Events in the year 1896 in music.

Specific locations

• 1896 in Norwegian music

Events

• March 18 – Danish composer Carl Nielsen conducts a performance of his First Symphony in Dresden; the event marks the beginning of his international success.^[1]
• March 19 – Leo Stern is soloist in the première of Dvořák's Cello Concerto, in B minor, Op. 104, B. 191, at the Queen's Hall in London.
• April 13 – Jean Sibelius conducts the world première of his Lemminkäinen Suite in Helsinki.
• December 27 – Formal première of Ernest Chausson's Poème for violin and orchestra, Op. 25, with Eugène Ysaÿe as soloist, at Nancy, France.
• Engelbert Humperdinck is created a professor of music by the Kaiser.
• Gabriel Fauré takes over from Théodore Dubois as organist of the church of La Madeleine, Paris.
• In Moscow, Mariya Kerzina and her husband Arkadiy Kerzin form the Circle of Russian Music Lovers, a performance society.

Published popular music

• "All Coons Look Alike to Me"     w.m. Ernest Hogan
• "Årstiderna"     w.m. Alice Tegnér
• "The Amorous Goldfish"     w. Harry Greenbank m. Sidney Jones
• "Chin, Chin, Chinaman"     w. Harry Greenbank m. Sidney Jones
• "El Capitan March"     m. John Philip Sousa
• "Eli Green's Cakewalk"     w.m. David Reed & Sadie Koninsky
• "Elsie From Chelsea"     w.m. Harry Dacre
• "Going For A Pardon"     w. James Thornton & Clara Havenschild m. James Thornton
• "Happy Days In Dixie"     m. Kerry Mills
• "Hot Tamale Alley" by George M. Cohan
• "A Hot Time In The Old Town"     w. Joseph Hayden m. Theodore A. Metz
• "I Love You In The Same Old Way – Darling Sue"     w. Walter H. Ford m. John Walter Bratton
• "In The Baggage Coach Ahead"     w.m. Gussie L. Davis
• "A Jovial Monk Am I"     w. (Eng) Arthur Sturgess m. Edmond Audran
• "Kentucky Babe"     w. Richard Henry Buck m. Adam Geibel
• "Laugh And The World Laughs With You"     w. Ella Wheeler Wilcox m. Louis Gottschalk
• "Love Makes The World Go 'Round"     w. Clyde Fitch m. arr. William Furst
• "Mister Johnson, Turn Me Loose"     w.m. Ben Harney
• "Mother Was A Lady"     w. Edward B. Marks m. Joseph W. Stern
• "Musetta's Waltz Song"     m. Giacomo Puccini
• "My Gal Is A High Born Lady"     w.m. Barney Fagan arr. Gustave Luders
• "Remus Takes the Cake" by J. H. Ellis
• "The Saint Louis Cyclone" by Ren Shields & George Evans
• "Sambo at the Cakewalk" by Alfred E. Marks
• "Stars & Stripes Forever" by John Philip Sousa
• "Sweet Rosie O'Grady" w.m. Maude Nugent
• "To A Wild Rose"     m. Edward MacDowell
• "Warmest Baby in the Bunch" by George M. Cohan
• "When the Saints Are Marching In"     w. Katharine E. Purvis m. James M. Black
• "You've Been a Good Old Wagon but You Done Broke Down" w.m. Ben Harney

Recorded popular music

• "All Coons Look Alike to Me" (w.m. Ernest Hogan)
  – Dan W. Quinn on Edison Records
• "The Amorous Goldfish" (w. Harry Greenbank m. Sidney Jones)
  – Dan W. Quinn on Edison Records
• "And Her Golden Hair Was Hanging Down Her Back" (w. Monroe H. Rosenfeld m. Felix McGlennon)
  – Maud Foster on Berliner Records
• "Annie Laurie" (w. William Douglas m. Lady John Douglas Scott)
  – George J. Gaskin on Edison
  – Edison Male Quartette on Edison
• "Auld Lang Syne" (w. adapted Robert Burns)
  – Edison Male Quartette on Edison
• "The Band Played On" (w. John F. Palmer m. Charles B. Ward)
  – Dan W. Quinn on Columbia records and Berliner
• "The Belle of Avenoo A" (w.m. Safford Waters)
  – Dan W. Quinn on Berliner
• "Ben Bolt" (w. Thomas Dunn English m. Nelson Kneass)
  – George J. Gaskin on Berliner
• "The Blue Danube" (m. Johann Strauss)
  – Edison Grand Concert Band on Edison
• "Chin, Chin, Chinaman" (w. Harry Greenbank m. Sidney Jones)
  – Dan W. Quinn on Edison
• "La Donna è Mobile" (w. Francesco Piave m. Giuseppe Verdi)
  – Ferruccio Giannini on Berliner
• "Don't You Hear Dem Bells?" (w.m. D. S. McCosh)
  – Brilliant Quartet on Berliner
• "Down in Poverty Row" (w. Gussie L. Davis m. Arthur Trevelyan)
  – Dan W. Quinn on Berliner
  – George J. Gaskin on Edison
• "Elsie from Chelsea" (w.m. Harry Dacre)
  – Dan W. Quinn on Edison
• "Funiculì, Funiculà" (w. G. Turco m. Luigi Denza)
  – Ferruccio Giannini on Berliner
• "The Future Mrs 'Awkins" (w.m. Albert Chevalier)
  – George J. Gaskin on Berliner
• "The Gladiators" (m. John Philip Sousa)
  – Edison Grand Concert Band on Edison
• "Hallelujah Chorus" (w. Charles Jennes m. George Frideric Handel)
  – Edison Grand Concert Band on Edison
• "The Holy City" (w. Frederick Edward Weatherly m. Stephen Adams)
  – Ferruccio Giannini on Berliner
• "Home Sweet Home" (w. John Howard Payne m. Sir Henry Rowley Bishop)
  – George J. Gaskin on Edison
• "The Honeymoon" (m. George Rosey)
  – Edison Grand Concert Band on Edison
• "I Don't Want to Play in Your Yard" (w. Philip Wingate m. Henry W. Petrie)
  – George J. Gaskin on Berliner
  – Maud Foster on Berliner
• "In the Baggage Coach Ahead" (w.m. Gussie L. Davis)
  – George J. Gaskin on Edison
  – Dan W. Quinn
• "I'se Gwine Back to Dixie" (w.m. C. A. White)
  – Brilliant Quartet on Berliner
• "I've Been Hoodoed"
  – Dan W. Quinn on Berliner
• "Just Tell Them That You Saw Me" (w.m. Paul Dresser)
  – George J. Gaskin on Berliner
  – Dan W. Quinn on Berliner
• "Kathleen" (w.m. Helene Mora)
  – George J. Gaskin on Edison
• "Kathleen Mavourneen" (w. Annie Crawford (Barry) m. Frederick William Nichols Crouch)
  – George J. Gaskin on Berliner
• "King Cotton March" (m. John Philip Sousa)
  – Edison Grand Concert Band on Edison
• "Listen to the Mocking Bird" (w. Alice Hawthorne m. Richard Milburn)
  – whistling Billy Golden on Edison
• "The Lost Chord" (w. Adelaide Anne Procter m. Sir Arthur Sullivan)
  – Edison Grand Concert Band on Edison
• "Marching Through Georgia" (w.m. Henry Clay Work)
  – George J. Gaskin on Berliner
• "La Marseillaise" (w.m. Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle)
  – Ferruccio Giannini on Berliner
• "McKinley Is Our Man"
  – Dan W. Quinn on U.S. Phonograph Records
• "My Angeline" (w. Harry B. Smith m. Victor Herbert)
  – Frank Daniels on Berliner
• "My Best Girl's a New Yorker" (w.m. John Stromberg)
  – Dan W. Quinn on Berliner
• "My Gal Is a High Born Lady" (w.m. Barney Fagan arr. Gustave Luders)
  – George J. Gaskin on Edison
  – Dan W. Quinn on Berliner
• "My Pearl Is A Bowery Girl" (w. William Jerome m. Andrew Mack)
  – George J. Gaskin on Berliner
• "Nearer, My God, To Thee" (w. Sarah F. Adams m. Lowell Mason)
  – J. W. Myers on Berliner
  – Len Spencer & Roger Harding on Columbia
• "Onward, Christian Soldiers" (w. Rev. Sabine Baring-Gould m. Sir Arthur Sullivan)
  – J. W. Myers on Berliner
• "The Palms" (Jean-Baptiste Faure)
  – Ferruccio Giannini on Berliner
• "La Paloma" (w. anon m. Sebastian Yradier)
  – Ferruccio Giannini on Berliner
• "Private Tommy Atkins" (w. Henry Hamilton m. S. Potter)
  – George J. Gaskin on Berliner
• "Put Me Off at Buffalo" (Dillon Brothers, w. Harry Dillon m. John Dillon)
  – Dan W. Quinn on Berliner
• "Rock of Ages" (w. Augustus Montague Toplady m. Thomas Hasting)
  – J. W. Myers on Berliner
• "'Round His Bed I'm Goin' to Creep" ()
  – Len Spencer on Columbia
• "Sally in Our Alley" (w. Henry Carey m. trad)
  – Edison Male Quartette on Edison
  – George J. Gaskin on Berliner
• "She Is More to Be Pitied Than Censured" (w.m. William B. Gray)
  – Steve Porter on Columbia
• "She May Have Seen Better Days" (w.m. James Thornton)
  – Dan W. Quinn on Berliner
• "The Sidewalks of New York" (w.m. Charles B. Lawlor & James W. Blake)
  – George J. Gaskin on Edison and on Berliner
• "The Streets of Cairo" (w.m. James Thornton)
  – Dan W. Quinn on Berliner
• "The Sunshine of Paradise Alley" (w. Walter H. Ford m. John Walter Bratton)
  – George J. Gaskin on Berliner
• "Tenting on the Old Camp Ground" (w.m. Walter Kittredge)
  – George J. Gaskin on Berliner
• "Then You'll Remember Me" (w. Alfred Bunn m. Michael William Balfe)
  – Ferruccio Giannini on Berliner
• "There's Only One Girl in the World for Me" (w.m. Dave Marion)
  – J. W. Myers on Berliner
• "They Are the Best Friends of All"
  – Helene Mora on US Phonograph Records
• "Toreador Song" (w. Henri Meilhac, Ludovic Halévy m. Georges Bizet)
  – J. W. Myers on Berliner
• "Tramp, Tramp, Tramp" (w.m. George Frederick Root)
  – George J. Gaskin on Berliner
• "Trilby Song"
  – Maurice Farkoa with piano Frank Lambert on Berliner
• "Watchman Tell Us of the Night" (Bowring, Mason)
  – J. W. Myers on Berliner
• "'Way Down Yonder in the Cornfield"
  – Columbia Quartette on Columbia
• "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" (w.m. Louis Lambert)
  – George J. Gaskin on Berliner
• "Where Is My Wandering Boy, Tonight?" (w.m. Rev. R. Lowry)
  – J. W. Myers on Berliner
• "Wot Cher!" (w. Albert Chevalier m. Charles Ingle)
  – George J. Gaskin on Berliner

Classical music

• Eyvind Alnæs – Symphony No. 1
• Amy Beach
  • Symphony in E minor "Gaelic"
  • Violin Sonata
• Johannes Brahms
  • Vier ernste Gesänge
  • Eleven Chorale Preludes for organ
• Anton Bruckner – Symphony No. 9 (finished three movements, sketches of finale)
• Ernest Chausson – Poème for violin and orchestra
• Cornelis Dopper – Symphony No. 1
• Antonín Dvořák
  • The Water Goblin
  • The Noon-Day Witch (and two other "Erben tone-poems", given their premiere later in the year in London)
  • Quartet in A-flat major Op. 105
  • The Wild Dove, Op.110
• Louis Ganne – Extase
• Gustav Holst – Quintet for piano and winds
• Vincent d'Indy – Istar
• Charles Ives – String Quartet no. 1, From the Salvation Army
• Edward MacDowell – Woodland Sketches
• Albéric Magnard – Symphony No. 3 Opus 11 (1895–96)
• Gustav Mahler – Symphony No. 3 completed
• Hans Pfitzner – Piano Trio in F Opus 8
• Sergei Rachmaninoff – Symphony No. 1 (1895–96)^[2]
• Maurice Ravel
  • "D'Anne jouant de l'espinette"
  • La parade
  • "Sainte"
• Camille Saint-Saëns
  • Piano Concerto No. 5 ("Egyptian")
  • Violin Sonata No. 2
• Alexander Scriabin
  • 24 Preludes for Piano, Op. 11
  • 5 Preludes for Piano, Op. 15
  • Piano Concerto in F-sharp minor, Op. 20
• Jean Sibelius – Coronation Cantata
• Richard Strauss – Also sprach Zarathustra
• George Templeton Strong – 4 Poems, Op.36
• Francisco Tárrega – Recuerdos de la Alhambra
• Alexander von Zemlinsky
  • String Quartet No. 1
  • Trio for Clarinet, Cello and Piano

Opera

• August Enna – Aucassin og Nicolette
• Zdeněk Fibich – Hedy, premiered February 12 in Prague
• Gialdino Gialdini – La Pupilla premiered October 23 at the Societá Filarmonica Drammatica, Trieste
• Umberto Giordano – Andrea Chénier
• Paul Juon – Aleko
• Ruggiero Leoncavallo – Chatterton
• Friedrich Lux – The Duchess of Athens
• Giacomo Puccini – La Bohème, Teatro Regio in Turin.^[3]
• Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov – Sadko
• Charles Villiers Stanford – Shamus O'Brien (revised 1907)
• Hugo Wolf – Der Corregidor

Musical theater

• The Art Of Maryland     Broadway production
• El Capitan     Broadway production
• The Circus Girl     London production
• The Gay Parisienne     London production
• The Geisha     London production
• The Geisha     Broadway production
• The Girl From Paris     London production
• The Grand Duke     London production

Births

• January 20 – Elmer Diktonius, poet and composer (d. 1961)
• January 25 – Florence Mills, cabaret and jazz performer (d. 1927)
• January 28 – Elsie Carlisle, English singer (d. 1977)
• February 3 – Kid Thomas Valentine, jazz trumpeter (d. 1987)
• February 9 – Steffy Goldner, harpist (d. 1962)
• February 22 – Nacio Herb Brown, US songwriter (d. 1964)
• March 1 – Dimitris Mitropoulos, pianist, conductor and composer (d. 1960)
• April 10 – Edith Day, US actress, singer and dancer (d. 1971)
• April 30 – Reverend Gary Davis, blues and gospel singer and instrumentalist (d. 1972)
• June 20 – Wilfrid Pelletier, conductor (d. 1982)
• August 2 – Lorenzo Herrera, singer and composer (d. 1960)
• August 15 – Léon Theremin, Russian inventor of the musical instrument named after him (d. 1993)
• September 2 – Amanda Randolph, actress and singer (d. 1967)
• September 8 – Howard Dietz, lyricist (d. 1983)
• September 10 – Adele Astaire, US dancer and singer (d. 1981)
• September 15 – Bert Ambrose, English bandleader and violinist (d. 1971)
• September 25 – Roberto Gerhard, composer (d. 1970)
• October 7 – Phil Ohman, US bandleader (d. 1954)
• October 17 – Fernando Obradors, composer (d. 1945)
• October 18 – Friedrich Hollaender, composer (d. 1976)
• October 28 – Howard Hanson, composer (d. 1981)
• October 31 – Ethel Waters, singer (d. 1977)
• November 23 – Ruth Etting, US singer (d. 1978)
• November 25 – Virgil Thomson, composer and critic (d. 1989)
• December 6 – Ira Gershwin, lyricist (d. 1983)
• December 12 – Jenö Ádám, conductor, composer and music teacher (d. 1982)
• December 21 – Leroy Robertson, composer and music teacher (d. 1971)
• December 28 – Roger Sessions, composer (d. 1985)

Deaths

• January 28 – Sir Joseph Barnby, conductor and composer (b. 1838)
• February 5 – Henry David Leslie, conductor and composer (b. 1822)
• February 6 – Juliette Dorus-Gras, operatic soprano (born 1896)
• February 12 – Ambroise Thomas, composer (b. 1811)
• February 13 – Carl Martin Reinthaler, organist, conductor and composer (b. 1822)
• March 5 – Hiromori Hayashi, composer (b. 1831)
• April 12 – Alexander Ritter, composer and violinist (b. 1833)
• May 12 – Juan Morel Campos, danza composer (b. 1857)
• May 20 – Clara Schumann, Austrian composer (b. 1819)
• June 7 – Pavlos Carrer, composer (b. 1829)
• June 22 – Sir Augustus Harris, librettist and impresario (b. 1852)
• June 28 – Jenny Hill, music hall performer (b. 1848; tuberculosis)^[4]
• July 14 – Luther Whiting Mason, music educator (b. 1818)
• July 17 – Alfred Novello, music publisher (b. 1810)^[5]
• July 26 – Théodore Salomé, organist and composer (b. 1834)
• August 1 – Wilhelm Herman Barth, violinist, composer and music theorist (b. 1813)
• August 18 – Frederick Crouch, cellist and composer (b. 1808)
• September 16 – Antônio Carlos Gomes, composer (b. 1836)
• September 22 – Katharina Klafsky, Wagnerian soprano (b. 1855)
• September 23 – Gilbert Duprez, operatic tenor (b. 1806)
• October 11 – Anton Bruckner, Austrian composer (b. 1824)
• October 17 – Henry Eugene Abbey, theatre manager (b. 1846)
• November 25 – Spyridon Xyndas, composer (b. 1812)
• December 3 – László Erkel, Hungarian composer, son of Ferenc Erkel
• December 13 – Wilhelm Joseph von Wasielewski, musicologist, conductor, and composer (b. 1822)
• December 17 – Richard Pohl, writer, critic and composer (b. 1826)
• December 24 – Anders Ljungqvist, fiddler (b. 1815)
• date unknown
  • Luigia Abbadia, operatic mezzo-soprano (b. 1821)
  • Gopalakrishna Bharati, poet and Carnatic music composer (b. 1810)