1866 in music

Events

 * January – Gabriel Fauré becomes organist at the Church of Saint-Sauveur, at Rennes in Brittany.
 * March–December – Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky writes his Symphony No. 1, Winter Daydreams.
 * May 30 – Bedřich Smetana's opera The Bartered Bride (Prodana Nevesta) debuts at the Provisional Theatre (Prague).
 * August – Sir William Sterndale Bennett becomes Principal of the Royal Academy of Music in London.
 * August 4 – First performance of Gabriel Fauré's Cantique de Jean Racine.
 * August 9 – Marie Trautmann marries fellow musician Alfred Jaëll.
 * October 21 – Jacques Offenbach's operetta La Vie parisienne debuts in Paris at the Théâtre du Palais Royale.
 * November 17 – Ambroise Thomas's opera Mignon debuts in Paris at the Opéra-Comique.
 * Theodore Thomas conducts the New York Philharmonic in the American premiere of the Prelude to Act 1 of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde.
 * Mily Balakirev publishes his Collection of Russian Folksongs, including "The Song of the Volga Boatmen".
 * Georges Bizet completes the opera La jolie fille de Perth; it is premiered the following year.

Published popular music

 * "Beautiful River"
 * "Come Back To Erin" w.m. Claribel
 * "Father's a Drunkard and Mother Is Dead" w. Stella m. Mrs. E. A. Parkhurst
 * "We Parted By The River" w.m. William Shakespeare Hays
 * "When You and I Were Young, Maggie" by James A. Butterfield & George Washington Johnson
 * "Write Me A Letter Home"    w.m. Will S. Hays
 * "You Naughty, Naughty Men" (in The Black Crook) w. T. Kennick m. G. Bickwell

Classical music

 * Felix Draeseke – Fantasie on Themes from Boieldieus "Weisse Dame"
 * Johann Gottfried Piefke – Königgrätzer Marsch
 * Amilcare Ponchielli – Concerto for Trumpet in F major
 * Arthur Sullivan – Irish Symphony
 * Franz von Suppé - Light Cavalry Overture
 * Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky - Symphony No. 1 "Winter Dreams"

Opera

 * Karel Miry
 * Maria van Boergondië (opera in 4 acts, libretto by N. Destanberg, premiered on August 28 in Ghent)
 * De Keizer bij de Boeren (opera in 1 act, libretto by N. Destanberg, premiered on October 29 in Ghent)
 * De occasie maakt den dief (opera in 1 act, libretto by N. Destanberg, premiered on December 24 in Ghent)
 * Bedřich Smetana- The Bartered Bride
 * Franz von Suppé – Leichte Kavallerie

Musical theater

 * La Belle Hélène (Lyrics: Henri Meilhac & Ludovic Halévy Music: Jacques Offenbach) London production opened at the Adelphi Theatre on June 30
 * The Black Crook – the first "book musical". Broadway production opened at Niblo's Garden on September 12 and ran for 474 performances

Births

 * January 13 – Vasily Kalinnikov, composer (d. 1901)
 * March 10 – Amanda Aldridge, opera singer, teacher and composer (d. 1956)
 * April 1 – Ferruccio Busoni, pianist, composer (d. 1924)
 * April 13 – Carl Valentin Wunderle, violinist (d. 1944)
 * May 17 – Erik Satie, composer (d. 1925)
 * June 15 – Charles Wood, composer (d. 1926)
 * June 29 – George Frederick Boyle, composer (d. 1948)
 * July 13 – La Goulue, can-can dancer (d. 1929)
 * July 23 – Francesco Cilea, composer (d. 1950)
 * September 26 – George H. Clutsam, pianist, composer and writer (d. 1951)
 * November 7 – Paul Lincke, composer (d. 1946)
 * date unknown
 * Annibale Fagnola, violin maker (d. 1939)
 * Dorothea Ruggles-Brise, née Stewart-Murray, collector of traditional Scottish music (d. 1937)

Deaths

 * January 25 – Minna Wagner, estranged wife of Richard Wagner, 56 (heart attack)
 * February 6 – Anna Liszt, pianist and mother of Franz Liszt, 77
 * March 20 – Rikard Nordraak, composer, 21 (tuberculosis)
 * July 25 – Aloys Schmitt, composer, pianist and music teacher, 77
 * October 2 – Adam Darr, guitarist, singer and composer, 55 (suicide by drowning)
 * November 26 – Adrien-Francois Servais, cellist, 59
 * November 29 – Sophie Löwe, operatic soprano, 51
 * December 1 – Jules Demersseman, flautist and composer, 33 (tuberculosis)
 * December 3 – Jan Kalivoda, violinist, conductor and composer, 65