Editing 1938 in music (section)

==Deaths==
*[[January 19]] – [[Rosa Mayreder]], feminist writer, artist and musician, 79
*[[January 20]] – [[Nikolai Zhilyayev (musicologist)|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
*[[February 27]] – [[Gianni Bettini]], phonograph maker (born 1860)
*[[March 2]] – [[Ben Harney]], ragtime composer & entertainer, 65
*[[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
*[[May 7]] – [[Papa Charlie Jackson]], American blues musician, 50
*[[May 13]] –  [[Felipe Pinglo Alva]], Peruvian composer, 36
*[[June 26]] – [[James Weldon Johnson]], US songwriter, author, diplomat and educationalist, 67
*[[July 9]] – [[:de:H. Benne Henton|H. Benne Henton]], American ragtime and early jazz saxophonist songwriter, 60
*[[July 24]] – [[Anatole Friedland]], American composer and songwriter, 57
*[[July 27]] – [[James Thornton (songwriter)|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 (musician)|James Scott]], ragtime composer, 53
*[[September 2]] – [[Fleta Jan Brown Spencer]], songwriter, composer, pianist, and singer, 56
*[[September 4]] – [[Oreste Candi]], violin-maker, 72
*[[September 8]] – [[Agustín Magaldi]], tango singer, 39
*[[September 12]] – [[Mary Elizabeth Turner Salter]], American soprano singer and composer, 82
*[[September 28]] – [[Con Conrad]], songwriter, 47
*[[October 22]] – [[May Irwin]], vaudeville star, 76
*[[October 23]] – [[Fred Barnes (performer)|Fred Barnes]], music hall entertainer, 53 (Tuberculosis)
*[[October 27]]
**<!--October 27-->[[Alma Gluck]], soprano, 54 (liver failure)
**<!--October 27-->[[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''
**[[Minnie Egener]], operatic mezzo-soprano (born 1881)
**[[Attilio Salvaneschi]], operatic tenor (born 1873)
*''probable'' – [[Oskar Böhme]], trumpeter and composer (born 1870)