Events

• October - Bed ich Smetana completely loses his hearing, after being deaf in one ear for some time.
• Richard Wagner moves into the villa at Bayreuth.
• Franz Xaver Haberl founds a school for church musicians at Regensburg.

Classical music

• Anton Bruckner - Symphony No. 4
• Albert Dietrich - Violin Concerto
• Anton n Dvo k - String Quartet No. 7 opus 16 in A minor
• Friedrich Kiel - Christus (oratorio)
• Edouard Lalo - Symphonie Espagnole opus 21 in D minor
• Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky - Pictures at an Exhibition (for piano)
• Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky - Piano Concerto No. 1
• Giuseppe Verdi - Requiem

Opera

• Alfred Cellier - The Sultan of Mocha (premiered at Manchester)
• Gialdino Gialdini - L'Idolo cinese (premiered at the Teatro delle Logge, in Florence)
• Karel Miry - Het arme kind (opera in 1 act, libretto by J. Story, premiered in Ghent)
• Emile Pessard - Don Quichotte (premiered on February 13 at the Salle Erard, in Paris)
• Johann Strauss II - Die Fledermaus

Published popular music

• "Crimson Roses In the Heather" by Caroline Dana Howe & William Howard Doane
• "Laughing Eyes Of Blue" w. J. Cheever Goodwin m. Edward E. Rice. Performed by Eliza Weathersby in the burlesque musical Evangeline
• "Oh! Dat Watermelon!" by Luke Schoolcraft

Musical theater

• Evangeline, a US burlesque musical based upon a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, opened at Niblo's Gardens on July 27 and ran for only 16 performances before moving to Boston.
• Whittington, London production

Births

• January 4 - Josef Suk - Czech composer and violinist (d. 1935)
• February 6 - David Evans, composer (d. 1948)
• February 20 - Mary Garden, operatic soprano d. 1967)
• March 31 - Henri Marteau, French composer and violinist (d. 1934)
• July 5 - Anna Lang, Swedish harpsichordist.
• July 26 - Serge Koussevitzky, Russian-born conductor and double-bassist (d. 1951)
• August 9 - Reynaldo Hahn, French composer and conductor (d. 1947)
• September 13 - Arnold Schoenberg, composer (d. 1951)
• September 21 - Gustav Holst, English composer (d. 1934)
• October 20 - Charles Ives, American composer (d. 1954)
• November 12 - Bert Williams, entertainer (d. 1922)
• November 15 - Alberto Zelman, conductor (d. 1927)
• December 13 - Josef Lh vinne, Russian pianist (d. 1944)
• December 22 - Franz Schmidt, Austrian composer (d. 1939)
• December 25 - Lina Cavalieri, glamorous opera singer (d. 1944)
• December 31 - Ernest Austin, English composer (d. 1947)

Deaths

• February 13 - Johann Friedrich Franz Burgm ller, pianist and composer (b. 1806)
• March 20 - Hans Christian Lumbye, Danish composer and conductor (b. 1810)
• May 1 - Vil m Blodek, flautist, pianist and composer (b. 1834)
• June 30 - Blanche d'Antigny, singer and actress (b. 1840) (typhoid)
• July 3 - Franz Bendel, composer (b. 1832)
• October 6 - Thomas Tellefsen, pianist and composer (b. 1823)
• October 26 - Peter Cornelius, German composer (b. 1824)
• November 24 - Friedrich Wilhelm Grund, German composer (b. 1791)
• December 19 - Josef Vorel, composer (b. 1801)
• December 22 - Johann Peter Pixis, German pianist and composer (b. 1788)
• date unknown
  • Salvatore Agnelli, composer (b. 1817)
  • Sanford Faulkner, fiddle player and composer (b. 1806)
  • Dominique Peccatte, luthier (b. 1810)

fr:1874 en musique mk:1874 pt:1874 na m sica sq:1874 n muzik sv:Musik ret 1874