istoryworld
Events relating to music
Austrian composer Anton Webern is accidentally killed near Salzburg by a soldier in the US occupation force
Frederick Ashton choreographs Symphonic Variations, to music by César Franck
Sonatine, for flute and piano, brings early success to French composer Pierre Boulez
Bulgarian bass Boris Christoff makes his debut in Puccini's La Bohème in Reggio Calabria
Benjamin Britten bases his Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra on a theme by Purcell
German conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler is acquitted of the charge of collaborating with the Nazis
British conductor Thomas Beecham founds the third orchestra of his career, calling it the Royal Philharmonic
Francis Poulenc makes an opera of Guillaume Apollinaire's play Les Mamelles de Tirésias ('The Breasts of Tiresias')
Saxophonist 'Bird' Parker forms his own quintet in New York, often to be heard at Minton's Playhouse in Harlem
The Cello Sonata by US composer Elliott Carter introduces 'metric modulation'
George Balanchine's New York City Ballet becomes the resident company in the City Center for Music and Drama
Richard Strauss completes his Four Last Songs in the year before his death
Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears together establish an annual festival in the Suffolk seaside town of Aldeburgh
French composer Pierre Schaeffer writes the first pieces of musique concrète, and coins the term
Olivier Messiaen completes Turangaîlila-symphonie, a symphony in ten movements for an orchestra including ondes martenot
Frederick Ashton's Cinderella, to music by Prokofiev, is the first full-length ballet by an English choreographer
The musical South Pacific, by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, opens on Broadway
Kirsten Flagstad sings the posthumous premiere, in London, of Richard Strauss's Four Last Songs
Gertrude Lawrence and Yul Brynner open on Broadway in the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical The King and I
A Question of Upbringing begins Antony Powell's 'A Dance to the Music of Time'
The Rake's Progress, with music by Igor Stravinsky and libretto by W.H. Auden and Chester Kallman, has its premiere in Venice
Hans Werner Henze's first full-length opera, Boulevard Solitude, has its premiere in Hanover
In his first book of Structures, for two pianos, Pierre Boulez provides a classic of serial music
US composer John Cage's 4'33" consists of precisely that number of minutes and seconds of silence
The Modern Jazz Quartet, led by pianist John Lewis, plays in the sophisticated style that becomes known as 'cool jazz'
