1838
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1 January 1838 A setting of Psalm 42 for solo voices, chorus, orchestra and organ by Felix Mendelssohn (28) is performed for the first time, in Leipzig.
3 January 1838 Representative John Quincy Adams introduces 100 petitions into the House advocating the abolition of slavery.
5 January 1838 US President Martin Van Buren declares neutrality in the current Canadian rebellion and warns citizens not to aid either side.
6 January 1838 Samuel FB Morse first demonstrates his telegraph, in Morristown, New Jersey.
9 January 1838 The Wiener Zeitschrift publishes a poem by Grillparzer inspired by a performance of Beethoven’s (†10) Appasionata Sonata by Clara Wieck (18).
13 January 1838 William Lyon Mackenzie, leader of the Canadian insurrection, is arrested in Buffalo and charged with violating the neutrality of the United States. He is released on bail.
14 January 1838 Early morning. Not long after a performance of Mozart’s (†46) Don Giovanni, the Salle Favart and all the assets of its resident company, the Théâtre-Italien, burn to the ground. The Italian director Carlo Severini dies when he jumps from the burning building.
15 January 1838 Navy Island in the Niagara River is reoccupied by loyal British troops.
Representative John Quincy Adams introduces 50 petitions into the House advocating the abolition of slavery.
28 January 1838 Representative John Quincy Adams introduces 31 petitions into the House advocating the abolition of slavery.
30 January 1838 Maria di Rudenz, a dramma tragico by Gaetano Donizetti (40) to words of Cammarano after Bourgeois, Cuvelier and de Mallian, is performed for the first time, in Teatro La Fenice, Venice. The audience reaction is so poor that the work receives only one more performance.
Seminole war chief Osceola dies in prison at Fort Moultrie, South Carolina. The post doctor removes his head to keep as a trophy.
4 February 1838 In today’s issue of Revue et Gazette Musicale, Heinrich Heine calls Frédéric Chopin (27) “a poet of sound.”
6 February 1838 Boers and their servants under Pieter Retief, about 100 in all, are captured and killed by Zulus with clubs at Kwa Matiwane Hill, Natal.
14 February 1838 Representative John Quincy Adams introduces 350 petitions into the House advocating the abolition of slavery.
15 February 1838 Felix Mendelssohn (29) conducts the first of four “historical concerts” featuring the music of JS Bach (†87), Handel (†78) and Gluck (†50).
16 February 1838 Frédéric Chopin (27) plays for the royal family in Paris. He is very well received.
17 February 1838 Zulus attack Boer settlements along the Tugela River, killing about 300 along with 200 servants.
19 February 1838 Der Bäbu, a komische Oper by Heinrich August Marschner (42) to words of Wohlbrück, is performed for the first time, in the Hannover Hoftheater. Despite the unheated opera house and freezing weather, the opera is a resounding success.
24 February 1838 Frédéric Chopin (27) plays before King Louis-Philippe in Paris, to great success. The monarch presents the pianist with a gift.
27 February 1838 Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel (32) performs as piano soloist in public for the first and only time, at a charity concert in Berlin. She plays her brother’s Piano Concerto in g minor.
1 March 1838 Symphony no.5 by Louis Spohr (53) is performed for the first time, in Vienna to raves from public and press.
3 March 1838 Frédéric Chopin (28), Charles-Valentin Alkan (24), Joseph Zimmermann and Adolphe Gutmann perform Alkan’s eight-hand arrangement of Beethoven’s (†10) Seventh Symphony, in Paris.
5 March 1838 Guido et Ginevra, ou La peste de Florence, an opéra by Fromental Halévy (38) to words of Scribe, is performed for the first time, at the Paris Opéra.
7 March 1838 Jenny Lind makes her debut in Stockholm in a performance of Carl Maria von Weber’s (†11) Der Freischütz.
8 March 1838 Le Figaro publishes criticisms of Fromental Halévy (38). They see conflict in his simultaneous roles as composer and casting director of the Opéra. He is charged with using the Opéra to promote his own music at the expense of others. They call for his resignation.
9 March 1838 Gustaf Nils Algernon Stierneld replaces Count Adolf Göran Mörner as Prime Minister for Foreign Affairs of Sweden.
12 March 1838 Representative John Quincy Adams introduces 96 petitions into the House advocating the abolition of slavery.
15 March 1838 Clara Wieck (18) is named Royal and Imperial Virtuosa by the Emperor of Austria in Vienna.
18 March 1838 Overture in D D.26 by Franz Schubert (†9) is performed publicly for the first time, in the Vienna Musikvereinsaal.
19 March 1838 Richard Wagner’s (24) Overture Rule Britannia is performed for the first time, probably in the Schwarzhäuptersaal, Riga, the composer conducting.
23 March 1838 Luigi Cherubini’s (77) second setting of the Requiem is performed for the first time, at the Paris Conservatoire.
24 March 1838 French ships blockade Buenos Aires to enforce indemnity claims and assist rebels in Uruguay.
25 March 1838 A review by Ernest Legouvé of a performance by Frédéric Chopin (28) in Rouen appears in the Revue et Gazette musicale, Paris. Referring to the contest a year ago he writes, “In future when the question is asked, ‘Who is the greatest pianist in Europe, Liszt (26) or Thalberg (26)?’, let the world reply ‘It is Chopin!’” See 31 March 1837.
27 March 1838 Following rebellion in Lower Canada the Legislative Assembly and Legislative Council of the province are dissolved by Great Britain. A Special Council is appointed to administer Lower Canada.
28 March 1838 Franz Liszt (26) plays the first of two concerts in Venice.
30 March 1838 Le perruquier de la régence, an opéra comique by Ambroise Thomas (26) to words of Planard and Dupont, is performed for the first time, at the Théâtre des Nouveautés, Paris.
31 March 1838 The first installment of The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens is published. It will run through 1 October of next year.
1 April 1838 Franz Liszt (26) plays the second of two concerts in Venice, in Teatro San Benedetto.
Deuxième Trio Concertant for violin, cello and piano by César Franck (15) is performed for the first time, in Salle Chantereine, Paris.
2 April 1838 The Serenade und Allegro giojoso op.43 for piano and orchestra by Felix Mendelssohn (29) is performed for the first time, in Leipzig, the composer at the keyboard. He wrote the work in two days, leaving out the last 15 measures of the piano part. Those he composed during the concert.
4 April 1838 Some excerpts from the unperformed opera Ruslan y Lyudmila by Mikahail Ivanovich Glinka (33) are performed for the first time, in St. Petersburg.
7 April 1838 On a very successful concert tour, Franz Liszt (26) leaves Venice for Vienna.
10 April 1838 Franz Liszt (26) arrives in Vienna.
12 April 1838 Franz Liszt (26) plays some of his music, and that of Czerny (47) at the home of piano maker Conrad Graf in Vienna. There to witness it are Friedrich and Clara Wieck (18) who are extremely, though not universally, impressed. Liszt writes to Marie d’Agoult, “She is a very simple person, entirely preoccupied with her art, but nobly and without childishness. She was flabbergasted when she heard me. Her compositions are truly most remarkable, especially for a woman. They have a hundred times more invention and real feeling than all the past and present fantasies of Thalberg (26)” (Williams, 101)
16 April 1838 Ships of the French navy blockade the port of Veracruz and other east coast ports, demanding reparations from the Mexican government for losses suffered during a riot in Mexico City ten years ago. The Mexicans refuse to pay.
Tsar Nikolay I orders his Kapellmeister, Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka (33), to go to Ukraine and recruit singers.
18 April 1838 Clara Wieck (18) plays Robert Schumann’s (27) Carnaval for Franz Liszt (26) in Vienna, as well as Liszt’s own Divertissement sur la cavatine de Pacini ‘I tuoi frequenti palpiti’. Clara notes that Liszt made motions as if he were playing along, and moved his body with the music.
Franz Liszt (26) appears in a Vienna concert to benefit victims of recent floods in Pest. He is an enormous success. “Recalled 15 to 18 times. A packed house. Universal amazement. Thalberg (26) hardly exists at the moment in the memory of the Viennese. Never have I had such a success.” (Williams, 102)
19 April 1838 Festgesang for chorus and piano by Felix Mendelssohn (29) is performed for the first time, in Schwaz.
22 April 1838 The Sirius arrives in New York City. It made the crossing from Europe in 18 days thus inaugurating transatlantic steamship service.
23 April 1838 The Great Western arrives in New York City one day behind its competitor Sirius. But it took two days less to complete the passage.
Clara Wieck (18) writes to Robert Schumann (27) about Franz Liszt (26), “He is an artist whom one must hear and see for oneself...He rates your work extraordinarily highly, far above Henselt (23), above everything he has come across recently. I played your Carnaval, which quite enchanted him. ‘What a mind!’ he said; ‘that is one of the greatest works I know.’ You can imagine my joy.” (Williams, 103)
25 April 1838 Frédéric Chopin (28) and George Sand are thrown together again at a reception at the home of Manuel Marliani, the Spanish consul in Paris.
26 April 1838 George Sand sends a note to Frédéric Chopin (28) in Paris: One adores you—George.
27 April 1838 In an article in the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik, Joseph Fischhof, writing anonymously, compares Clara Wieck (18) favorably with piano luminaries Sigismund Thalberg (26), Franz Liszt (26) and Adolf von Henselt (24).
Fire breaks out in Charleston, South Carolina and goes on to destroy a significant part of the city.
28 April 1838 Franz Liszt (26) and Sigismund Thalberg (26) dine together in Vienna with Thalberg’s adopted father, Prince Moritz Dietrichstein. The Prince says he is happy to have Castor and Pollux together in his house.
29 April 1838 After his third concert in Vienna, Franz Liszt (26) dines with Sigismund Thalberg (26) as guests of Prince Metternich.
30 April 1838 Souvenir of Vienna op.9 for piano by Clara Wieck (18) is performed for the first time, in Graz by the composer. It receives tumultuous applause.
Nicaragua secedes from the Central American Federation.
8 May 1838 The People’s Charter is published in London. Written by William Lovett, it includes six points of social and political reform. It will form the basis of “The Charter” in August.
At a dinner at the house of Astolphe, Marquis de Custine, Frédéric Chopin (28) and George Sand fall in love. Sand will remember, “...I was confused and amazed at the effect this little creature wrought on me. I have still not recovered from my astonishment, and if I were a proud person I should be feeling humiliated at having been carried away by my emotions...when I had thought that I had settled down for good.”
10 May 1838 Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka (33) sets out from St. Petersburg to Ukraine to recruit singers for the Imperial Choir.
John Elliotson demonstrates mesmerism on the person of a teenaged Irish girl named Elizabeth O’Key. in the surgical theatre of University College Hospital, London. It is the first time mesmerism is done before a broad audience. Among the viewers is Charles Dickens and Michael Faraday.
15 May 1838 Clara Wieck (18) returns from her triumphs in Vienna to Leipzig, where she finds that Robert Schumann (27) has entered another depressive phase.
17 May 1838 Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord, prince de Bénévent dies at his Paris home.
Franz Liszt (26) performs for the Empress of Austria at court in Vienna.
Angered by abolitionist meetings, a mob sets fire to Pennsylvania Hall, Philadelphia.
23 May 1838 United States authorities begin rounding up Cherokees in Georgia to be moved to Oklahoma.
25 May 1838 After a detour from his Italian sojourn for a month, Franz Liszt (26) gives the last of twelve highly successful performances in Vienna. He has heard that Marie d’Agoult is seriously ill awaiting him in Venice and he will soon join her.
27 May 1838 Franz Liszt (26) departs Vienna to return to Marie d’Agoult in Venice.
29 May 1838 John George Lambton, Earl of Durham arrives in Quebec as Governor-in-Chief of all British North America.
While traveling on the St. Lawrence River, the British vessel Sir Robert Peel is boarded by a party of US civilians. They put the passengers ashore and then set the ship alight in retaliation for the Caroline.
4 June 1838 The British Great Western Railway is opened from Paddington to Maidenhead.
Hector Berlioz (34) signs a document making him director of the Théatre-Italien and King Louis-Philippe legalizes it today. The whole scheme will be disapproved by the legislature.
8 June 1838 Clara Wieck (18) is able to escape unnoticed from her father’s house in Leipzig and meet Robert Schumann at his lodgings on his 28th birthday.
21 June 1838 Charles Wheatstone explains his invention, the stereoscope, to the Royal Society of London.
28 June 1838 Queen Victoria is crowned in Westminster Abbey. There will not be another British coronation in 64 years.
Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka (34) reports to St. Petersburg about his very successful trip to Ukraine to recruit choristers. 25 boys have already been found.
10 July 1838 In a letter to Dutch chemist Gerard Johann Mulder about Mulder’s discovery of a class of biological molecules, Swedish scientist Jöns Jakob Berzelius suggests they be called “proteins.”
31 July 1838 Business anxieties, Clara Wieck’s (18) departure for Dresden, her father’s refusal to assent to their union, and too much alcohol combine to cause an emotional collapse in Robert Schumann (28). He will recover.
The Irish Poor Relief Act receives Royal Assent from Queen Victoria. It extends the English poor laws to Ireland in an attempt to mitigate widespread poverty there.
2 August 1838 César Franck (15) wins the First Prize in piano at the Paris Conservatoire, unanimously.
6 August 1838 At a mass meeting of workingmen’s groups in Birmingham, “The Charter” is adopted as the centerpiece of a united, national labor movement. The Charter advocates universal male suffrage, secret ballot, payment of parliament members, abolition of property qualifications for MPs, constituencies based on equal population, and annually elected parliaments. Within two years, 500 chartist leaders will be imprisoned.
12 August 1838 Giuseppe Verdi’s (24) baby daughter Virginia dies in Busseto.
Scherzo for piano op.10 by Clara Wieck (18) is performed for the first time, by the composer in Leipzig.
14 August 1838 Queen Victoria gives Royal Assent to an act of Parliament creating a Public Records Office (National Archives)
A final music program is given by students at the Hawes Grammar School in South Boston. The experiment of music in the public schools by Lowell Mason (46) is judged a success.
16 August 1838 A group of teachers organized two years ago in Boston called the Musical Convention adopts three resolutions on the teaching of music, all directly from the ideas of Lowell Mason (46).
17 August 1838 Lorenzo da Ponte dies in New York at the age of 89.
23 August 1838 The first college for women in the United States, Mount Holyoke Female Seminary in South Hadley, Massachusetts, holds its first commencement.
25 August 1838 A Rondo-finale to Saverio Mercadantes opera I Briganti for soprano and orchestra by Otto Nicolai (28) is performed for the first time.
28 August 1838 Largely through the efforts of Lowell Mason (46), the Boston School Committee orders that music become a regular part of the curriculum. This decision will come to be known as the “Magna Carta of Music Education in the United States.” Mason is hired to teach and is authorized to hire whatever assistants and buy whatever materials he needs.
Most of the Cherokee Nation begins the Trail of Tears, their forced removal from Georgia to Oklahoma.
6 September 1838 Emperor Ferdinand of Austria is crowned King of Lombardy in Milan Cathedral. Among those attending is Franz Liszt (26).
Bernardino Fernández de Velasco Enríquez de Guzmán, duque de Frías replaces Narciso de Heredia y Begines de los Ríos, conde de Ofalia as Prime Minister of Spain.
8 September 1838 Giuseppe Verdi (24) and his wife arrive in Milan during the coronation festivities. He is there in an attempt to stage his opera Oberto.
10 September 1838 Benvenuto Cellini, an opéra semi-seria by Hector Berlioz (34) to words of de Wailly, de Barbier and de Vigny, is performed for the first time, at the Paris Opéra. Giacomo Meyerbeer (47) has come to Paris to see it. It is not a success, with many whistles heard.
13 September 1838 Friedrich Wilhelm replaces Friedrich Hermann Otto as Prince of Hohenzollern-Hechingen.
Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka (34), his travelling companions and a troop of boys for the Imperial Choir, return to St. Petersburg.
17 September 1838 Publication of Die Schule der Geläufigkeit op.229 by Carl Czerny (47) is announced in the Wiener Zeitung.
24 September 1838 Capitalists and politicians meet in Manchester to form the Anti-Corn Law League. Their intention is to remove tarrifs and expand markets.
26 September 1838 Gaetano Donizetti’s (40) opera seria Poliuto, already in production, is banned by the King of Naples because its subject is a saint. See 30 November 1848.
27 September 1838 Robert Schumann (28) departs Leipzig for Vienna, to explore the possibilities of moving there with Clara Wieck (19).
1 October 1838 Lord Auckland, Governor-General of India, fearful of Afghan overtures to Russia, announces his invasion of Afghanistan.
Friedrich Wieck tells his daughter Clara (19) that he will never consent to her marriage with Robert Schumann.
Conservatoire student César Franck (15) begins two courses in Paris in piano for amateurs, one for gentlemen, one for ladies.
3 October 1838 Robert Schumann (28) arrives in Vienna from Leipzig to explore the possibilities of moving there.
6 October 1838 The Dundee and Arbroath Railway is opened.
Troops intervene in Dewitt, Missouri where townspeople have besieged Mormons. Over the next three weeks, Mormons will rampage through Daviess and Caldwell Counties killing livestock and burning 150 homes.
9 October 1838 After criticism that he is too lenient towards rebels, Lord Durham resigns his post as Governor-in-Chief of Canada.
12 October 1838 When the US Congress takes no action on the matter, the government of Texas withdraws its request for annexation.
18 October 1838 George Sand, her two children and maid leave Paris for Mallorca. Few people know that she is gone and Chopin (28) tells only four close friends that he will soon join her.
21 October 1838 Gaetano Donizetti (40) arrives in Paris, moving into an apartment house wherein Adolphe Adam (35) lives.
23 October 1838 German astronomer Friedrich Bessel writes from Königsberg to Sir John Herschel, Bart. telling him that he has determined the distance from Earth to the star 61 Cygni using the parallax method. It is the first time the distance of a star other than the sun has been measured.
25 October 1838 Alexandre-César-Léopold Bizet is born in Paris, the only child of Adolphe Armand Bizet, singing teacher, and Aimée Marie Louise Léopoldine Joséphine Delsarte, amateur pianist and daughter of an inventor. This child will be baptized Georges on 16 March 1840 but the name does not appear on the birth certificate.
27 October 1838 Frédéric Chopin (28) departs Paris to meet George Sand in Perpignan. Their ultimate goal is Mallorca.
28 October 1838 Giuseppe Verdi (25) resigns as maestro di musica in Busseto.
In Vienna, Sigismond Thalberg (26) tells Robert Schumann (28), “there is nothing more to be done with the combination of piano and orchestra.”
31 October 1838 Frédéric Chopin (28) arrives in Perpignan where George Sand has been since yesterday. They will board ship for Barcelona.
1 November 1838 Frédéric Chopin (28), George Sand, her children and maid board ship in Vendres making for Barcelona.
5 November 1838 Honduras secedes from Central America.
7 November 1838 Frédéric Chopin (28), George Sand, her children and maid board ship in Barcelona making for Mallorca.
8 November 1838 Frédéric Chopin (28), George Sand, her two children and maid arrive in Palma, Mallorca where he intends to finish the Preludes op.28.
The Théâtre de la Renaissance opens in Paris. It is authorized to show plays with or without music. Its first production is the premiere of Ruy Blas by Victor Hugo.
9 November 1838 Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens is published in book form. It was serialized last year in Bentley’s Miscellany.
13 November 1838 A French admiral disembarks at Veracruz to deliver the French demand for 600,000 Mexican pesos in reparation for a French bakery which was damaged during a riot ten years ago in Mexico City.
15 November 1838 Richard Wagner (25) begins a series of subscription concerts in Riga.
27 November 1838 French troops bombard Fort San Uan de Ulna in Veracruz harbor in an attempt to gain compensation for French victims of civil disturbances in Mexico.
Cardinal Ostini, Archbishop of Iesi, issues the edict “against the abuse of theatrical music in churches.” It is based on recent conversations he has had with Gaspare Spontini (64).
28 November 1838 French forces take the fortress of San Juan de Ulúa, Veracruz.
30 November 1838 Great Britain declares a protectorate over Pitcairn Island.
France and Mexico trade declarations of war.
6 December 1838 Evaristo Pérez de Castro replaces Bernardino Fernández de Velasco, Duke of Frias as Prime Minister of Spain.
French forces attack out of San Juan de Ulúa into the town of Veracruz, devastating the Mexican troops and the town itself.
9 December 1838 Evaristo Pérez de Castro Brito replaces Bernardino Fernández de Velasco Enríquez de Guzmán, duque de Frías as Prime Minister of Spain.
12 December 1838 Off-duty American sailors in Canton attack an execution cross about to be put into use by local Chinese officials to kill a man accused of keeping an opium den. A riot ensues which continues a good part of the day until quelled by the arrival of police.
14 December 1838 In an issue of the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik dated today, Robert Schumann (28) writes glowingly of the soon to be published Impromptus D. 935 of Franz Schubert (†10).
15 December 1838 Frédéric Chopin (28), George Sand and her two children are forced to leave their lodgings in Palma. The proprietor has learned that doctors have diagnosed Chopin’s constant coughing as tuberculosis. The couple are not married either. They traverse the rocky road, with furniture, to Valldemosa some 16 km away.
16 December 1838 Boers withstand an attack by 10,000 Zulus on the Blood River, Natal, thus securing their position in the region.
Hector Berlioz (35) conducts an orchestral concert at the Conservatoire featuring music of Gluck (†51) and himself. Nicolò Paganini (56), frail and ill with throat cancer, is in the audience. It is the first time he hears Harold in Italy, which was composed originally for him. At the conclusion, Paganini comes on stage as Berlioz is about to leave it. His voice inaudible from the cancer, he whispers in the ear of his son Achille and then beckons him to stand on a chair. The young man proclaims, “My father says he is so moved and overwhelmed, he could go down on his knees to you.” Paganini takes Berlioz’ arm and brings him back to the platform, whereupon he kneels and kisses Berlioz’ hand.
18 December 1838 While Hector Berlioz (35) is bedridden with bronchitis, Achille Paganini, son of the violinist (56), enters his room, hands Berlioz a letter and leaves, saying that no response is required. Inside the envelope is a note which says “Beethoven being dead, only Berlioz could make him live again; and I, who have enjoyed your divine compositions, worthy of the genius that you are, beg you to accept as token of my homage 20,000 francs, which will be remitted to you by Baron Rothschild on your presenting the enclosed. Ever your affectionate friend Nicolò Paganini.”
Robert Schumann (28) once again suffers terrible bouts of depression, repeated 19 and 25 December.
21 December 1838 Frédéric Chopin (28), George Sand and her two children arrive in Valldemosa.
24 December 1838 The Ottoman Empire grants a constitution for Serbia but retains ultimate control.
The publication of Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka’s (34) Collection of Musical Pieces for 1839 is announced in Northern Bee.
©Paul Scharfenberger 2004-2012
9 July 2012
Last Updated (Monday, 09 July 2012 05:51)