1861 in music

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 – Tannhäuser scandal in Paris.
 * November – Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov is introduced by his teacher Feodor A. Kanille to Mily Balakirev. This completes the Russian Five. He begins his Symphony in E flat under Balakirev's guidance.
 * Tchaikovsky starts to attend RMS classes in music theory taught by Nikolai Zaremba at the Mikhailovsky Palace

Published popular music

 * "Abide With Me", w. Rev Henry Francis Lyte m. William Henry Monk (Words 1847)
 * "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
 * "Go Down, Moses", trad spiritual
 * "Holy! Holy! Holy! Lord God Almighty", w. Reginald Heber m. John Bacchus Dykes
 * "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 (Music "Mini est Propositum" 12th century)
 * "The Privateer", w.m. anon ("Quien Sabé")
 * "The Vacant Chair", w. Henry S. Washburn m. George Frederick Root

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 and Fugue on a Theme by Handel
 * Variations on a Theme by Robert Schumann, Op.23
 * 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

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)