km east of Warsaw, sending the Russians into retreat.

Worried about the lack of correspondence from his fiancee, Hector Berlioz (27) leaves Rome making for Paris and jeopardizing his Prix de Rome grant.

7 April 1831 Emperor Pedro I of Brazil abdicates in favor of his son, Pedro II so that he might return to Portugal to help his daughter, Queen Maria II, to keep the throne.

10 April 1831 Felix Mendelssohn (23) departs Rome for a two-month visit to Naples.

12 April 1831 While vacillating in Florence on whether to return to Paris, Hector Berlioz (27) happens to attend the funeral of Napoleon-Louis, nephew of the emperor, who has died in the Italian cause against the Austrians at Forlì.

14 April 1831 In Florence, Hector Berlioz (27) receives a letter from Mme Moke, stating that her daughter, his fiancee Camille Moke, is going to marry someone else.  She suggests that he not kill himself.  He concocts a plan to arrive at their house disguised and kill both of them.  He leaves for Paris tonight.

15 April 1831 John Field (48) leaves his home in Moscow for a concert tour of Europe.

17 April 1831 At Genoa, on his desperate trip back to Paris from Florence, Hector Berlioz (27), weak from not eating and lovesick despair, falls Ophelia-like, off the ramparts into the ocean.  After almost drowning he is fished out and spends a long time lying on the beach vomiting water.

18 April 1831 The following announcement appears in a Berlin newspaper:  In December of last year there was spread about a rumor of the death of John Field (48) which was without foundation.  The great piano-forte virtuoso still lives, and if he can overcome his depression and apathy...the rest of Europe may not be obliged to renounce the happiness of hearing...this extraordinary pianist.

On his furious charge back to Paris to kill his fiancee and her mother, Hector Berlioz (27) reaches Nice.  He will stay there a month and later remember these as the happiest days of his life.

19 April 1831 A new French law increases suffrage, but only slightly.

20 April 1831 Wilhelm replaces Karl II as Duke of Brunswick.

24 April 1831 Johann Nepomuk Hummel (52) arrives in London for concertizing.

26 April 1831 Johann Nepomuk Hummel (52) performs before the royal family at St. James’ Court.

27 April 1831 A Polish force sent to raise support from the populace of southeast Poland, after meeting with general apathy, crosses the border and is interned in Austria.

King Carlo Felice of Sardinia dies in Turin and is succeeded by Carlo Alberto, son of Prince Charles of Savoy-Carignan.

3 May 1831 Zampa, ou La fiancée de marbre, an opéra comique by Ferdinand Hérold (40) to words of Mélesville, is performed for the first time, at the Théâtre de Ventadour, Paris.

11 May 1831 Robert Schumann (20) mentions for the first time a condition that may be syphillis.

Johann Nepomuk Hummel (52) gives his first public concert on this tour to London, in the concert room of the King’s Theatre, Haymarket.  Attendance is lower than usual owing to the ongoing election campaign.

14 May 1831 Carlo Verdi applies to the Monte di Pietà e d’Abbondanza in Bussetto for one of their grants given to poor children with talent, for his son.  On the same day, Giuseppe Verdi (17) moves into the home of his benefactor, Antonio Barezzi, in Busseto, 30 km northwest of Parma.  See 14 January 1832.

Nicolò Paganini (48) arrives in London for the first time.

15 May 1831 Messa di San Alessandro by Simon Mayr (67) is performed for the first time, in Bergamo for the entry of Bishop Gritti-Morlacchi.

18 May 1831 The Salon of 1831 opens in Paris.  Among the works shown for the first time is Liberty Leading the People of Eugène Delacroix.

19 May 1831 After having spent a month in Nice, which was as far as he got in his attempt to return to Paris to murder his former fiancee and her mother, and during which he composed his King Lear Overture, Hector Berlioz (27) begins his return journey to Rome.

26 May 1831 Russian forces defeat the Polish defenders of Ostroleka, 100 km north of Warsaw, forcing them to retreat towards the capital.  The day sees 12,000 total casualties.

30 May 1831 Francesca di Foix, a melodramma by Gaetano Donizetti (33) to words of Gilardoni after Favart and Saint-Amans, is performed for the first time, in Teatro San Carlo, Naples.

31 May 1831 Lt. James Clark Ross, RN reaches the North Magnetic Pole on the Boothia Peninsula (Nunavut).

1 June 1831 Over a month of voting in the British general election concludes.  The Whig government of Earl Grey obtains a large majority.  It is a mandate for electoral reform.

2 June 1831 Hector Berlioz (27) arrives in Rome in the company of a group of monks traveling there for the Feast of Corpus Christi.

3 June 1831 Nicolò Paganini (48) opens in London after a campaign led by The Times to brand him a miser.

4 June 1831 Leopold Georg Christian Friedrich, Prinz von Sachsen-Coburg und Gotha is proclaimed King of Belgium.

8 June 1831 Robert Schumann, writing in his diary on his 21st birthday, mentions one of his alter-egos, Florestan, for the first time.

10 June 1831 Field Marshal Baron Ivan von Diebitsch, commander of Russian forces in Poland, dies of cholera, temporarily halting the Russian advance.

11 June 1831 Fryderyk Chopin (21) plays at the Kärntnertortheater, his last performance in Vienna.

15 June 1831 Le philtre, an opéra by Daniel-François-Esprit Auber (49) to words of Scribe, is performed for the first time, at the Paris Opéra.

Lyman Beecher and Lowell Mason (39) participate together in the dedication of the new Bowdoin Street Church in Boston.

18 June 1831 Felix Mendelssohn (22) departs Rome after a visit of almost eight months.

Gaetano Donizetti’s (33) opera buffa La romanziera e l’uomo nero to words of Gilardoni is performed for the first time, in Teatro del Fondo, Naples.

25 June 1831 Field Marshal IF Paskevich takes up command of Russian forces in Poland.

26 June 1831 Eighteen articles signed by representatives of Austria, Great Britain, France, Prussia, and Russia in London recognize the independence of Belgium and its neutrality.  The Netherlands does not recognize this treaty.

27 June 1831 Grand Duke Konstantin, brother of Tsar Nikolai I and Viceroy of Poland, dies of cholera in Vitebsk (Vitsyebsk, Belarus).

Otto Nicolai (21) sings the part of Jesus in a Berlin production of the St. Matthew Passion of Johann Sebastian Bach (†80).

29 June 1831 Johann Nepomuk Hummel (52) and Nicolò Paganini (48) give a joint concert before King William, the Queen and nobility at St. James’ Palace.  Paganini’s presence in London has been overshadowing Hummel’s efforts on his current visit to the city.  The two have met before, having shared a stage in Weimar in 1829.

The first meeting of the British and Foreign Temperance Society takes place in London.

1 July 1831 Robert Schumann (21), writing in his diary, mentions his other alter-ego and twin to Florestan, Eusebius, for the first time.

José António de Oliveira Leite de Barros, conde de Basto replaces Nuno Caetano Alvares Pereira de Melo, duque de Cadaval as Prime Minister of Portugal.

Dr. Samuel Guthrie is the first person to create chlorophorm, in his private chemistry laboratory in Sackett’s Harbor, New York.  Within a year, it will be developed independently by the Frenchman Eugène Soubeiran and the German Justus von Leibig.  None of them consider it an anesthetic.

The Geburtstagkantate Eilt herbei, des Hauses Glieder for chorus and piano by Otto Nicolai (21) to words possibly by Gneinzius, is performed for the first time for the birthday of Frau Landräthin Wilhelmine von Münchhausen.

4 July 1831 For Independence Day observances at the Park Street Church in Boston, an arrangement by Lowell Mason (39) is heard for the first time.  Not long ago, Mason loaned a collection of European tunes to a local minister, Samuel Francis Smith.  Smith chose one tune he liked and wrote a poem to it called “My Country ‘Tis of Thee.”  Mason’s arrangement of the tune is heard today.

5 July 1831 Johann Nepomuk Hummel (52) gives his first English concert outside of London, in Manchester.  A second performance follows on 7 July.

French legislative elections held today result in a victory for liberals.

12 July 1831 Robert Schumann (21) begins his studies in thoroughbass with Heinrich Dorn, conductor of the Leipzig Theatre.

17 July 1831 Johann Nepomuk Hummel (52) departs London for Germany with a gift from Queen Adelaide.

20 July 1831 Fryderyk Chopin (21), seeing no future in Vienna, leaves for Munich.  His real goal is Paris, but the Russian ambassador will not grant him a passport for Paris so he gets one for London, knowing that this will take him through Paris.

21 July 1831 Leopold Georg Christian Friedrich, Prinz von Sachsen-Coburg und Gotha takes the throne as Leopold I, the first King of Belgium.

The British-held areas of Demerara-Essequibo and Berbice are joined together to form British Guiana.

25 July 1831 03:50  Maria Agata (Wolowska) Szymanowska dies of cholera in St. Petersburg, aged 41 years, seven months and eleven days.

27 July 1831 Hymne aux morts de juillet by Ferdinand Hérold (40) to words of Hugo is performed for the first time, at the Pantheon, Paris to mark the first anniversary of the Revolution of 1830.

28 July 1831 On the first anniversary of the July Revolution, Hector Berlioz (27) writes to Charles Duveyrier from Rome that he is devoted to the social reform program of the comte de Saint-Simon.  The letter will be intercepted by the agents of Prince von Metternich.

1 August 1831 London Bridge, designed by George and John Rennie, is opened by King William IV.

2 August 1831 Dutch troops invade Belgium to impose a peace settlement.

3 August 1831 Charles Marie de Brouckère replaces Étienne Noël Joseph, chevalier de Sauvage as head of government for Belgium.

5 August 1831 Sébastien Erard dies near Passy, France at the age of 79.

14 August 1831 Robert Schumann (21) plays through the first movement of a piano concerto in F major for friends in Leipzig.  They are very supportive, but he will never finish the work.  “This seems to me like the first thing written in my style that inclines toward the romantic.”

15 August 1831 Riots between various Polish factions takes place in Warsaw.

17 August 1831 Jan, Count Krukowiecki is made dictator of Poland.

18 August 1831 Prince von Metternich tells the Austrian ambassador in Rome to beware of Hector Berlioz (27), this “young follower of the Saint-Simonian doctrine.”  He further orders that Berlioz is not to be allowed in Austrian territory and that the Vatican should be warned.

20 August 1831 Feeling neglected by his teacher Friedrich Wieck, Robert Schumann (21) writes to Johann Nepomuk Hummel (52) asking to be his pupil.  Nothing will come of it.

French forces enter Belgium to counter the Dutch who are forced to withdraw.

Nicolò Paganini (48) gives the last of 14 concerts in England over the last three months, most of them in London.

Slaves in Southampton County, Virginia begin a revolt led by Nat Turner.

22 August 1831 The Nat Turner slave revolt ends.  About 60 Whites and 100 rebellious Blacks are killed in the uprising.  A further 100 Blacks not involved in the revolt are killed by Whites as revenge.

28 August 1831 Fryderyk Chopin (21) performs a morning concert in Munich.

29 August 1831 Nicolò Paganini (48) arrives in Dublin for a concert tour of Ireland.  He will give 23 concerts in six weeks.

At the Royal Institution of Great Britain in London, Michael Faraday creates the first electrical transformer and discovers electromagnetic induction.

4 September 1831 A year after its promise, King Anton I of Saxony grants a liberal constitution.

6 September 1831 Russian troops storm the Warsaw suburb of Praga and then to the city itself.

7 September 1831 Bonaventura Niemojewski replaces Jan, Count Krukowiecki as dictator of Poland.

8 September 1831 After two days of resistance costing thousands of lives, Warsaw surrenders to Russian forces.

As he arrives in Stuttgart on his way to Paris, Fryderyk Chopin (21) hears news of the fall of Warsaw.

10 September 1831 Around this date, Frédéric Chopin arrives in Paris after a two-week trip from Stuttgart.

15 September 1831 When news of the fall of Warsaw reaches Paris, large crowds march on the Russian embassy, smashing windows.  Riots over the next few days will kill five people.  152 will be injured.

18 September 1831 The Polish Diet meets for the last time, in Warsaw.  It votes to be free to reconvene anywhere 33 members come together.

21 September 1831 A fight between Black and White sailors in Providence, Rhode Island erupts into a race riot.

23 September 1831 Rhode Island militia end the racial violence in Providence by firing on the rioters.  Several people are killed.

26 September 1831 The Conference of London grants to Greece a northern border going from Arta to Volos.

27 September 1831 The first passenger railroad in Scotland opens between Glasgow and Garnkirk.

The British Association for the Advancement of Science is founded in York.

28 September 1831 The Anti-Masonic Party concludes the first national nominating convention in the United States, in Baltimore.  They nominate William Wirt for President in next year’s election.

1 October 1831 Hector Berlioz (27) and two colleagues arrive in Naples where he immediately visits the tomb of Virgil.

Clara Wieck (12) plays for Goethe at his home in Weimar.  He provides a cushion for her since the piano bench is too low.  She performs two works by Henri Herz (28), La Violetta and Bravura Variations op.20.  Goethe complements her warmly and invites her back.

4 October 1831 The last remnants of the Polish army cross into Prussia.

8 October 1831 The British House of Lords rejects the Reform Bill, in direct opposition to the Commons.  Riots, looting and burning break out through the country, especially in the midlands.

9 October 1831 Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka (27) and Nikolai Kuzmich Ivanov depart Milan for Turin on their tour of Italy.

The Head of State of Greece, Ioannis Antoniou Kapodistrias, is murdered outside a church in Nafplion by a rival Greek faction.  He is replaced by Avgoustinos Kapodistrias at the head of a triumvirate.  With the death of Kapodistrias, the Conference of London rescinds the border of 26 September.

Clara Wieck (12) plays for Goethe at his home for a second time.  He presents her with a medallion of himself with a handwritten note on the box:  To the artistically highly gifted Clara Wieck.  In kindly remembrance of 9 October 1831.  Weimar.  J.W. Goethe.

14 October 1831 A new peace treaty in Belgium is agreed to in London.

17 October 1831 Karl replaces Anton as Prince of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen.

At a concert made up entirely of his music, the Piano Concerto in g minor by Felix Mendelssohn (22) is performed for the first time, in Munich before King Ludwig I of Bavaria, the composer at the keyboard.  The premiere has been postponed to this date until after the musicians are done with their work during the Oktoberfest.  Afterward, the king proposes Mozart's (†31) Non piu andrai for the young pianist to improvise.

29 October 1831 In the worst riots against the aristocracy, the center of Bristol is sacked by angry mobs.

31 October 1831 Francis Place creates the National Political Union to organize those fighting for electoral reform in Britain.

La marquise de Brinvilliers, a drame lyrique by Luigi Cherubini (71), Adrien Boieldieu (55), Daniel-François-Esprit Auber (49), Ferdinand Hérold (40) Henri-Montan Berton, Ferdinando Paer, Désiré-Alexandre Batton, Felice Blangini, and Michele Carafa, to words of Scribe and Castil-Blaze, is performed for the first time, at Théâtre Ventadour, Paris.

1 November 1831 Tsar Nikolai I issues an amnesty for Polish enlisted men, to be extended to officers, causing about 40,000 soldiers to return from Prussia and Austria to Poland.  A total of 10,000 emigrate to France.

Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka (26) and his friend Nikolai Kuzmich Ivanov arrive in Naples.

6 November 1831 Johann Nepomuk Hummel (52) is made an honorary member of the Maatschappy van Verdiensten of Amsterdam.

11 November 1831 Nat Turner and three other leaders of the recent slave revolt in Virginia are hanged.

12 November 1831 Félix Armand de Mûelenaere replaces Charles Marie de Brouckère as head of government for Belgium.

14 November 1831 Ignace Joseph Pleyel dies in Paris, aged 74 years, four months and 27 days.

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel dies in Berlin at the age of 61.

15 November 1831 An agreement signed in London between Austria, France, Great Britain, Prussia, Russia and Belgium recognizes the independence and neutrality of Belgium and its king.  The treaty is not recognized by the Netherlands.

17 November 1831 Venezuela, Ecuador and New Granada officially dissolve the Union of New Granada.

19 November 1831 The British medical journal The Lancet publishes a description of the current cholera epidemic as it moves from Asia across Europe.  They include a map so readers may monitor its progress.

21 November 1831 Samuel Sebastian Wesley (21) is appointed evening organist at Hampton Parish Church, Middlesex.

Silk weavers in Lyon march on the Grand Côte of Lyon to press their wage demands.  They are fired on by the National Guard and many are killed.  The insurrection spreads to other parts of the city but the weavers have no interest in taking over the government.

Robert le Diable, a grand opera by Giacomo Meyerbeer (40) to words of Scribe and Delavigne, is performed for the first time, at the Paris Opéra.  It enjoys enormous critical and popular success and secures the fame of the composer.  The work will be performed thousands of times over the next hundred years throughout the world.

24 November 1831 Michael Faraday reads the first part of his paper, Experimental Researches on Electricity to the Royal Society in London.  He describes his work over the last few months in which he created the first electrical transformer, the first electric generator and discovered electromagnetic induction.  They are the basis of electromagnetic technology.

30 November 1831 The legislature of the State of Georgia offers $5,000 for the arrest and conviction of anti-slavery leader William Lloyd Garrison.

2 December 1831 By this date order is restored in Lyon.

5 December 1831 The Twenty-second Congress of the United States convenes in Washington.  Smaller parties make gains in the House of Representatives at the expense of the two larger parties, the Democrats and the National Republicans.  The two are almost evenly split in the Senate.

6 December 1831 US charge d’affaires in Buenos Aires George Slacum gives an ultimatum to the Argentine government that they release the US merchant ship Harriet, taken in the waters off the Falkland Is., and make compensation for damages within three days or the USS Lexington will proceed to the islands to force compliance.

7 December 1831 Robert Schumann’s (21) review of Frédéric Chopin’s (21) Variations on La ci darem op.2 appears in the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung.  Florestan and Eusebius declare, “Hats off gentleman, a genius!”

8 December 1831 The committee overseeing the Royal Academy of Music resolves that William Crotch (56) no longer be allowed to instruct the female students owing to his unsatisfactory tutelage.  In fact, he was found rewarding one of the girls for her excellent work in harmony with a kiss.

9 December 1831 Felix Mendelssohn (22) arrives in Paris from Düsseldorf.

10 December 1831 The threat to Argentina of four days ago having gone unheeded, the USS Lexington proceeds from Buenos Aires to the Falklands to make good on it.

12 December 1831 Frédéric Chopin (21) writes from Paris about a conversation he has had with Frédéric Kalkbrenner (46), “After studying me closely, he advised me to study with him for three years, and he will make of me someone really--really...”  He also writes that he has seen Robert le Diable and was overwhelmed.

A third Reform Bill, designed to reduce the power of the aristocracy, is introduced in the British House of Commons.

14 December 1831 Carlo Verdi petitions Duchess Maria Luisa of Parma for support in his quest for a grant from the Monte de Pietà e d’Abbondanza in Busseto for his talented son, Giuseppe (18).

15 December 1831 Dr. William Crotch (56) announces his intention to resign his post as principal and professor of harmony at the Royal Academy of Music.

19 December 1831 Heinrich August Marschner (36) moves from Leipzig to Hannover to take up a position as Musikdirektor.

23 December 1831 A major outbreak of cholera begins in Scotland.

25 December 1831 Concert Overture no.1 in d WWV 20 by Richard Wagner (18) is performed for the first time, in the Royal Saxon Hoftheater, Leipzig.

26 December 1831 Vincenzo Bellini’s (30) tragedia lirica Norma to words of Romani after Soumet is performed for the first time, in Teatro alla Scala, Milan.  Tonight’s production is a not well received, but later performances are most successful.

27 December 1831 HMS Beagle sails from England on a surveying expedition, heading for South America and the Galapagos Islands.  Aboard is a 22-year-old naturalist named Charles Darwin.

28 December 1831 As threatened earlier in the month, USS Lexington under Commander Silas Duncan, reaches the Falklands.  He loots the settlements and disarms and carries off some of the inhabitants, including an aide to the governor.

29 December 1831 Hereditary peerages are abolished in France, leaving only life peerages.  This gives greater control by the King over the Chamber of Peers.

31 December 1831 Friedrich August Koch, Baron Gise replaces Georg Friedrich, Baron Zentner as President of the Council of Ministers of Bavaria.

©2004-2012 Paul Scharfenberger

9 July 2012