Events

• April 9? Franz Berwald's Symphony No. 4 receives its premiere performance, conducted by Ludvig Norman.
• May 28 Gilbert & Sullivan's H.M.S. Pinafore debuts in London

Published popular music

• "Aloha `Oe" w.m. Queen Liliuokalani of Hawaii
• "Carry Me Back To Old Virginny" w.m. James A. Bland
• "De Gospel Raft" by Frank Dumont
• "Emmet's Lullaby" Joseph K. Emmet
• From HMS Pinafore: (words by W. S. Gilbert, music by Arthur Sullivan)
  • "I Am The Captain Of The Pinafore"
  • "I Am The Ruler Of The Queen's Navee"
  • "I'm Called Little Buttercup"
  • "Kind Captain"
  • "Never Mind the Why and Wherefore"
  • "When I Was a Lad"
• "In The Evening By the Moonlight" w.m. James A. Bland
• "Keep In De Middle Ob De Road"     w.m. Will Hays
• "Ten Little Injuns" w. & m. Septimus Winner

Classical music

• Johannes Brahms - Motets Op. 74; Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 77
• Anton Bruckner - Symphony No. 4 (Bruckner) - 2nd version; Symphony No. 5 (Bruckner)
• Ferruccio Busoni Piano Concerto in D, op. 17, for piano and string orchestra
• George Whitefield Chadwick - String Quartet No. 1
• Felix Otto Dessoff - String Quartet in F, Op. 7
• Anton n Dvo k -
  • Serenade for Wind Instruments (Dvo k) (op. 44/B. 77)
  • String Sextet (Dvo k), (op. 48/B. 80)
  • Slavonic Dances, Set 1 (op. 46/B. 83)
  • Three Slavonic Rhapsodies (op. 45/B. 86)
• Gabriel Faur - Chanson Apres un r ve (Op. 7 No. 1)
• Niels Gade Capriccio for violin and orchestra in A minor
• Hans Huber - Piano Concerto No. 1 in C minor, Op. 36
• Vincent d'Indy - La for t enchant e
• douard Lalo - Fantaisie norvegienne
• Giuseppe Martucci - Piano Concerto No. 1 in D minor; Piano Quintet in C major, Op. 45
• Joachim Raff - Symphony No. 9 Im Sommer, Op. 208
• Josef Rheinberger - Mass in E-flat (Cantus Miss ) for double choir, Op. 109; Organ Sonata No. 5 in F-sharp Minor, Op. 111; Trio for Piano and Strings No. 2 in A, Op. 112; Piano Quintet in C, Op. 114^[1]
• Bernhard Scholz - String Quintet Op. 47^[2]
• Sergei Taneyev Symphony no 2 in B flat minor
• Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
  • Symphony No. 4 in F minor, op. 36
  • Violin Concerto in D major

Opera

• Alfred Cellier After All!
• Charles Gounod Polyeucte (opera)
• Charles Edouard Lefebvre Lucr ce
• Miguel Marqu s El anillo de hierro (libretto by Marcos Zapata, premiered in Madrid)
• Joseph Parry Blodwen
• Emile Pessard
  • Le char premiered on January 18 at the Th tre de l'Op ra-Comique, Paris
  • Le Capitaine Fracasse premiered on July 2 at the Th tre Lyrique, Paris
• Joachim Raff - Benedetto Marcello

Musical theater

• Gilbert and Sullivan H.M.S. Pinafore, London production
• Jacques Offenbach Madame Favart, Paris production

Births

• January 23 - Rutland Boughton, English composer
• February 16 - Selim Palmgren, Finnish composer^[3]
• February 26 - Emmy Destinn, Czech soprano
• February 28 - Artur Kapp, Estonian composer
• March 4 Egbert Van Alstyne, US songwriter
• March 23 - Franz Schreker, Austrian composer, conductor and teacher
• March 29 Albert Von Tilzer, US songwriter
• May 24 - Louis Fleury, flautist (d. 1926)
• May 25 Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, American tap dancer, singer, actor
• July 3 George M. Cohan, US songwriter, entertainer
• July 5 - Joseph Holbrooke, English composer
• July 12 - Percy Hilder Miles, composer, violinist and teacher
• July 22 Ernest Ball, US composer
• July 25 Heinrich Gebhard, composer
• August 18 - Fritz Brun, composer and conductor
• August 22 - Edward Johnson (tenor), Canadian tenor
• September 17 - Vincenzo Tommasini, Italian composer
• October 19 Alphonse Picou, clarinettist
• November 4 Jean Schwartz, songwriter
• November 23 - Andr Caplet, French composer and conductor

Deaths

• January 15 - Carlo Blasis, dancer and choreographer (b. 1797)
• February 2 Josif Runjanin, composer (b. 1821)
• April 8 Henriette "Jetty" Treffz, singer, first wife and business manager of Johann Strauss II (b. 1818)
• April 21 - Temistocle Solera, librettist and composer (b. 1815)
• May 6 - Fran ois Benoist, organist and composer (b. 1794)
• July 2 - Fran ois Bazin, opera composer (b. 1816)
• August 23 - Adolf Fredrik Lindblad, composer (b. 1801)
• October - Ludwig Wilhelm Maurer, violinist, conductor and composer (b. 1789)
• November - Marco Aurelio Zani de Ferranti, guitarist and composer (b. 1801)
• November 13 - Carl Heissler, violinist (b. 1826)
• December 18 - Heinrich Proch, composer (b. 1809)
• December 28 Jos Bernardo Alcedo, composer of the Peruvian national anthem (b. 1788)
• date unknown - Robert Heller, pianist and magician (b. 1826)

References

fr:1878 en musique mk:1878 pt:1878 na m sica sq:1878 n muzik sv:Musik ret 1878