1859 in music

Events

 * January 14 – Hans von Bülow interrupts a performance of Franz Liszt's Die Ideale at the Berlin Singakademie to ask for hostile elements in the audience to be silent.
 * January 22 – The First Piano Concerto of Johannes Brahms is given its first public performance in Hanover.
 * February 8 – Count Michael Wielhorsky invites musical associates to his home in an attempt to revive the Symphonic Society; this indirectly results in the formation of the Russian Musical Society, under the patronage of Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna and her protégé, Anton Rubinstein.
 * March 4 – Charter of the French Opera House, New Orleans, which opens on December 1 of the same year with a gala performance of Rossini's William Tell.
 * March 11 – Giuseppe Verdi announces his retirement to friends at a dinner party.
 * March 12 – The Prelude to Act 1 of Tristan und Isolde receives its first public performance at the Sophieninselsaal in Prague, in a charity concert in aid of poor medical students, conducted by Hans von Bülow, who provided his own concert ending for the occasion.
 * April 3 – Richard Wagner takes up residence in Lucerne, Switzerland.
 * April 4 – Bryant's Minstrels premiere the minstrel song "Dixie" (probably written by Dan Emmett) at Mechanics' Hall in New York City as part of their blackface show.
 * April 4 – Tannhäuser is performed at the Stadt Theater in New York City under the musical direction of Carl Bergmann. It is the first performance of a Wagner opera in the United States.
 * May 6 – At the first concert of the Victoria Philharmonic Society, its future conductor John Bayley is a soloist on both clarinet and violin.
 * July 1 – A monument to George Frideric Handel (by Hermann Heidel) is unveiled in his birthplace, Halle; Franz Liszt is among those present.
 * October 23 – Richard Wagner and an ailing Hector Berlioz meet in Paris and make up their differences.
 * December 19 – César Franck inaugurates the new organ at the basilia of Sainte-Clotilde, Paris, an instrument built by Aristide Cavaillé-Coll.
 * Alexander Borodin begins a period of chemical research at Heidelberg, working on benzene derivatives.
 * Alberto Mazzucato becomes musical director of La Scala opera house.
 * Richard Wagner finishes his opera Tristan und Isolde. The Prelude to Act 1 receives its first public performance on March 2.

Published popular music

 * "Darling little blue eyed Nell" w. B. E. Woolf m. Frederick Buckley
 * "I’m on My Journey Home" Sarah Lancaster
 * "Thou Art the Queen of My Song" Stephen Foster
 * In 1859, John Freeman Young published the English translation of Silent Night that is most frequently sung today.
 * "Upidee", arranged by H. G. Spaulding

Classical music

 * Charles-Valentin Alkan – Concerto for Solo Piano
 * Mily Balakirev – Overture to King Lear
 * Hector Berlioz
 * arrangement of Plaisir d’amour, H.134
 * Hymne pour la consécration du nouveau tabernacle, H 135
 * Johannes Brahms
 * Piano Concerto No. 1
 * Serenade No. 2 in A
 * Psalm 13, Op.27
 * Max Bruch
 * Piano Trio, Op.5
 * String Quartet No. 1 in C minor, Op. 9
 * Felix Draeseke – Helges Treue
 * Jules Egghard – Méditation d'une jeune fille, Op.41
 * Edvard Grieg
 * 23 Little Piano Pieces, EG 104
 * Siehst du das Meer, for voice and piano
 * Fromental Halévy – Italie (cantata)
 * Friedrich Hegar – Violin Sonata in C minor
 * Stephen Heller – 2 Valses, Op.93
 * Theodor Kirchner – 16 Preludes, Op.9
 * Franz Liszt
 * Totentanz
 * first version of Psalm 23
 * Prelude after a theme from Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen for piano
 * Deux Épisodes d'apres le Faust de Lenau (orchestral arrangement)
 * Festgesang, S.26
 * Te Deum II for chorus, organ, brass and percussion, S. 27
 * Künstlerfestzug zur Schillerfeier 1859, S.114
 * Giacomo Meyerbeer – Le revenant du vieux château de Bade, ballade
 * Stanisław Moniuszko – Śpiewnik domowy No.5
 * Michał Kleofas Ogiński – 6 Polonaises
 * Joachim Raff – 6 Morceaux, Op.85
 * Stanislas Verroust
 * Solo de concert No.4, Op.77
 * Solo de concert No.5, Op.78
 * Solo de concert No.6, Op.79

Opera

 * César Cui – The Mandarin's Son
 * Félicien David – Herculanum, premiered March 4 in Paris
 * Léo Delibes – L'Omelette à la Follembuche
 * Charles Gounod – Faust first performed March 19 in Paris. Libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré, based on a work by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
 * Giacomo Meyerbeer – Le pardon de Ploërmel
 * Giuseppe Verdi – Un ballo in maschera, premiered February 17 in Rome.

Musical theater

 * Jacques Offenbach
 * Geneviève de Brabant, original version. Premiered November 19 in Paris.
 * Les vivandières de la grande armée

Births

 * January 26 – W. O. Forsyth, pianist and composer (died 1937)
 * February 1 – Victor Herbert, cellist, conductor and composer (died 1924)
 * March 8
 * Karl Eduard Goepfart, composer (died 1942)
 * Otto Taubmann, composer (died 1929)
 * April 3 – Reginald de Koven, US composer (died 1920)
 * April 5 – Wilhelm Harteveld, composer (died 1927)
 * April 11 – Basil Harwood, organist and composer (died 1949)
 * May 13
 * August Enna, composer (died 1939)
 * Cora S. Briggs, organist and composer (died 1935)
 * June 22 – Frank Heino Damrosch, founder of Institute of Music (died 1937)
 * June 27 – Mildred J. Hill, composer of "Happy Birthday to You" (died 1916)
 * July 11 – Alfred Maria Willner, composer (died 1929)
 * July 15 – Carlo Munier, musician (died 1911)
 * July 21 – Charles H. Taylor, lyricist (died 1907)
 * September 21 – Otto Lohse, conductor and composer (died 1925)
 * September 24 – Julius Klengel, cellist, composer (died 1933)
 * October 14 – Camille Chevillard, conductor and composer (died 1923)
 * October 20 – Guglielmo Zuelli, opera composer (died 1941)
 * October 26 – Arthur Friedheim, Russian-born pianist
 * November 15 – Joseph Vidal, composer (died 1924)
 * November 17 – Gerhard Rosenkrone Schjelderup, composer (died 1933)
 * November 19 – Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov, conductor and composer (died 1935)
 * November 22 – Cecil Sharp, folk music revivalist (died 1924)
 * November 30 – Sergei Lyapunov, pianist and composer (died 1924)
 * December 21 – Max Fiedler, conductor and composer (died 1939)
 * December 23 – Adrian Ross, English lyricist (died 1933)
 * December 24 – Roman Statkowski, composer (died 1925)
 * December 27 – William Henry Hadow, musicologist (died 1937)
 * December 30 – Josef Bohuslav Foerster, composer (died 1951)

Deaths

 * January 7 – Peter Ferdinand Funck, violinist and composer (born 1788)
 * January 13 – Francisco José Debali, composer (born 1791)
 * January 20 – Bettina von Arnim, composer (born 1785)
 * February 6 – Jane Stirling, pianist and friend of Frédéric Chopin (born 1804; ovarian cyst)
 * February 26 – Ferdinand Lukas Schubert, composer (born 1794)
 * March 14 – Nicola Tacchinardi, cellist and operatic tenor (born 1772)
 * March 30 – Philippe Musard, composer (born 1792)
 * April 14 – Ignaz Bösendorfer, piano manufacturer (born 1796)
 * July 23 – Marceline Desbordes-Valmore, actress, singer and poet (born 1786)
 * July 29
 * Léon-Lévy Brunswick, librettist (born 1805)
 * Auguste Mathieu Panseron, composer and singing teacher (born 1796)
 * August 18 – Antonio D'Antoni, opera composer and conductor (born 1801)
 * August 28 – Edward Holmes, musicologist, music critic, pianist and music educator (born 1797)
 * October 16 – John Fane, 11th Earl of Westmorland, soldier, politician, diplomat and musician (born 1784)
 * October 22 – Louis Spohr, violinist, conductor and composer (born 1784)
 * November 7 – Carl Gottlieb Reißiger, Kapellmeister and composer (born 1798)
 * December 13 – Daniel Liszt, son of Franz Liszt and Countess Marie d'Agoult (born 1839; tuberculosis)
 * December 31 – Luigi Ricci, composer (born 1805)
 * Date unknown – Lewis Henry Lavenu, conductor, composer and impresario (born 1818)