1861 in music

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Events

• February 18 – To celebrate the opening of the parliament of the new Italian nation at Turin, Giuseppe Verdi's opera La Favorita is performed in the Teatro Regio. Verdi himself is a deputy in the new parliament.
• March 13–24 – The only three performances of the Paris version of Wagner's opera Tannhäuser attract increasing disturbances.
• November – Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov is introduced by his teacher Feodor A. Kanille to Mily Balakirev. This completes The Five (The Mighty Handful) of composers. He begins his Symphony No. 1 in E flat under Balakirev's guidance.
• November 15 – Teaching begins at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, founded by conductor Henry Wylde, the oldest specialist performing arts school in the British Isles.
• Tchaikovsky starts to attend Russian Musical Society classes in music theory taught by Nikolai Zaremba at the Mikhailovsky Palace.

Published popular music

• "Go Down, Moses", traditional African American spiritual, heard as a rallying anthem for the Contrabands at Fort Monroe; first spiritual known to be recorded in sheet music.
• "Abide With Me", w. Rev Henry Francis Lyte (1847), m. William Henry Monk ("Eventide," 1861)
• "Alice, Where Art Thou?", w. Wellington Guernsey m. Joseph Ascher
• "Aura Lea", w. W. W. Fosdick m. George R. Poulton
• "The Bonnie Blue Flag", w. Mrs Annie Chambers Ketchum m. Harry Macarthy
• "Eternal Father, Strong to Save", w. William Whiting m. Rev. John Bacchus Dykes
• "Holy! Holy! Holy! Lord God Almighty", w. Reginald Heber (1826), m. John Bacchus Dykes ("Nicaea," 1861)
• "I'm Going Home to Dixie", w. Dan Emmett arr. C. S. Grafully
• "John Brown's Body", w. anon m. William Steffe
• "Maryland, My Maryland", w. James Ryder Randall m. Walter de Mapers, m. "Mini est Propositum" (12th century)
• "The Privateer", w.m. anon ("Quien Sabé")
• "The Vacant Chair", w. Henry S. Washburn (1861), m. George Frederick Root (1862)

Classical music

• Peter Benoit
  • Fantaisie No.4, Op.20
  • Piano Sonata, Op.34, premiered March 21 by Angèle Tailhardat
  • Hoogmis, premiered July 21 in Brussels
• Hermann Berens – 50 Piano Pieces for First Beginners, Op.70
• Alexander Borodin – Piano Trio in D major
• Johannes Brahms
  • Variations on a Theme by Robert Schumann Op.23 (based on Schumann's “last musical thought,” sketched in February 1854)
  • Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel Op.24
  • Piano Quartet No.1, Op.25
  • Piano Quartet No.2, Op.26
• Anton Bruckner
  • Afferentur regi, WAB 1
  • Am Grabe, WAB 2
  • Ave Maria, WAB 6
  • Du bist wie eine Blume, WAB 64, dated December 5
  • Fugue in D minor, WAB 125, dated November 8
• Antonín Dvořák – String Quintet No. 1 in A minor, Op. 1
• Hermann Goetz – Piano Concerto in E-flat
• Edvard Grieg – 4 Songs, Op.2
• Arthur Sullivan – The Tempest, premiered April 6 in Leipzig.
• Thomas Dyke Acland Tellefsen
  • Marche triomphale, Op.29
  • Grande Valses, Op.30
  • Piano Trio, Op.31
• Henri Vieuxtemps – Violin Concerto No. 5
• Robert Volkmann
  • Ungarische Skizzen, Op.24
  • String Quartet No.6, Op.43

Opera

• Daniel François Esprit Auber – La Circassienne, premiered February 2 in Paris
• Ferenc Erkel – Bánk bán
• Stanislaw Moniuszko – Verbum Nobile
• Amilcare Ponchielli – La Savoiarda

Musical theater

• Orpheus In The Underworld by Offenbach, New York production (first performed in Paris, 1858)

Published Methods and Writings

• John Curwen – How to Observe Harmony
• John Hullah – The History of Modern Music
• Carl von Ledebur – Tonkünstler-Lexicon Berlin's
• Jean-Joseph Rodolphe – Solfège
• Eugène Sauzay – Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven
• Franz Xaver Schnyder von Wartensee – Aesthetische Betrachtungen über die Schöpfung

Births

• February 1 – Emilio Pizzi, composer (died 1940)
• February 21 – Pierre de Bréville, composer (d. 1949)
• April 7 – Clara Novello Davies, singer, conductor and music teacher (d. 1943)
• April 26 – Ferdinand Buescher, instrument manufacturer (d. 1937)
• April 27 – Georgy Catoire, composer (died 1926)
• May 10 – Francisco Cimadevilla González, guitarist and composer (d. 1931)
• May 12 – Ivan Caryll, composer (died 1921)
• May 19 – Nellie Melba, operatic soprano (d. 1931)
• June 11 – Sigismund Zaremba, composer (d. 1915)
• June 15 – Ernestine Schumann-Heink, operatic contralto (d. 1936)
• June 17 – Sidney Jones, composer of musical comedies (d. 1946)
• June 27 – Fanny Davies, pianist (d. 1934)
• July 16 – Franz von Blon, composer (died 1945)
• August 11 – Anton Arensky, pianist and composer (d. 1906)
• August 19 – Sadie Martinot, actress and soprano singer (d. 1923)
• September 7 – Thomas Whitney Surette, composer (died 1941)
• November 3 – Thomas O'Brien Butler, composer (died 1915)
• November 19 – Theodor Mannborg, organ maker (died 1930)
• November 29 – Spyridon Samaras, Greek opera composer, who also set to music the Olympic Anthem (d. 1917)
• November 30 – Ludwig Thuille, composer (died 1907)
• December 5 – James Thornton, English-born US songwriter and vaudeville comedian (d. 1938)
• December 18 – Lionel Monckton, composer of musical comedies (d. 1924)
• date unknown
  • Camille D'elmar, opera singer (d. 1902)
  • Giuseppe Fiorini, musical instrument maker (d. 1934)
  • Ferdinand Ellsworth Olds, instrument manufacturer (d. 1928)

Deaths

• January 17 – Lola Montez, dancer (b. 1821)
• January 22 – Giovanni Velluti, castrato singer (b. 1780)
• February 12 – Hippolyte André Jean Baptiste Chélard, conductor and composer (b. 1789)
• February 20 – Eugène Scribe, librettist (b. 1791)
• March 14 – Louis Niedermeyer, composer (b. 1802)
• May 3 – Anthony Philip Heinrich, composer (b. 1781)
• August 9 – Vincent Novello, composer and music publisher (b. 1781)
• August 11 – Catherine Hayes, soprano (born c. 1818)
• October 24 – Elisabeth Frösslind, opera singer (b. 1793)
• December 14 – Heinrich Marschner, composer (b. 1795)
• December 16 – Karol Lipiński, violinist and composer (b. 1790)
• December 18 – Ernst Anschütz, organist, composer and poet (b. 1780)
• December 25 – Natale Abbadia, composer (b. 1792)