1920 in music

Specific locations

• 1920 in British music
• 1920 in Scandinavian music

  Specific genres

• 1920 in country music
• 1920 in jazz

  Events

• January 19 – The Salzburg Festival is revived.
• September 4 – City of Birmingham Orchestra first rehearses. Later this month, its first concert, conducted by Appleby Matthews, opens with Granville Bantock's overture Saul; in November it gives its "First Symphony Concert" when Edward Elgar conducts a programme of his own music in Birmingham Town Hall.
• November 15 – First complete public performance of Gustav Holst's suite The Planets given in London by the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Albert Coates.
• December 4 – Première of the opera Die tote Stadt by 23-year-old Erich Wolfgang Korngold. It later becomes known that the librettist, "Paul Schott", is Korngold's father Julius.
• December 30 – Pearl Hamilton, plays piano with small jazz ensemble to appreciative audience at the Star Theater in New York City.
• Mamie Smith's first blues recordings become a hit, alerting record companies to the African American market.
• Hamilton Harty is appointed resident conductor of the Hallé Orchestra.
• Henri Sauguet forms Groupe des Trois along with Louis Emié and Jean-Marcel Lizotte.
• The Central Band of the Royal Air Force is formed in Britain.
• The Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra launches its Mahler festival.
• Gabriel Fauré retires from the Paris Conservatoire, and is awarded the Grand-Croix of the Légion d'Honneur.

  Publications

• Stewart Macpherson – Melody and Harmony, Book 1. London: Stainer & Bell.

  Published popular music

• "After You Get What You Want, You Don't Want It" w.m. Irving Berlin
• "All She'd Say Was "Umh Hum"" w.m. King Zany, Mac Emery, Gus Van & Joe Schenck
• "All The Boys Love Mary" Gus Van & Joe Schenck
• "Aunt Hagar's Blues" w.m. W. C. Handy
• "Avalon" w.m. B. G. DeSylva, Al Jolson & Vincent Rose
• "Blue Jeans" w. Harry D. Kerr, m. Lou Traveller
• "Bright Eyes" w. Harry B. Smith m. Otto Motzan & M. K. Jerome
• "Broadway Blues w. Arthur Swanstrom m. Carey Morgan
• "Chanson" m. Rudolf Friml
• "Chili Bean" w. Lew Brown m. Albert Von Tilzer
• "Crazy Blues" w.m. Percy Bradford
• "The Cuckoo Waltz" w. Arthur Kingsley m. J. E. Jonasson
• "Daddy, You've Been A Mother To Me" w.m. Fred Fisher
• "Down By The O-HI-O " w. Jack Yellen m. Abe Olman
• "Feather Your Nest" w.m. James Kendis, James Brockman & Howard Johnson
• "The Gipsy Warned Me" w.m. R. P. Weston & Bert Lee
• "He Went In Like A Lion " w. Andrew B. Sterling m. Harry von Tilzer
• "Home Again Blues" w.m. Harry Akst & Irving Berlin
• "I Belong to Glasgow" w.m. Will Fyffe
• "I Used To Love You, But It's All Over Now" w. Lew Brown m. Albert Von Tilzer
• "I'd Love To Fall Asleep And Wake Up In My Mammy's Arms" w. Sam M. Lewis & Joe Young m. Fred E. Ahlert
• "I'll Be With You In Apple Blossom Time" w. Neville Fleason m. Albert Von Tilzer
• "I'll See You In C-U-B-A" w.m. Irving Berlin
• "In a Persian Market" m. Albert William Ketèlbey
• "The Japanese Sandman" w. Raymond B. Egan m. Richard A. Whiting
• "Jellybean" by Jimmie Dupre, Sam Rosen, and Joe Verges

• "Kalua" w. Anne Caldwell m. Jerome Kern
• "La Veeda" w. Nat Vincent m. John Alden
• "Left All Alone Again Blues" w. Anne Caldwell m. Jerome Kern
• "Little Town In The Ould County Down" w. Richard Pascoe m. Monte Carlo & Alma Saunders
• "Look for the Silver Lining" w. B. G. DeSylva m. Jerome Kern
• "The Love Boat" by Gene Buck
• "Love Nest" w. Otto Harbach m. Louis A. Hirsch
• "Margie" w. Benny Davis m. Con Conrad & J. Russel Robinson
• "Mary" w. Otto Harbach m. Louis A. Hirsch
• "My Little Bimbo Down On A Bamboo Isle" w. Grant Clarke w. Walter Donaldson
• "My Mammy" w. Sam M. Lewis & Joe Young m. Walter Donaldson
• "My Man" w. Channing Pollock Albert Willemetz & Jacques Charles m. Maurice Yvain
• "O'er The Hills To Ardentinny" w.m. Harry Lauder
• "Old Pal Why Don't You Answer Me" w. Sam M. Lewis & Joe Young m. M. K. Jerome
• "Pale Moon" w. Jesse Glick m. Frederick Knight Logan
• "Palesteena" w.m. Con Conrad & J. Russell Robinson
• "Polly" w. Leo Wood m. Jack Richmond
• "Pretty Kitty Kelly" w. Harry Pease m. Ed G. Nelson
• "Rose Of Washington Square" w. Ballard MacDonald m. James F. Hanley
• "San" w.m. Lindsay McPhail & Walter Michels
• "So Long, Oo Long" w. Bert Kalmar m. Harry Ruby
• "That Old Irish Mother Of Mine" w. William Jerome m. Harry Von Tilzer
• "Wang Wang Blues" w. Leo Wood m. Gus Mueller, Buster Johnson & Henry Busse
• "When My Baby Smiles At Me" w. Andrew B. Sterling m. Billy Munro
• "Where Do They Go When They Row, Row, Row?" w. Bert Kalmar & George Jessel, m. Harry Ruby
• "Whispering" w. Malvin Schonberger m. John Schonberger
• "White Army, Black Baron" w. Pavel Grigor'ev, m. Samuel Pokrass
• "Whose Baby Are You?" w. Anne Caldwell m. Jerome Kern
• "Wild Rose" w. Clifford Grey m. Jerome Kern
• "A Young Man's Fancy" w. John Murray Anderson & Jack Yellen m. Milton Ager

  Top Popular Recordings 1920

Classical music

• Granville Bantock – Arabian Nights
• Béla Bartók – Eight Improvisations on Peasant Songs
• Arnold Bax – Phantasy for viola and orchestra
• Arthur Bliss – The Tempest, overture and interludes;
• *Concerto for piano, tenor voice, strings and percussion
• *Rout
• Ernest Bloch – Violin Sonata No. 1
• Max Bruch - String Octet
• Ferruccio Busoni – Piano Sonatina No. 6,
• *Divertimento for flute and orchestra
• Frederick Delius – Hassan
• George Enescu – String Quartet No. 1 in E-flat major, Op. 22, No. 1
• Gabriel Fauré – Masques et Bergamasques
• Johan Halvorsen – Norwegian Rhapsody No. 2
• Arthur Honegger – Pastorale d'été
• *Viola Sonata
• *Cello Sonata
• Leoš Janáček – Ballad of Blanik
• Darius Milhaud – Ballade
• *Le Boeuf sur le toit,
• Francis Poulenc – Five Impromptus for Piano, Suite in C Major for Piano
• Sergei Prokofiev – Five Songs without Words
• Maurice Ravel – La Valse
• *Sonata for violin and cello
• Camille Saint-Saëns - Odelette in D major Op. 162
• Erik Satie – La Belle excentrique
• Dmitri Shostakovich – Five Preludes for piano
• Igor Stravinsky – Concertino for string quartet,
• *Pulcinella
• *Symphonies of Wind Instruments
• Ralph Vaughan Williams – The Lark Ascending
• *Mass in G minor
• Heitor Villa-Lobos – Symphony No. 5, "A paz"

  Opera

• Vincent D'Indy – The Legend of St. Christoper
• Clemens Freiherr von Franckenstein – Li-Tai-Pe
• Henry Hadley – Cleopatra's Night
• Leoš Janáček – The Excursions of Mr. Broucek on the Moon and in the 15th Century
• Erich Korngold – Die tote Stadt
• Ruggiero Leoncavallo – ''Edipo Re''

  [Jazz]