- May 9 James Reese Europe, American ragtime and early jazz arranger, composer, and bandleader in New York, and with the military in France during WWI, dies of a stab wound (received during an argument with one of his drummers), at 38
- May 9 Ludwig Bösendorfer, Austrian piano builder, dies at 84
- May 17 Bohumil Pazdírek, Czech composer, dies at 80
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