1911 in music

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This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1911.

Events

• January 26 - Première of the opera Der Rosenkavalier by Richard Strauss, in Dresden; the librettist is Hugo von Hofmannsthal and the director is Max Reinhardt.
• February 21 - Gustav Mahler, who had contracted bacterial endocarditis and is running a fever of 104 degrees, conducts his last concert, with the New York Philharmonic, of which he had been principal conductor since 1909.
• April 8 - Gustav Mahler embarks from New York to France; he enters a clinic in Paris, where he dies just over a month later.
• May 19 - Maurice Ravel's opera, L'heure espagnole, is premiered at the Opéra-Comique, in a double bill with Jules Massenet's 1907 opera Thérèse.
• May 24 - Edward Elgar conducts the premiere of his Symphony No. 2 in London.
• June 15 - Igor Stravinsky's ballet Petrushka is premiered in Paris; the lead dancer is Vaslav Nijinsky.
• June 29 - Bernard Herrmann born in New York.
• July - Frank Bridge completes his orchestral suite The Sea, while staying at Eastbourne.
• November 20 - Gustav Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde is premièred in Munich, after the composer's death, with his friend and former assistant Bruno Walter conducting at the request of Alma Mahler.
• date unknown
  • Aino Ackté and other prominent opera singers found the Domestic Opera in Finland.
  • "Elsässisches Fahnenlied" is adopted as the anthem of the Republic of Alsace-Lorraine.
  • 16-year-old Carl Orff publishes his first compositions.
  • The Society of Women Musicians is co-founded by Marion Scott and others.
  • Gustav Holst wrote the Second Suite in F for concert band.

Published popular music

• "After That I Want A Little More" w. Alfred Bryan m. Fred Fisher
• "After The Honeymoon" w.m. Irving Berlin
• "Alexander's Ragtime Band" w.m. Irving Berlin
• "All Alone" w. William Dillon m. Harry Von Tilzer
• "Any Old Iron" w.m. Charles Collins & Terry Sheppard
• "Archibald, Certainly Not" w.m. Alfred Glover & John St John
• "Baby Rose" by Louis Weslyn
• "Billy" w. Joe Goodwin m. James Kendis & Herman Paley
• "Bring Back My Lovin' Man" w.m. Irving Berlin
• "Can't You Take It Back And Change It For A Boy?" w.m. Thurland Chattaway
• "Core 'ngrato" w. Riccardo Cordiferro, m. Salvatore Cardillo
• "Daly's Reel" m. Joseph M. Daly
• "Down Home Rag" m. Wilbur Sweatman
• "Down The Field" w. Caleb O'Connor m. Stanleigh P. Friedman
• "El Choclo" w. Francice Luban m. Angel G. Villoldo
• "Everybody's Doing it Now" w.m. Irving Berlin
• "The Fire Bird" m. Igor Stravinsky
• "Floral Dance" w.m. Katie Moss
• "The Gaby Glide" w. Harry Pilcer m. Louis Hirsch
• "Hello! Susie Green" w. Lester Barrett m. Herman Darewski
• "Honey Love" w. Jack Drislane m. George W. Meyer
• "Honeysuckle Rag" m. George Botsford
• "I Want A Girl (Just Like The Girl That Married Dear Old Dad)" w. William Dillon m. Harry Von Tilzer
• "I Want To Be In Dixie" (also known as ""I'm Going Back To Dixie") w.m. Irving Berlin & Ted Snyder
• "If Every Hour Were A Day" w. Anna Driver m. Alfred Bryan
• "In The Land Of Harmony" w. Bert Kalmar m. Ted Snyder
• "It's A Long Lane That Has No Turning" w. Arthur Penn m. Manuel Klein
• "Jimmy Valentine" w. Edward Madden m. Gus Edwards
• "The Little Grey Home In The West" w. D. Eardley-Wilmot m. Hermann Löhr
• "Love Is Mine" w. Edward Teschemacher m. Clarence G. Gartner
• "Make Me Love You Like I Never Loved Before" w. Alfred Bryan m. Fred Fisher
• "Mary O'Hoolihan" Berlin
• "(On) Moonlight Bay" w. Edward Madden m. Percy Wenrich
• "Movin' Man Don't Take My Baby Grand" w. Bert Kalmar m. Ted Snyder
• "My Beautiful Lady (Kiss Waltz)" w. C. M. S. McLellan m. Ivan Caryll
• "My Hula Hula Love" w. Edward Madden m. Percy Wenrich
• "My Rosary Of Dreams" w.m. E. F. Dusenberg & C. M. Denison

Cover of sheet music for Naughty, Naughty, Naughty

• "Naughty, Naughty, Naughty" w. Harry Williams m. Egbert Van Alstyne
• "The Oceana Roll" w. Roger Lewis m. Lucien Denni
• "Oh Baby Mine" w.m. Cecille Boucher
• "Oh, You Beautiful Doll" w. A. Seymour Brown m. Nat D. Ayer
• "One O'Clock In The Morning I Get Lonesome" w.m. Irving Berlin
• "Ragtime Violin!" w.m. Irving Berlin
• "Red Rose Rag" w. Edward Madden m. Percy Wenrich
• "A Ring On The Finger Is Worth Two On The Phone" w. Jack Mahoney m. George W. Meyer
• "Roamin' In The Gloamin'" w.m. Harry Lauder
• "Run Home And Tell Your Mother" w.m. Irving Berlin
• "Sarnia Cherie" (anthem of Guernsey) w. George Deighton, m. Domenico Santangelo
• "Somewhere A Voice Is Calling" w. Eileen Newton m. Arthur F. Tate
• "The Spaniard That Blighted My Life" w.m. Billy Merson
• "Spanish Love" Irving Berlin, Vincent Bryan, Ted Snyder
• "Texas Tommy Swing" Sid Brown & Val Harris
• "That Baboon Baby Dance" w. Dave Oppenheim m. Joe Cooper
• "That Hypnotizing Man" w. Lew Brown m. Albert Von Tilzer
• "That Mysterious Rag" w.m. Irving Berlin, Ted Snyder
• "That Was Before I Met You" w. Alfred Bryan m. George W. Meyer
• "There's A Girl In Havana" Irving Berlin, E. Ray Goetz, A. Baldwin Sloane
• "They Always Pick On Me" by Harry Von Tilzer and Stanley Murphy
• "Till The Sands Of The Desert Grow Cold" w. George Graff Jr m. Ernest R. Ball
• "To The Land Of My Own Romance" w. Harry B. Smith m. Victor Herbert
• "Too Much Mustard" m. Cecil Macklin
• "Virginia Lou" Irving Berlin, Earl Taylor
• "A Wee Deoch-an-Doris" w.m. Gerald Grafton & Harry Lauder
• "When I Was Twenty-One And You Were Sweet Sixteen" w. Harry Williams m. Egbert Van Alstyne
• "When I'm Alone I'm Lonesome" w.m. Irving Berlin & Ted Snyder
• "When It Rains, Sweetheart, When It Rains" w.m. Irving Berlin
• "When Ragtime Rosie Ragged The Rosary" w. Edgar Leslie m. Lewis F. Muir
• "When You Kiss An Italian Girl" w.m. Irving Berlin
• "When You're Away" w. A. Seymour Brown & Joe Young m. Bert Grant
• "When You're In Town" w.m. Irving Berlin
• "The Whistling Rag" w.m. Irving Berlin
• "Woodman, Woodman, Spare That Tree" w.m. Irving Berlin & Vincent Bryan
• "Yiddisha Nightingale" w.m. Irving Berlin
• "You've Got Me Hypnotized" w.m. Irving Berlin

Hit recordings

• "Any Little Girl, That's a Nice Little Girl, Is the Right Little Girl for Me" - Billy Murray
• "Turn Off Your Light, Mr. Moon Man" - Nora Bayes and Jack Norworth

Classical music

• Joseph Achron – Hebrew Melody
• Lili Boulanger – Les Sirènes
• Frank Bridge – The Sea
• George Butterworth – Two English Idylls
• Frederick Delius – Summer Night on the River
• Reinhold Glière – Symphony No. 3 Ilya Murometz (completed)
• Enrique Granados – Goyescas
• Gustav Holst – Second Suite in F, for military band
• Charles Ives – Requiem S. 333
• Paul von Klenau – String Quartet No. 1 in E minor
• Nikolai Medtner – Sonata for Piano in E minor, Op. 25 no 2 "Night Wind"
• Nikolai Myaskovsky
  • Sinfonietta in A
  • Symphony No. 2
  • Cello Sonata No. 1 (later revised in 1945).
• Carl Nielsen – Concerto for Violin and Orchestra
• Arnold Schoenberg – Sechs kleine Klavierstücke
• Alexander Scriabin
  • Piano Sonata No. 6
  • Piano Sonata No. 7
• Ethel Smyth – The March of the Women
• Charles Villiers Stanford
  • Symphony No. 7 in D minor, Op. 124
  • Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op. 126
• Igor Stravinsky – Petrushka

Opera

• Béla Bartók – Bluebeard's Castle (first version composed; revised 1912 and 1917; not staged until 1918)
• Scott Joplin – Treemonisha (composed; not staged until 1972)
• Maurice Ravel – L'Heure Espagnole
• Richard Strauss – Der Rosenkavalier

Operetta

• Leányvásár (The Marriage Market) - Victor Jacobi

Musical theater

• The Count of Luxembourg London production opened at Daly's Theatre on May 20 and ran for 340 performances
• The Fascinating Widow Broadway production opened at the Liberty Theatre on September 11 and transferred to the Grand Opera House on November 13 for a total run of 65 performances. Starring Julian Eltinge, Winona Winter, Natalia Ault and Eddie Garvie.
• Gypsy Love (Zigeunerliebe) opened in Berlin. The Broadway production opened at the Globe Theatre on October 17 and ran for 31 performances
• Der Lila Domino (Lilac Domino) - Leipzig production
• Madame Sherry New York
• Marriage a la Carte Broadway production opened at the Casino Theatre on January 2 and ran for 64 performances
• Peggy, by Leslie Stuart, with a book by George Grossmith, Jr. and lyrics by C. H. Bovill, London production opens at the Gaiety Theatre under the management of George Edwardes, on 4 March, and runs for 270 performances, starring Grossmith, Edmund Payne, Phyllis Dare and Gabrielle Ray
• The Pink Lady Broadway production opened at the New Amsterdam Theatre on March 13 and ran for 312 performances
• The Quaker Girl Broadway production opened at the Park Theatre on October 23 and ran for 240 performances
• The Revue of Revues Broadway revue opened at the Winter Garden Theatre on September 27 and ran for 55 performances. Starring Gaby Deslys, Harry Jolson, Ernie Hare and Frank Tinney.
• Die Sirene by Leo Fall, based on a text by Leo Stein and A. M. Willner, first performed in Vienna on 5 January.
• The Siren, a Broadway musical adaptation of Die Sirene is produced in New York by Charles Frohman and runs at the Knickerbocker Theatre from 28 August 1911 to 16 December (116 performances).

Births

• January 18 - Gábor Darvas, composer (d. 1985)
• January 20
  • Roy Eldridge, jazz musician (d. 1989)
  • Wendell J. Westcott, American carillon player and educator (d. 2010)
• January 24
  • Evelyn Barbirolli, English oboist (d. 2008)
  • Muir Mathieson, Scottish conductor and composer (d. 1975)
• February 3 - Jehan Alain, organist and composer (d. 1940)
• February 5 - Jussi Björling, Swedish tenor (d. 1960)
• February 11 - Wesley Rose, record producer (d. 1990)
• February 17 - Orrin Tucker, American saxophonist and bandleader (d. 2011)
• February 20 - Robert McBride, composer (d. 2007)
• March 7 - Stefan Kisielewski, Polish composer (d. 1991)
• March 8 - Alan Hovhaness, composer (d. 2000)
• March 9 - Clara Rockmore, born Clara Reisenberg, thereminist and violinist (d. 1998)
• March 16 - Harper Goff, Disney special effects man and Dixieland musician (d. 1993)
• March 18 - Smiley Burnette, singer-songwriter (d. 1967)
• April 6 - Guillermo Portabales, singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 1970)
• April 8 - Ichirō Fujiyama, Japanese composer and singer (d. 1993)
• May 8 - Robert Johnson, blues guitarist and singer (d. 1938)
• May 13 - Maxine Sullivan, singer (d. 1987)
• May 14 - Hans Vogt, composer and conductor (d. 1992)
• May 18 - Big Joe Turner, blues shouter (d. 1985)
• May 20 - Vet Boswell of the Boswell Sisters singing group (d. 1988)
• June 4 - Faustino Oramas, Cuban singer, tres guitarist and composer (d. 2007)
• June 9 - Frederick May, Irish composer (d. 1985)
• June 24 - Portia White, singer (d. 1968)
• June 29 - Bernard Herrmann, film composer (d. 1975)
• July 4 - Mitch Miller, arranger, conductor, record producer and oboe player (d. 2010)
• July 7 - Gian Carlo Menotti, composer (d. 2007)
• July 16 - Ginger Rogers, dancer, actress and singer (d. 1995)
• July 26 - Buddy Clark, singer (d. 1949)
• July 29 - Ján Cikker, composer (d. 1989)
• July 31 - George Liberace, violinist and elder brother of Liberace (d. 1983)
• August 5 - Roger Roger, film composer and bandleader (d. 2007)
• August 6 - Lucille Ball, actress and singer (d. 1989)
• August 27 - Kay Walsh, dancer and actress (d. 2005)
• September 2 - Floyd Council, blues musician (d. 1976)
• September 11 - Bola de Nieve, singer, pianist, and songwriter (d. 1971)
• September 19 - Allan Pettersson, Swedish composer (d. 1980)
• September 24 - Marie Kraja, Albanian operatic and folk singer (d. 1999)
• October 7
  • Vaughn Monroe, singer and bandleader (d. 1973)
  • Shura Cherkassky, pianist (d. 1995)
• October 24 - Sonny Terry, blues musician (d. 1986)
• October 26 - Mahalia Jackson, gospel singer (d. 1972)
• October 29 - Nelson Cavaquinho, samba singer and composer (d. 1986)
• November 5 - Roy Rogers, singer, actor (d. 1998)
• December 3 - Nino Rota, composer (d. 1979)
• December 14 - Spike Jones, bandleader (d. 1965)
• December 15 - Stan Kenton, bandleader (d. 1979)
• December 17 - André Claveau, French singer and Eurovision winner (d. 2003)
• December 25 - Eric Gilder, musicologist (d. 2000)
• December 27 - Anna Russell, singer and comedian (d. 2006)
• December 28 - Max Jaffa, violinist and bandleader (d. 1991)
• date unknown - Blanche Winogron, harpsichordist (d. 2002)

Deaths

• January 7 - William Hall Sherwood, pianist and music educator (b. 1854)
• January 8 - Pietro Gori, anarchist poet and songwriter (b. 1865)
• January 9 - Edwin Arthur Jones, composer (b. 1853)
• January 16 - Wilhelm Berger, pianist, conductor and composer (born 1861)
• February 1 - Ángel Mislan, composer (b. 1862)
• February 20 - Alexander Kopylov, violinist and composer (b. 1854)
• March 20 - Jean-Théodore Radoux, bassoonist and composer (b. 1835)
• March 29 - Alexandre Guilmant, organist and composer (b. 1837)
• April 7 - Wilhelm Thern, pianist (b. 1847)
• April 10 - Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis, painter and composer (b. 1875)
• April 15 - Wilma Neruda, violinist (b. 1838)
• May 4 - Ronald Richardson Potter, organist and composer (b. 1879)
• May 5 - James A. Bland, musician and songwriter (b. 1854)
• May 18 - Gustav Mahler, composer (b. 1860)
• May 29 - W. S. Gilbert, of Gilbert & Sullivan (b. 1836)
• June 7 - Carlos Fernández Shaw, librettist (b. 1865)
• June 13 - Patrick Heeney, composer (b. 1881)
• June 14 - Johan Svendsen, conductor, composer and violinist (b. 1840)
• June 18 - Franjo Kuhač, piano teacher, conductor and musicologist (b. 1834)
• June 21 - Robert Radecke, composer (b. 1830)
• June 22 - Bruno Klein, organist and composer (b. 1858)
• July 2 - Felix Mottl, conductor and composer (b. 1856)
• July 3 - Madeline Schiller, pianist (b. c. 1845)
• July 7 - Samuel de Lange, composer, organist, pianist, conductor and music teacher, director of the Stuttgart music conservatory (b. 1841)
• August 2
  • Bob Cole, composer (b. 1869)
  • José Joaquín Palma, lyricist of the national anthem of Guatemala (b. 1884)
• August 10 - Carl Christian Lumbye, Danish composer, son of Hans Christian Lumbye
• August 29 - Hildegard Werner, Swedish musician, conductor and journalist (b. 1834)
• October 3 - Paul Sarebresole, ragtime composer (b. 1875)
• October 13 - Harry Rickards, comedian, singer and theatre owner (b. 1843)
• November 23 - Catalina Berroa, Cuban pianist, music teacher and composer (b. 1849)