Events in Music History in 1938

  • Jan 10 Eduard van Beinum debuts as conductor of the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Netherlands

Carnegie Hall's First Jazz Concert

Jan 16 First jazz concert held at Carnegie Hall, performed by Benny Goodman and his band

"Our Town"

Feb 4 "Our Town" a play by Thornton Wilder opens on Broadway, NYC (later awarded Pulitzer Prize for Drama)

Operette

Mar 16 Noël Coward's musical "Operette" premieres in London

Hanson's 3rd Symphony

Mar 26 NBC radio performance of Howard Hanson's 3rd Symphony

Piston's 1st Symphony

Apr 8 Walter Piston's 1st Symphony in E, premieres in Boston, by the Boston Symphony, conducted by the composer

A-Tisket, A-Tasket

May 2 American singer Ella Fitzgerald records "A-Tisket, A-Tasket" with Chick Webb and His Orchestra

Joan of Arc at the Stake

May 12 Arthur Honegger and Paul Claudel's oratorio "Jeanne d'Arc au bûcher" (Joan of Arc at the Stake) premieres in Basel, Switzerland

Hooray for What!

May 21 Harold Arlen and Yip Harburg's anti-war musical "Hooray for What!", starring Ed Wynn and directed by Vincente Minnelli, closes at the Winter Garden Theatre, NYC, after 200 performances

Mathis der Maler

May 28 Paul Hindemith's opera "Mathis der Maler" premieres in Zurich

  • May 30 Walter Piston's dance work, The Incredible Flutist, written for the Boston Pops Orchestra, which premieres it, Arthur Fiedler conducting
  • Jun 25 "A Tisket A Tasket" by Ella Fitzgerald with Chick Webb hits #1

Room Service

Jul 16 John Murray and Allen Boretz's stage comedy "Room Service", starring Sam Levene, Eddie Albert, and Phillip Loeb, closes at the Cort Theatre, NYC, after 500 performances

Music History

Sep 15 Jazz piano prodigy Margaret Johnson (20) makes her only recording, four sides with Billie Holiday in NYC: Johnson dies of tuberculosis less than a year later

  • Sep 20 Emlyn Williams' semi-autobiographical comedic play "Corn is Green," premieres in London; runs for 600 performances

Music History

Oct 10 Premiere performance of Dmitri Shostakovich's 1st String Quartet

  • Oct 15 Robert E Sherwood's stage drama "Abe Lincoln in Illinois", starring Raymond Massey, opens at the Plymouth Theatre, NYC; runs for 472 performances

Music History

Oct 16 Aaron Copland's & Eugene Loring's ballet "Billy the Kid" premieres in Chicago

  • Oct 25 American Archbishop of Dubuque (Iowa), Francis J. L. Beckman, denounces Swing music as "a degenerated musical system... turned loose to gnaw away at the moral fiber of young people", warning that it leads down a "primrose path to hell".

Frank Sinatra Arrested

Nov 27 Bergen County (New Jersey) sheriff's department arrests American singer Frank Sinatra (23) on charge of "seduction", later withdrawn and amended to adultery, and shortly thereafter case dismissed