1904 in music

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This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1904.

Events

• January 13 – Béla Bartók's symphonic poem Kossuth is premiered in Budapest, becoming his first major work to be performed.
• February 17 – Puccini's Madama Butterfly debuts at La Scala in Milan to no great acclaim. On May 28 a revised version opens in Brescia to huge success.
• June 9 – The Queen's Hall Orchestra, under Sir Henry Wood, plays its first concert under its new name of the London Symphony Orchestra.
• July 15 – Soprano Agnes Nicholls marries conductor Hamilton Harty.
• September 12 – Pianist Ignacy Jan Paderewski gives a concert in Wellington, New Zealand.
• October
  • Alban Berg begins his studies under Arnold Schoenberg.
  • The Gramophone Company records the Bach-Gounod Ave Maria (G.C. 03033) performed by Dame Nellie Melba with Jan Kubelík on violin.
• October 18 – Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 5 is premiered by the Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne under the composer's baton; it is also first published this year.
• November 10 – Ferruccio Busoni gives the world premiere of his Piano Concerto at the Beethoven-Saal in Berlin.
• Claudio Monteverdi's opera L'Orfeo is given a modern debut in concert version in Paris.

Published popular music

• "Abraham" w. Sterling m. Von Tilzer
• "Absinthe Frappe" w. Glen MacDonough m. Victor Herbert
• "Ain't It Funny What a Difference Just a Few Hours Make" w. Henry Blossom m. Alfred G. Robyn. Introduced by Raymond Hitchcock in the Broadway show The Yankee Consul
• "Al Fresco" w. Glen MacDonough m. Victor Herbert
• "Alexander" w. Andrew B. Sterling m. Harry Von Tilzer
• "All Aboard For Dreamland" w. Andrew B. Sterling m. Harry Von Tilzer
• "Back, Back To Baltimore" w. Harry H. Williams m. Egbert Van Alstyne
• "Big Indian Chief" w. Bob Cole m. J. Rosamond Johnson
• "Billy" w. Edgar Malone m. Ted S. Barron
• "Blue Bell" w. Edward Madden, Dolly Morse m. Theodore F. Morse
• "By The Old Oak Tree" w. George V. Hobart m. Max Hoffmann
• "Come Back To Sorrento" (Original title "Torna A Surriento") w.m. Ernesto de Curtis & Claude Aveling
• "Come Down From The Big Fig Tree" w. Edward Madden m. Theodore Morse
• "Come Take A Trip In My Airship" w. Ren Shields m. George Evans
• "Cordalia Malone" Jerome, Schwartz
• "The Countess Of Alagazam" w.m. Bob Cole
• "The Day That You Grew Colder" w.m. Paul Dresser
• "Don't Cry, Katie, Dear" Mills
• "Down In The Subway" Jerome, Schwartz
• "Down On The Brandywine" w. Vincent P. Bryan m. J. B. Mullen
• "Fascination" w. Dick Manning m. F. D. Marchetti Words 1932.
• "Fishing" w. James Weldon Johnson m. J. Rosamond Johnson
• "Following In Father's Footsteps" w.m. E. W. Rogers
• "Fu' The Noo" w. Harry Lauder & Gerald Grafton m. Harry Lauder
• "The Ghost That Never Walked" w. William Jerome m. Jean Schwartz
• "Gimme De Leavins" w. James Weldon Johnson m. Bob Cole
• "Give My Regards to Broadway" w.m. George M. Cohan
• "Good-bye Flo" w.m. George M. Cohan
• "Goodbye, Little Girl, Goodbye" w. Will D. Cobb m.. Gus Edwards
• "Goodbye, My Lady Love" w.m. Joseph E. Howard
• "The Goo-Goo Man" Stoddard, Schindler, Jerome
• "Hannah, Won't You Open That Door" w. Andrew B. Sterling m. Harry von Tilzer
• "Have You Seen Maggie Riley?" Von Tilzer
• "He Done Me Wrong" w.m. Hughie Cannon
• "Heinie" Rose, Snyder
• "I Love You All The Time" w.m. Will R. Anderson
• "I Want To Be A Soldier" w.m. William Cahill
• "I'm Longing For My Old Kentucky Home" w. Vincent Bryan m. J. B. Mullen
• "In The Days Of Old" w. Henry Blossom m. Alfred G. Robyn
• "In Zanzibar – My Little Chimpanzee" w. Will D. Cobb m. Gus Edwards
• "Just An Ever-Loving Girl" Bryan, Mullen
• "Just For The Sake Of Society" w. Alfred Bryan m. Kerry Mills
• "Kiss Me Good Night, Dear Love" w.m. Malcolm Williams & Israel Zangwill
• "Let's All Go Up To Maud's" w. Joseph C. Farrell m. Kerry Mills
• "Life's A Funny Proposition After All" w.m. George M Cohan
• "A Little Boy Called "Taps"" w. Edward Madden m. Theodore F. Morse
• "The Man Behind" w. Vincent Bryan m. J. B. Mullen
• "The Man With The Ladder And Hose" w.m. T. Mayo Geary
• "La Mattinata" m. Ruggiero Leoncavallo
• "Maureen Of Ballinasloe" w. J. Francis Barron m. J. Airlie Dix
• "Meet Me in St. Louis, Louis" w. Andrew B. Sterling m. Kerry Mills
• "Mexico" w. James Weldon Johnson & Bob Cole m. Bob Cole
• "Mister Wilson, That's All" w. Henry Williams m. Egbert Van Alstyne
• "My Honey Lou" w.m. Thurland Chattaway
• "My Kangaroo" Farrell & Kohlman
• "Nan! Nan! Nan!" by Edward Madden
• "Oh Bliss! Oh Joy!" Mullen
• "Oh Gee! It's Great To Be Crazy" Carle, Bowers
• "Oh! Oh! Sallie" Hartlett
• "On The Warpath" Raymond A. Browne (composer)
• "One Fine Day" (Original title "Un Bel Di") w. L. Illica & G. Giacosa m. G. Puccini
• "Please Come And Play In My Yard" w. Edward Madden m. Theodore F. Morse
• "The Preacher And The Bear" w.m. George Fairman
• "Saint Louis Rag" m. Tom Turpin
• "Scissors To Grind" w.m. Thomas S. Allen
• "Seminole" w. Harry Williams m. Egbert Van Alstyne
• "Shame On You" Larkin, Smith
• "She Went to the City" by Paul Dresser
• "Since Little Dolly Dimples Made A Hit" w. William Jerome m. Jean Schwartz
• "St. Louis Tickle" m. Barney & Seymore
• "The Story Of A Clothes Line" m. James W. Tate w. Frank Clifford Harris
• "Sweet Thoughts Of Home" w. Stanislaus Stange m. Julian Edwards
• "Teasing" w. Cecil Mack m. Albert Von Tilzer
• "Those Songs My Mother Used To Sing" w.m. H. Wakefield Smith
• "Three Green Bonnets" w. Harris m. Guy d'Hardelot
• "Tippecanoe" w. Harry Williams m. Egbert Van Alstyne
• "The Trumpeter" by Francis Barron
• "What The Brass Band Played" Drislane, Morse
• "Why Adam Sinned" w.m. Alex Rogers
• "Won't You Fondle Me" w.m. James Kendis & Herman Paley
• "The Yankee Doodle Boy" w.m. George M. Cohan
• "Your Mother Wants You Home Boy" w.m. Paul Dresser

Classical music

• Béla Bartók – Piano quintet
• Hakon Børresen – Concerto for violin and orchestra in G major
• Alexander Glazunov – Violin Concerto in A minor
• Hamilton Harty – An Irish Symphony
• Gustav Mahler – Kindertotenlieder (Songs of the Death of Children) (song-cycle)
• Max Reger – Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Hiller
• Alexander Scriabin – Symphony No. 3
• Petar Stojanović – Violin Concerto no 1
• Igor Stravinsky – Piano Sonata in F sharp minor
• Claude Debussy – "La Mer"

Opera

• Franco Alfano – Risurrezione
• Leoš Janáček – Jenůfa
• Giacomo Puccini – Madama Butterfly
• Sergei Rachmaninoff – The Miserly Knight
• Amedeo Vives – Bohemios

Operetta

• A rátartós királykisasszony (The Haughty Princess) by Victor Jacobi. First performed on December 17 at Budapest.

Musical theater

• The Catch of the Season London production opened at the Vaudeville Theatre on September 9 and ran for 621 performances
• The Cingalee (Lionel Monckton, Adrian Ross and Percy Greenbank) – London production opened at Daly's Theatre on March 5 and ran for 365 performances
• It Happened in Nordland Broadway production opened at the Lew M. Fields Theatre on December 5 and ran for 254 performances
• Little Johnny Jones (book, music, lyrics, direction and featuring George M. Cohan) Broadway production opened at the Liberty Theatre on November 7 and ran for 52 performances
• Paris by Night (Music: Alfred Solmon Book: Harry Marshall) Broadway production opened at the Madison Square Roof Garden on July 2 and ran for 50 performances. Starring Ben Welch.
• The Rogers Brothers In Paris Broadway production opened at the New Amsterdam Theatre on September 5 and ran for 72 performances
• Sergeant Brue London production opened at the Strand Theatre on June 14
• The Yankee Consul Broadway production opened at the Broadway Theatre on February 22 and ran for 115 performances

Births

• January 10 – Ray Bolger, singer, and dancer (d. 1987)
• January 13 – Richard Addinsell, composer (d. 1977)
• January 15 – Eddie DeLange, bandleader and lyricist (d. 1949)
• January 22 – George Balanchine, choreographer (d. 1983)
• February 3 – Luigi Dallapiccola, composer (d. 1975)
• February 23 – Allan Gray, film composer (d. 1973)
• February 29 – Jimmy Dorsey, bandleader (d. 1957)
• March 1 – Glenn Miller, trombonist and bandleader (m. 1944)
• March 4 – Joseph Schmidt, Austrian-Hungarian tenor and actor (d. 1942)
• April 9 – Sharkey Bonano, jazz musician (d. 1972)
• April 16 – Fifi D'Orsay, actress and singer (d. 1983)
• April 18 – Pigmeat Markham, all-round entertainer (d. 1981)
• April 29
  • Russ Morgan, orchestra leader (d. 1969)
  • Pedro Vargas, Mexican singer and actor (d. 1989)
• May 21 – Fats Waller, American pianist and comedian (d. 1943)
• May 23 – Libby Holman, US singer and actress (d. 1971)
• May 26 – George Formby, English music hall performer, singer, actor and songwriter (d. 1961)
• May 28 – Margaret Harris, opera costume and set designer (d. 2000)
• May 29 – León Zuckert, conductor, composer and arranger (d. 1992)
• June 3 – Jan Peerce, American tenor (d. 1984)
• June 6 – Raymond Burke, clarinettist (d. 1986)
• June 7 – Don Murray, clarinettist (d. 1929)
• June 11 – Pinetop Smith, jazz pianist (d. 1929)
• June 15 – Anna Mahler, musician and sculptor (d. 1988)
• June 21 – Mack Gordon, Polish-born US lyricist (d. 1959)
• June 24 – Phil Harris, jazz musician (d. 1995)
• July 16
  • Mabel Wayne, US composer
  • Goffredo Petrassi, composer (d. 2003)
• July 24 – Leo Arnaud, film composer (d. 1991)
• August 13 – Charles "Buddy" Rogers, actor and singer (d. 1989)
• August 17 – Leopold Nowak, Austrian musicologist (d. 1991)
• August 21 – Count Basie, bandleader (d. 1984)
• September 17 – Sir Frederick Ashton, dancer and choreographer (d. 1988)
• October 11 – Tita Merello, tango singer, dancer and actress (d. 2002)
• October 20 – Anna Neagle, actress and singer (d. 1986)
• October 24 – Moss Hart, musical theatre director (d. 1961)
• October 29 – Vivian Ellis, English composer (d. 1996)
• November 1 or November 14 – Aleksey Zhivotov, composer (d. 1964)
• November 14 – Dick Powell, actor and singer (d. 1963)
• November 18 – Masao Koga, Japanese composer (d. 1978)
• November 21 – Coleman Hawkins, saxophonist (d. 1969)
• November 25 – Toni Ortelli, Italian composer and alpinist (d. 2000)
• December 9 – Elsie Randolph, English actress, dancer and singer
• December 18 – Wilf Carter, country singer (d. 1966)
• December 26 – Alejo Carpentier, musicologist (d. 1980)
• December 31 – Umm Kulthum, Egyptian singer and actress (d. 1975)

Deaths

• January 4 – Mitrofan Belyayev, music publisher (b. 1836)
• January 10 – Antoinette Sterling, singer
• January 15 – Eduard Lassen, composer (b. 1830)
• January 20 – Maria Louisa Bustill, mother of Paul Robeson (b. 1853) (domestic accident)
• March 10 – Giovanni Cesari, castrato singer (b. 1843)
• March 11 – Charles Grisart, opera composer (b. 1837)
• March 20 – Louisa Pyne, operatic soprano and opera company manager (b. 1832)
• March 31 – Sophia Karp, actress and singer (b. 1861)
• April 29 – Nellie Farren, burlesque actress and singer (b. 1848)
• May 1 – Antonín Dvořák, composer (b. 1841)
• May 19 – Korla Awgust Kocor, conductor and composer (b. 1822)
• May 30 – Laura Joyce Bell, contralto singer and actress (b. 1854)
• June 28 – Dan Emmett, founder of the Virginia Minstrels (b. 1815)
• July 13 – Giulia Warwick, operatic soprano and actress (b. 1857)
• August 6 – Eduard Hanslick, music critic (b. 1825)
• October 31 – Dan Leno, English music hall comedian, clog dancer and singer (b. 1860)
• November 30 – Aldine Silliman Kieffer, music teacher and publisher (b. 1840)
• date unknown
  • Antonio Galassi, operatic baritone (b. 1845)
  • Arthur Lloyd, music hall entertainer and songwriter (b. 1839)