Events in Music History in 1900

Tosca

Jan 14 Giacomo Puccini's opera "Tosca" premieres in Rome

Feb 2 Gustave Charpentiers opera "Louise" premieres at the Salle Favart, in Paris France; performed by the Opéra-Comique conducted by André Messageri

Isadora Duncan

Mar 17 American modern dancer Isadora Duncan gives her first Europen performance in London, England [1]

Apr 30 Casey Jones dies heroically in a train wreck at Vaughn, Mississippi, while driving Cannonball Express (immortalized in "Ballad of Casey Jones")
May 5 "The Billboard" began weekly publication
May 22 American inventor Edwin S Votey receives patent for pneumatic piano player

Finlandia

Jul 2 Jean Sibelius' musical tone poem "Finlandia" premieres in Helsinki

Aug 27 Gabriel Fauré's grand cantata "Prométhée" premieres at Arènes de Béziers, France; performance involved almost 800 singers and musicians (including two wind bands and 15 harps) and an audience of 10,000

The Dream of Gerontius

Oct 3 Edward Elgar and Cardinal Newman's oratorium "The Dream of Gerontius" premieres in Birmingham, England

Lift Every Voice and Sing

Dec 12 James Weldon Johnson's poem "Lift Every Voice and Sing", is set to music by his brother J. Rosamond Johnson; the hymn becomes known as the Black national anthem [1] [2]

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