- Jan 2 (Károly) "Karl" Goldmark, Hungarian-Viennese violinist and composer (Rustic Wedding Symphony; The Queen of Sheba; Sakuhtala), dies at 84
- Jan 15 Guillaume Couture, Canadian choir conductor, composer, and teacher, dies at 63
- Feb 7 Władysław Górski, Polish violinist, composer and teacher, dies at 68
- Feb 12 Émile Waldteufel, French pianist and composer (Estudiantina), dies at 77
- Feb 24 Amanda Smith, American former slave, singer and evangelist, dies at 78
- Apr 1 Johann Joseph Abert, German composer, dies at 82
- Apr 25 Nicola d' Arienzo, Italian composer, and pedagogue, dies at 72
- Apr 27 Alexander Scriabin, Russian composer (Prometheus) & pianist, dies at 43
- Jun 4 William Denis Browne, British composer, dies at 26
- Jun 7 Benjamin Lambord, American composer, dies at 35
- Jun 19 Sergei Taneyev, Russian pianist and composer (Oresteia), dies at 58
- Jul 15 Ludwik Grossman, composer, dies at 80
- Jul 17 Francesco Fanciulli, American-Italian composer, dies on 62nd birthday
- Jul 18 George William Louis Marshall-Hall, English composer, dies at 53
- Sep 29 Luther Orlando Emerson, American composer, dies at 95
- Sep 29 Rudi Stephan, German composer (Die ersten Menschen), dies fighting in World War I at 28
- Oct 2 Russell Alexander, American vaudenille performer, euphonium virtuoso, and march composer, dies at 38
- Oct 4 George Edwardes, British composer (Gaiety Girl), dies at 59
- Oct 5 José María Usandizaga, Spanish Basque composer (Mendi Mendiyan - High in the Mountains), dies of tuberculosis at 28
- Oct 5 Otto Valdemar Malling, Danish organist and composer (Det hellige Land, opus 46), dies at 67
- Oct 7 Samuel Prowse Warren, Canadian composer and organist, dies at 74
- Nov 14 Theodor Leschetizky, Polish pianist, composer, and teacher (Contes de Jeunesse), dies at 85
- Nov 19 Joe Hill [Joel Hägglund], Swedish-American labor activist and protest songwriter "The Preacher and the Slave"; "There Is Power in a Union"), executed at Sugar House Prison in Salt Lake City, Utah for murder at 36
- Nov 27 Sigismund Vladislavovich Zaremba, Ukrainian-Russian composer, dies at 54
- Dec 2 Jan Malat, Czech composer, dies at 72
- Dec 4 Gustav Hollaender, German violinist, conductor, and composer, dies at 60
- Dec 29 C. B. Hawley, American organist and composer, dies at 57