Events

• January 1 – Julius Friedländer buys the Leipzig music publishing house, CF Peters.^[1]
• February 9 – The second "Querelle des Bouffons" is sparked when Hector Berlioz criticizes Richard Wagner's music in the Journal des débats.^[1] Wagner responds on February 15.
• February 10 – The Serenade No. 2 in A, Op. 16 by Johannes Brahms is given its first public performance in Hamburg.
• March 3 – The Serenade No. 1 in D, Op. 11 by Johannes Brahms is given its first public performance in Hanover.
• April 9 – Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville records himself singing "Au Clair de la Lune" – the earliest known intelligible recording of the human voice.
• May 4 – Charles Bacon's bronze statue of the late Felix Mendelssohn is unveiled at Crystal Palace in London.^[1]
• September 14 – Franz Liszt makes a will.^[1]
• October 22 – The city of Weimar pays tribute to Franz Liszt with a torchlight procession and honorary citizenship.^[1]
• The first Viennese operetta, Das Pensionat by Franz von Suppé, is premièred at the Theater an der Wien.
• Richard Wagner essay on "Music of the Future" is first published, in French translation.
• First official National Eisteddfod of Wales is held at Denbigh.

Published popular music

• "Dixie" by Dan Emmett
• "Down Among the Cane-Brakes" by Stephen Foster
• "Kalinka" by Ivan Larionov
• "Lincoln and Liberty" words by Jesse Hutchinson, Jr.
• "Mary Of Argyle" words by Charles Jefferys, music by Sidney Nelson
• "Old Black Joe" by Stephen Foster
• "Virginia Belle" by Stephen Foster
• "When the Corn Is Waving, Annie Dear" by Charles Blamphin
• "I'll Twine 'Mid the Ringlets" words by Maud Irving, music by Joseph Philbrick Webster

Classical music

• Johannes Brahms
  • Vier Gesänge, for women's chorus, two horns and harp, Op. 17
  • String Sextet No. 1 in B-flat major, Op. 18
• Karl Davydov – Fantasie über russische Lieder, Op.7
• Eduard Franck
  • Piano Trio No.2 in E♭ major, Op.22
  • Violin Sonata No.2, Op.23
• Joseph Mikel – Les lanciers aux bains de mer
• Louis Moreau Gottschalk – Jeunesse, Op.70
• Franz Liszt – First of the Mephisto Waltzes
• John Knowles Paine – Concert Variations on the Austrian Hymn in F for Organ (Op.3, No.1)
• Anton Rubinstein – Soirées à Saint-Pétersbourg
• Camille Saint-Saëns
  • Symphony No.2, Op.55
  • Ave Maria

Opera

• Gaetano Donizetti – Rita, ou Le mari battu (Posthumously discovered, premiered, and published)
• Flor van Duyse – Teniers te Grimbergen (libretto by Prudens van Duyse, premiered at Ghent)
• Charles Gounod – La colombe, premiered August 3 in Baden-Baden
• Stanislaw Moniuszko – Hrabina
• Jacques Offenbach
  • Barkouf
  • Le carnaval des revues

Musical theater

• Orphée Aux Enfers, Vienna production

Births

• January 7 – Emanuil Manolov, Bulgarian composer (d. 1902)
• January 24 – Philippe Bellenot, composer (died 1928)
• March 13 – Hugo Wolf, composer (d. 1903)
• May 5 – Pietro Floridia, composer (d. 1932)
• May 17 – August Stradal, pianist (died 1930)
• May 29 – Isaac Albéniz, pianist and composer (d. 1909)
• June 25 – Gustave Charpentier, composer (d. 1956)
• July 7
  • Florence Farr, actress and composer (d. 1917)
  • Gustav Mahler, conductor and composer (d. 1911)
• September 1 – Cleofonte Campanini, conductor (d. 1919)
• September 18 – Alberto Franchetti, opera composer (d. 1942)
• November 18 – Ignacy Jan Paderewski, pianist (d. 1941)^[2]
• November 27 – Victor Ewald, composer (d. 1935)
• December 4 – Lillian Russell, US singer and actress (d. 1922)
• December 18 – Edward MacDowell, pianist and composer (d. 1908)
• December 20 – Dan Leno, English music hall comedian, dancer and singer (d. 1904)
• December 24 – Julius Korngold, music critic (died 1945)
• December 28 – Harry B. Smith, US songwriter (d. 1936)
• December 30 – Thomas Bulch, brass-band composer (d. 1930)

Deaths

• January 26 – Wilhelmine Schröder-Devrient, opera singer (b. 1804)^[3]
• February 24 – James Barr, composer (born 1779)
• March 6 – Justus Johann Friedrich Dotzauer, French cellist and composer (b. 1783)
• March 14 – Louis Antoine Jullien, conductor and composer (b. 1812)^[4]
• May 21 – Johannes Frederik Fröhlich, violinist, conductor and composer (b. 1806)
• June 21 – Mykola Markevych, musician, composer and poet (b. 1804)
• 10 August – Sara Augusta Malmborg, singer, pianist and painter (b. 1810)
• August 26 – Friedrich Silcher, composer (b. 1789)
• September 25 – Carl Friedrich Zöllner, composer and choirmaster (b. 1800)
• November 27 – Ludwig Rellstab, critic (b. 1799)
• date unknown
  • James Barr, composer (b. 1779)
  • Veena Kuppayyar, composer of Carnatic music (b. 1798)

References

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