1924 in music

Events

• February 18 – First recordings by Bix Beiderbecke
• February 24 – An Experiment In Modern Music concert at Aeolian Hall, New York – première of Rhapsody in Blue.
• June – Alexander von Zemlinsky's Lyric Symphony is premiered in Prague.
• October 17 – Leoš Janáček's String Quartet No. 1, Kreutzer Sonata, is premièred in Prague
• Richard Runciman Terry resigns as organist of Westminster Cathedral because of criticism of his choice of music.
• Mongolia introduces a national anthem.
• Summer of 1924 - Hamilton Sisters and Fordyce singing trio is formed by Pearl B. Hamilton - departing the 'Stars of the Future' tour.

Published popular music

• "Adoring You" w. Joseph McCarthy m. Harry Tierney
• "Alabamy Bound" w. B. G. De Sylva & Bud Green m. Ray Henderson
• "All Alone" w.m. Irving Berlin. Introduced by Grace Moore and Oscar Shaw in The Music Box Revue of 1924
• "Amapola" w. Joseph M. Lacalle (Sp) Albert Gamse (Eng) m. Joseph M. Lacalle
• "At The End of The Road" w. Ballard MacDonald m. James F. Hanley
• "Bagdad" w. Jack Yellen m. Milton Ager
• "Big Bad Bill (Is Sweet William Now)" w. Jack Yellen m. Milton Ager
• "Big Boy" m. Milton Ager
• "The Blues Have Got Me" Silver, Turk
• "California, Here I Come" w.m. Al Jolson, Buddy de Sylva and Joseph Meyer . Introduced by Al Jolson in the musical Bombo
• "The Call Of The South" w.m. Irving Berlin
• "Charley, My Boy" w.m. Gus Kahn & Ted Fio Rito
• "Copenhagen" w. Walter Melrose m. Charlie Davis
• "Cover Me Up With The Sunshine Of Virginia" w. Sam M. Lewis & Joe Young m. George W. Meyer
• "Deep In My Heart, Dear" w. Dorothy Donnelly m. Sigmund Romberg. Introduced by Howard Marsh and Ilse Marvenga in the operetta The Student Prince in Heidelberg
• "Does The Spearmint Lose Its Flavour On The Bedpost Over Night" w. Billy Rose & Marty Bloom m. Ernest Breuer
• "Doo Wacka Doo" w. Clarence Gaskill & Will Donaldson m. George Horther
• "Doodle Doo Doo" w.m. Art Kassel & Mel Stitzel
• "Drinking Song (Drink! Drink! Drink!)" w. Dorothy Donnelly m. Sigmund Romberg
• "The End Of The Road" w.m. Harry Lauder & William Dillon
• "Everybody Loves My Baby" w.m. Jack Palmer & Spencer Williams
• "Fascinating Rhythm" w. Ira Gershwin m. George Gershwin. Introduced by Cliff Edwards and Fred and Adele Astaire in the musical Lady, Be Good!
• "Follow The Swallow" w. Billy Rose & Mort Dixon m. Ray Henderson
• "Golden Days" w. Dorothy Donnelly m. Sigmund Romberg. Introduced by Greek Evans and Howard Marsh in the operetta The Student Prince in Heidelberg
• "The Half Of It Dearie Blues" w. Ira Gershwin m. George Gershwin. Introduced by Fred Astaire and Kathlene Martyn in the musical Lady, Be Good!
• "Hard Hearted Hannah (The Vamp Of Savannah)" w.m. Milton Ager, Charles Bates, Bob Bigelow & Jack Yellen
• "He's The Hottest Man In Town" Owen Murphy, Jay Gorney
• "Honest And Truly" w. Leo Wood m. Fred Rose
• "How Come You Do Me Like You Do?" w.m. Gene Austin & Roy Bergere
• "I Want To Be Happy" w. Irving Caesar m. Vincent Youmans. Introduced by Charles Winniger and Louise Groody in the musical No, No, Nanette
• "I Wonder What's Become Of Sally" w. Jack Yellen m. Milton Ager
• "I'll See You In My Dreams" w. Gus Kahn m. Isham Jones
• "I'm A Little Blackbird Looking For A Bluebird" w. Grant Clarke & Roy Turk m. George W. Meyer & Arthur Johnson
• "I'm Coming At Your Call" w. Dorothy Donnelly m. Sigmund Romberg
• "In Shadowland" w. Sam W. Lewis & Joe Young m. Ruth Brooks & Fred E. Ahlert
• "Indian Love Call" (first published as "The Call") w. Otto Harbach & Oscar Hammerstein II m. Rudolf Friml
• "It Had To Be You" w. Gus Kahn m. Isham Jones
• "Jealous" w. Tommy Malie & Dick Finch m. Jack Little
• "Jimtown Blues" w.m. Fred Rose
• "June Brought The Roses" w. Ralph Stanley m. John Openshaw
• "June Night" w. Cliff Friend m. Abel Baer
• "Just We Two" w. Dorothy Donnelly m. Sigmund Romberg
• "Keep Smiling At Trouble" w. Al Jolson & B. G. De Sylva m. Lewis E. Gensler
• King Porter Stomp, Jelly Roll Morton
• "Lazy" w.m. Irving Berlin
• "Let Me Linger Longer In Your Arms" w. Cliff Friend m. Abel Baer
• "Little Jazz Bird" w. Ira Gershwin m. George Gershwin
• "Mama's Gone, Goodbye" w.m. A. J. Piron & Peter Bocage
• "The Man I Love" w. Ira Gershwin m. George Gershwin
• "Mandalay" w.m. Earl Burtnett, Abe Lyman & Gus Arnheim
• "Mandy Make Up Your Mind" w. Grant Clarke & Roy Turk m. George W. Meyer
• "Memory Lane" w. B. G. De Sylva m. Larry Spier & Con Conrad
• "The Mounties" w. Otto Harbach & Oscar Hammerstein II m. Rudolf Friml
• "My Best Girl" w.m. Walter Donaldson
• "My Dream Girl, I Loved You Long Ago" w. Rida Johnson Young m. Victor Herbert
• "My Time Is Your Time" w. Eric Little m. Leo Dance
• "A New Kind Of Man With A New Kind Of Love For Me" w.m. Sidney Clare & Flatow
• "Nobody's Sweetheart" w. Gus Kahn & Ernie Erdman m. Elmer Schoebel & Billy Meyers
• "O, Katharina" w. L. Wolfe Gilbert m. Richard Fall
• "Oh Lady, Be Good" w. Ira Gershwin m. George Gershwin. Introduced by Walter Catlett in the musical Lady, Be Good!
• "Oh! Mabel" Gus Kahn, Ted Fio Rito
• "Oh! Miss Hannah" w. Thekla Hollingsworth m. Jessie L. Deppen
• "The One I Love Belongs To Somebody Else" w. Gus Kahn m. Isham Jones
• "Parisian Pierrot" w.m. Noël Coward
• "Prince Of Wails" m. Elmer Schoebel
• "The Prisoner's Song" w.m. Guy Massey
• "Red Hot Mama" w.m. Gilbert Wells, Bud Cooper & Fred Rose
• "Rhapsody In Blue" m. George Gershwin
• "Riverboat Shuffle" m. Hoagy Carmichael & Irving Mills
• "Rose Marie" w. Otto Harbach & Oscar Hammerstein II m. Rudolf Friml
• "See See Rider" w.m. Ma Rainey
• "Serenade from The Student Prince In Heidelberg" w. Dorothy Donnelly m. Sigmund Romberg
• "Shanghai Shuffle" w.m. Larry Conley & Gene Rodemich
• "Shine" w. Cecil Mack & Lew Brown m. Ford T. Dabney
• "So Am I" w. Ira Gershwin m. George Gershwin
• "Somebody Loves Me" w. Ballard MacDonald & B. G. De Sylva m. George Gershwin
• "South" m. Bennie Moten & Thamon Hayes
• "Spain" w. Gus Kahn m. Isham Jones
• "Stack O'Lee Blues" w.m. by Ray Lopez & Lew Colwell
• "Sweet Little You" w.m. Irving Bibo
• "Tea For Two" w. Irving Caesar m. Vincent Youmans
• "Tell Her In The Springtime" w.m. Irving Berlin
• "There's Life In The Old Girl Yet" w.m. Noël Coward
• "There's Yes! Yes! In Your Eyes" w. Cliff Friend m. Joseph H. Santly
• "Totem Tom-Tom" w. Oscar Hammerstein II & Otto Harbach m. Rudolf Friml
• "Two Little Babes In The Wood" w.m. Cole Porter
• "Wait'll You See My Gal" Sullivan, Wilber
• "What'll I Do" w.m. Irving Berlin. Introduced by Grace Moore and John Steel in the Music Box Revue of 1923
• "When My Sugar Walks Down The Street" w.m. Gene Austin, Jimmy McHugh & Irving Mills
• "When You And I Were Seventeen" w. Gus Kahn m. Charles Rosoff
• "Where The Lazy Daisies Grow" w.m. Cliff Friend
• "Why Did I Kiss That Girl?" w. Lew Brown m. Robert A. King & Ray Henderson

Top hits on record

• "Arkansaw Blues/Blue Blues" by the Mound City Blue Blowers
• "Charley, My Boy" by Billy Murray, accompanied International Novelty Orchestra, directed Nat Shilkret
• "The Prisoner's Song" by Vernon Dalhart
• "Rhapsody In Blue" by Paul Whiteman's Orchestra with George Gershwin
• "San" by Paul Whiteman & His Jazz Band
• "San/Red Hot!" by the Mound City Blue Blowers & Frank Trumbauer
• "Show Me The Way (To Go Home)" by Ted Lewis & His Jazz Band
• "Tell Me You'll Forgive Me" by International Novelty Orchestra, directed Nat Shilkret, vocal Elliot Shaw
• "What'll I Do?" by Paul Whiteman & His Orchestra

Classical music

• George Gershwin – Rhapsody in Blue
• Jacques Ibert – Escales
• Joseph Jongen – Sonata for Flute and Piano
• Ottorino Respighi – I Pini di Roma (Pines of Rome)
• Carl Ruggles – Men and Mountains
• Erik Satie – Relâche (ballet)
• Jean Sibelius – Symphony no. 7 in C major, opus 105
• Edgard Varèse – Octandre

Opera

• Leoš Janáček – The Cunning Little Vixen
• Henri Sauguet – Le plumet du colonel (The Colonel's Helmet)
• Arnold Schoenberg – Die Gluckliche Hand
• Giacomo Puccini – Turandot

Musical theater

• Bob et Moi – music by Charles Cuvillier
• Gräfin Mariza (Countess Maritza) – Vienna production opened at the Theater an der Wien on February 28 and ran for 396 performances
• Lady, Be Good! (George and Ira Gershwin) – Broadway production opened at the Liberty Theatre on December 1 and ran for 330 performances
• Madame Pompadour Broadway production opened on November 11 at the Martin Beck Theatre and ran for 79 performances
• The Music Box Revue of 1924 Broadway revue opened at the Music Box Theatre on December 1 and ran for 184 performances
• No, No, Nanette (Irving Caesar, Otto Harbach, and Vincent Youmans) – Chicago production. Pre-Broadway tryout started in April.
• Primrose London production opened at the Winter Garden Theatre on September 11 and ran for 255 performances
• Rose-Marie Broadway production opened at the Imperial Theatre on September 2 and ran for 557 performances
• Sitting Pretty Broadway production opened at the Fulton Theatre on April 8 and moved to the Imperial Theatre on June 9 for a total run of 95 performances
• The Student Prince In Heidelberg (Sigmund Romberg) – Broadway production opened at the Jolson's 59th Street Theatre on December 2 and ran for 608 performances
• Yoicks! London revue opened at the Kingsway Theatre on June 11 and ran for 271 performances.

Births

• January 3 – Nell Rankin, operatic mezzo-soprano (d. 2005)
• January 6 – Earl Scruggs, banjo player (d. 2012)
• January 8 – Ron Moody, star of Oliver!
• January 10 – Max Roach, jazz drummer (d. 2007)
• January 11
  • Don Cherry, singer
  • Slim Harpo, jazz musician (d. 1970)
• January 16 – Achille Togliani, singer and actor (d. 1995)
• January 20 – Slim Whitman, country musician
• January 29 – Luigi Nono, composer (d. 1990)
• February 2 – Sonny Stitt, jazz saxophonist (d. 1982)
• February 19 – André Popp, composer, arranger, and screenwriter
• February 22 – Hassan Aziz Hassan, Egyptian prince and pianist (d. 2000)
• February 27 – Trevor Duncan, English composer (d. 2005)
• March 8 – Alan Dell, BBC radio DJ (d. 1995)
• March 27 – Sarah Vaughan, jazz singer (d. 1990)
• April 3 – Doris Day, actress and singer
• April 14 – Shorty Rogers, jazz trumpeter (d. 1994)
• April 15 – Sir Neville Marriner, conductor and violinist
• April 16
  • Henry Mancini, composer (d. 1994)
  • Rudy Pompilli, saxophonist (Bill Haley & His Comets) (d. 1976)
• May 1 – Big Maybelle, R&B singer (d. 1972)
• May 4 – Tatiana Nikolayeva, pianist, composer and teacher (d. 1993)
• May 10 – Teddy Riley, jazz trumpeter (d. 1992)
• May 19 – Sandy Wilson, composer of The Boyfriend
• May 22 –
  • Charles Aznavour, singer and songwriter
  • Claude Ballif, French composer (d. 2004)
• May 31 – Ida Presti, French classical guitarist (d. 1967)
• June 5 – Serge Nigg, composer (d. 2008)
• June 20 – Chet Atkins, guitarist (d. 2001)
• June 29 – Flo Sandon's, Italian singer (d. 2006)
• July 5 – János Starker, cellist
• July 9 – Pierre Cochereau, organist, improviser, composer (d. 1984)
• July 13 – Carlo Bergonzi, operatic tenor
• July 19 – Al Haig, jazz pianist (d. 1982)
• July 22 – Margaret Whiting, singer
• August 14
  • Lee Adams, lyricist
  • Georges Prêtre, French conductor
• August 20 – Jim Reeves, country singer (d. 1964)
• August 29 – Dinah Washington, singer (d. 1963)
• September 12 – Ella Mae Morse, singer (d. 1999)
• September 20 – Jackie Paris, jazz singer (d. 2004)
• September 28 – Rudolf Barshai, conductor and violist (d. 2010)
• October 1 (probable) – Roger Williams, pianist
• October 3 – Joe Allison, songwriter and country music executive (d. 2002)
• November 14 – Leonid Kogan, violinist (d. 1982)
• November 16 – Michèle Auclair, violinist and teacher (d. 2005)
• November 25 – Paul Desmond, jazz saxophonist (d. 1977)
• November 30
  • Klaus Huber, composer
  • Allan Sherman, musical parodist (d. 1973)
• December 24 – Lee Dorsey, singer (d. 1986)
• December 25 – Noël Lee, classical pianist and composer

Deaths

• January 2 – Sabine Baring-Gould, hymn-writer and collector of folk songs (b. 1834)
• January 4 – Alfred Grünfeld, pianist and composer (b. 1852)
• February - Ada Adini, operatic soprano (b. 1855)
• February 10 – Charles Collette, composer and actor (b. 1842)
• February 15 – Lionel Monckton, English composer (b. 1861)
• February 17 – Oskar Merikanto, pianist, conductor and composer (b. 1868)
• February 23 – Antonio Pasculli, oboist and composer (b. 1842)
• March 18 – Frederick Bridge, organist and composer (b. 1844)
• March 29 – Charles Villiers Stanford, composer (b. 1852)
• April 15 – Eduard Caudella, violinist and composer (b. 1841)
• April 26 – Josef Labor, pianist, organist and composer (b. 1842)
• May 13 – Louis Hirsch, composer and songwriter (b. 1887)
• May 26 – Victor Herbert, composer (b. 1859)
• June 11 – Théodore Dubois, composer (b. 1837)
• June 17 – Victor-Charles Mahillon, musician and collector of instruments (b. 1841)
• June 23 – Cecil Sharp, folk song and dance revivalist (b. 1859)
• July 27 – Ferruccio Busoni, pianist and composer (b. 1866)
• August 29 – Francis Barraud, designer of HMV logo (b. 1856)
• September 25 – Lotta Crabtree, all-round entertainer (b. 1847)
• September 29 – Eduardo Arolas, tango musician and composer (b. 1892)
• November 4 – Gabriel Fauré, French composer (b. 1845)
• November 21 – Paul Milliet, opera librettist (b. 1848)
• November 26 - Rose Hersee, operatic soprano (b. 1845)
• November 29 – Giacomo Puccini, composer (b. 1858)
• December 8 – Xaver Scharwenka, pianist and composer (b. 1850)
• date unknown
  • Black Benny, bass drummer (b. c. 1890)
  • Elkan Naumburg, businessman, musicologist and patron of the arts (b. 1835)
  • Mária Royová, songwriter (b. 1858)
  • Mark Walker, songwriter (b. 1846)