Events

• January 1 - Hector Berlioz completes his Memoirs.
• April 28 - Giacomo Meyerbeer's opera L'Africaine is premiered in Paris at the Grand Opéra, after the composer's death.
• June 10 - Richard Wagner's opera Tristan und Isolde debuts in Munich at the Court Opera
• September 9 - Franz von Suppé's operetta Die schöne Galathee debuts in Vienna's Carl-Theater.
• December 17 - Franz Schubert's Unfinished Symphony debuts in Vienna, following the composer's death.
• Philipp Scharwenka relocates to Berlin.
• Joseph Parry is admitted to the Gorsedd of bards at the National Eisteddfod of Wales.

Published popular songs

• "Jeff in Pettycoats" by Henry Tucker
• "Marching Through Georgia" w.m. Henry Clay Work
• "Roll Jordan Roll" traditional spiritual
• "The Ship That Never Returned" w.m. Henry Clay Work
• "Tramp, Tramp, Tramp" w.m. George Frederick Root

Classical music

• Elfrida Andrée - Piano quintet in E minor
• Johannes Brahms - Trio for violin, horn and piano op. 40
• Felix Draeseke - Lacrimosa
• Antonín Dvořák - Symphony no. 1 , also Cello concerto no. 1 in A major (later reconstructed by Günter Raphael and by Jaromir Burghauser
• Edvard Grieg - Piano sonata op. 7 in E minor, Violin sonata no. 1 op. 8
• Franz Liszt - Missa Choralis

Opera

• François Bazin - Le voyage en Chine
• Giacomo Meyerbeer - L'Africaine
• Richard Wagner - Tristan und Isolde

Musical theater

• Orpheus In The Underworld, London production opened at Her Majesty's Theatre on December 26 and ran for 76 performances

Births

• May 9 - August de Boeck, Belgian composer (d. 1937)
• June 9
  • Carl Nielsen, composer (d. 1931)
  • Albéric Magnard, composer (d. 1914)
• July 21 - Robert Kahn, composer (d. 1951)
• August 10 - Alexander Glazunov, composer (d. 1936)
• October 1 - Paul Dukas, composer (d. 1935)
• December 3 - Gustav Jenner, composer (d. 1920)
• December 8 - Jean Sibelius, composer (d. 1957)
• December 25 - Fay Templeton, US singer and actress

Deaths

• January 23 - Josef Leopold Zvonař, composer and music critic (b. 1824)
• January 27 - Giuseppe Rocca, violin maker (b. 1807)
• January 28 - Felice Romani, librettist for Donizetti and Bellini (b. 1788)
• February 20 - Pierre-Louis Dietsch, French composer and conductor (b. 1808)
• April 1 - Giuditta Pasta, operatic soprano (b. 1797)
• September 10 - George Linley, poet and composer (b. 1798)
• October 8 - Heinrich Wilhelm Ernst, violinist and composer (b. 1814)
• October 12 - William Vincent Wallace, composer (b. 1812)
• December 6 - Sebastián Iradier, composer (b. 1809)
• December 18 - Francisco Manuel da Silva, songwriter and music professor (b. 1795)
• date unknown - François Xavier Bazin, bow-maker (b. 1824) (cholera)