Birthdays in Music
- Jan 29 Adolf Philipp, composer
- Feb 5 Carl Teike, German military composer, born in Stettin-Altdamm, Pomerania (d. 1922)
- Feb 7 Arthur Collins, singer/comedian (Peerless Quartet)
- Feb 7 Ricardo Castro Herrera, composer
- Feb 17 Andrew Barton "Banjo" Paterson, NSW Australia, poet (Waltzing Matilda)
- Mar 15 Johan Halvorsen, composer
- Mar 15 Leslie Stuart, composer
- Mar 23 Hjalmar Borgstrom, composer
- Mar 23 Louis Glass, Danish composer, born in Copenhagen (d. 1936)
- Apr 10 Eugene Francis Charles D'Albert, German pianist and composer (Golem), born in Glasgow, Scotland (d. 1932)
- May 14 Eleanor Everest Freer, composer
- Jun 11 Richard Strauss, German composer (Don Quixote), born in Munich, Germany (d. 1949)
- Jun 15 Guy Ropartz [Joseph Guy Marie Ropartz], French composer, born in Guingamp, France (d. 1955)
- Jun 29 Anton Beer-Walbrun, German composer, born in Kohlberg, Germany (d. 1929)
- Jul 6 Alberto Nepomuceno, Brazilian composer and conductor (Artemis), born in Fortaleza, State of Ceará, Brazil (d. 1920)
- Jul 24 Michel-Gaston Carraud, French composer, born in Le Mée-sur-Seine, France (d. 1920)
- Aug 5 Resurreccion Maria de Azkue, Basque priest, composer and first head of the Euskaltzaindia, born in Lekeitio, Spain (d. 1951)
- Aug 31 Max Wilhelm Zach, composer
- Sep 3 Hale A. VanderCook, American composer, born in Ann Arbor, Michigan (d. 1949)
- Sep 7 Giovanni Tebaldini, Italian composer, born in Brescia, Lombardy, Italy (d. 1952)
- Oct 25 Alexander Gretchaninov, Russian composer, born in Moscow, Russia (d. 1956)
- Oct 26 Joseph Moorat, British composer (Prunella); (d. 1938)
- Oct 30 Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge, composer
- Nov 10 Alexandre Levy, Brazilian composer and pianist, born in São Paulo, Brazil (d. 1892)
- Dec 9 Sidney Homer, American composer, born in Boston, Massachusetts (d. 1953)
- Dec 17 John Felix August Korling, composer
- Dec 19 Adolf Sandberger, composer
- Dec 30 Alessandro Longo, Italian composer and musicologist, born in Amantea, Italy (d. 1945)
Deaths in Music
Stephen Foster
Jan 13 Stephen Foster, American composer (My Old Kentucky Home), dies at 37 in New York
Stephen Foster
- Jan 15 Isaac Nathan, UK-Australian composer (b. 1792)
- Jan 16 Anton Schindler, German violinist and biographer (Beethoven), dies at 68
- Jan 23 Michele Puccini, Italian organist and composer (father of Giacomo), dies at 50
- Jan 24 Otto Jonas Lindblad, composer, dies at 54
- Feb 16 Vaclav Jindrich Veit, composer, dies at 58
- Mar 30 Louis Alexander Balthasar Schindelmeisser, composer, dies 52
- Apr 13 Johann Schneider, German composer and organist, dies at 74
- May 2 Giacomo Meyerbeer, German opera composer (Golt Und Die Natur), dies at 72
- Jul 28 Johann Hermann Kufferath, composer, dies at 67
- Oct 18 Jacques Francois Gallay, composer, dies at 68
- Oct 27 Andreas Randel, Swedish composer, dies at 58
- Dec 21 William Henry Fry, American composer, dies at 51