1938 in Music - Deaths

Deaths

• January 19 – Rosa Mayreder, feminist writer, artist and musician, 79
• January 20 – Nikolai Zhilyayev, musicologist, 56
• January 29 – Carl Venth, violinist and composer, 77
• February 4 – Dominique Heckmes, composer and music critic, 59
• February 25 - Růžena Maturová, operatic contralto, 68
• March 2 – Ben Harney, ragtime composer & entertainer
• March 12 – Lyda Roberti, actress and singer, 31 (heart attack)
• March 18 – Cyril Rootham, composer, 62
• April 5 – Reine Davies, actress and singer, 51 (heart attack)
• April 8 – Joe "King" Oliver, jazz trumpeter & band leader, 52
• April 12 – Feodor Chaliapin, operatic bass, 65
• April 18 – Richard Runciman Terry, musicologist, 72
• June – Fred Barnes, music hall entertainer (suicide)
• June 26 – James Weldon Johnson, US songwriter, author, diplomat and educationalist, 67
• July 27 – James Thornton, English-born US songwriter and vaudeville comedian, 76
• August 14 – Landon Ronald, pianist and composer, 65
• August 16 – Robert Johnson, blues musician, 27 (suspected strychnine poisoning)
• August 30 – James Scott, ragtime composer, 53
• September 4 – Oreste Candi, violin-maker, 72
• September 8 – Agustín Magaldi, tango singer, 39
• September 28 – Con Conrad, songwriter, 47
• October 22 – May Irwin, vaudeville star, 76
• October 27
  • Alma Gluck, soprano, 54 (liver failure)
  • Khadija Gayibova, Azerbaijani pianist, 45 (executed)
• November 21 – Leopold Godowsky, pianist and composer, 68
• December 10 – Mario Pilati, composer, 35
• December 21 - James Milton Black, hymn-writer and choir-master, 82
• date unknown
  • Gianni Bettini, phonograph maker
  • Minnie Egener, operatic mezzo-soprano
  • Papa Charlie Jackson, blues musician
  • Mary Elizabeth Turner Salter, American soprano singer and composer
  • Attilio Salvaneschi, operatic tenor
  • Gus Wickie, singer and voice actor
• probable – Oskar Böhme, trumpeter and composer