1915 | Music
Music
Opera: Madame Sans Gêne 1/25 at New York's Metropolitan Opera House, with Geraldine Farrar, now 32, as Catherine Huebscher, music by Umberto Giordano, libretto from a play by Victorian Sardou and E. Moreau.
Ballet: El Amor Brujo 4/15 at Madrid's Teatro Lara with music by Manuel de Falla. English ballerina Alicia Markova (Lilian Alicia Marks) makes her debut at age 14.
First performance: Symphony No. 5 in E flat major by Jean Sibelius 12/8 at Helsinki.
Composer Aleksandr Scriabin dies of septicemia at Moscow April 27 at age 43.
Stage musicals: Betty 4/24 at Daly's Theatre, London, with Gabrielle Ray, book by Frederick Lonsdale, music by Paul A. Rubens, lyrics by Adrian Ross and Rubens, 391 perfs.; The Passing Show 5/29 at New York's Winter Garden Theater, with Marilyn Miller, Meyersdale, Pa.-born baritone John Charles Thomas, 25, in his Broadway debut, music chiefly by Leo Edwards and W. F. Peter, lyrics by Harold Atteridge, 145 perfs.; The Ziegfeld Follies (revue) 6/21 at the New Amsterdam Theater, with W. C. Fields, Ed Wynn, George White, Ann Pennington, book by Washington, D.C.-born playwright Channing Pollock, 35, music by Louis A. Hirsch, Dave Stamper, and others, songs that include "Hello, Frisco" by Hirsch and Gene Buck, 104 perfs.; The Blue Paradise 8/5 at New York's Casino Theater, with Vivienne Segal, music by Edmund Eysler, book by Edgar Smith based on a Viennese opera, lyrics by M. E. Rourke, 356 perfs.; The Princess Pat 9/29 at the Cort Theater, with Al Shean, music by Victor Herbert, book and lyrics by Henry Blossom, 158 perfs.; Hip! Hip! Hooray! 9/30 at the New York Hippodrome, with book by Glasgow-born writer-choreographer R. H. Burnside, 42, music by Raymond Hubbell, lyrics by John L. Golden, 425 perfs.; Her Soldier Boy 12/6 at New York's Astor Theater (to Lyric Theater 4/30/1917, to Shubert Theater 5/14/1917), with John Charles Thomas, Louise Galloway, book by Leon Victor (adapted by Rida Johnson Young), music by Emmerich Kálmán, 198 perfs.; Very Good Eddie 12/23 at New York's Princess Theater, with John Willard, music by Jerome Kern, lyrics by Schuyler Greene, 341 perfs.; Stop! Look! Listen! 12/25 at New York's Globe Theater, with music and lyrics by Irving Berlin, book by Harry B. Smith, 105 perfs.
Librettist James T. Tanner dies at his native London June 18 at age 56; producer George Edwardes at London October 4 at age 59, having pioneered the musical comedy form in the West End with more than 70 shows at the Gaiety Theater.
Popular songs: "Pack up Your Troubles in Your Old Kit Bag" by Welsh-born London composer Felix Powell and his brother George Asaf (George Henry Powell), 35; "I Didn't Raise My Boy to Be a Soldier" by Al Piantadosi (who has plagiarized a melody by Harry Haas), lyrics by Alfred Bryan; "Paper Doll" by Johnny Black; "There's a Broken Heart for Every Light on Broadway" by Fred Fisher, lyrics by Howard Johnson; "M-O-T-H-E-R, a Word that Means the World to Me" by Theodore Morse, lyrics by Howard Johnson; "Nola" by Tin Pan Alley pianist-composer Felix Arndt, 26.
Player piano inventor John McTammany dies penniless in a Stamford, Conn., military hospital March 26 at age 69 and receives a public funeral where music is performed by a grand player piano. He has long since spent the income generated by the piano to defend his patent rights against violators.
Instrument maker Charles G. Conn sells his 39-year-old company to an investment group headed by Carl D. (Diamond) Greenleaf and it becomes C. G. Conn & Co. Ltd. (see Sousaphone, 1898). A fire in 1910 caused up to $500,000 in losses, and although Conn quickly rebuilt he has struggled to survive. Greenleaf is a self-taught alto horn player who was in the University of Chicago band and founds the Conn National School of Music to train high school band directors. By 1917 the company will have 550 workers turning out 2,500 brass instruments per month, nearly 75 percent of them saxophones.