1869 in music

This article is about music-related events in 1869.

Events

 * February 28 – The premiere of Brahms' Rinaldo took place in Vienna at a concert of the Akademischer Gesangverein. The composer conducted, with the tenor Gustav Walter, a student chorus numbering 300, and the Court Opera orchestra.
 * April 3 – Edvard Grieg's Piano Concerto is premiered at Copenhagen's Casino.
 * May 25 – The Vienna State Opera is inaugurated with a performance of Mozart's Don Giovanni.
 * September 22 – Richard Wagner's opera Das Rheingold debuts at the Königlich Hof- und Nationaltheater in Munich.
 * Approximate date – Start of "golden age" of flamenco.
 * Tchaikovsky completes the initial version of Romeo and Juliet. It will be revised the next year and in 1880.



Published popular music

 * "The Little Brown Jug" by J. Eastburn Winner
 * "Now the Day is Over" w. Sabine Baring-Gould m. Joseph Barnby
 * "Shoo Fly, Don't Bother Me" attributed to T. Brigham Bishop (possibly w. Billy Reeves m. Frank Campbell)
 * "Sweet Genevieve" w. George Cooper m. Henry Tucker

Classical music

 * Mili Balakirev – Islamey an "Oriental Fantasy" for piano.
 * Johannes Brahms
 * Ein deutsches Requiem
 * Hungarian Dances
 * Anton Bruckner
 * Mitternacht, WAB 80
 * Symphony in D minor ("Die Nullte")
 * Teresa Carreño – Un bal en rêve, Op.26
 * Henri Duparc
 * Feuilles volantes, Op.1
 * Soupir
 * Louis Moreau Gottschalk – Grande fantaisie triomphale sur l'hymne national brésilien, Op.69
 * Louis James Alfred Lefébure-Wély – Vade-mecum de l'organiste, Op. 187
 * Heinrich Lichner – Figurinen, Op.57
 * Joachim Raff – Fantaisie, Op.142
 * Camille Saint-Saëns
 * Orient et occident, Op. 25
 * La coccinelle
 * Paraphrase sur Mandolinata de Paladilhe
 * George Stephanescu – Symphony in A
 * Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky –  Six Romances, Op. 6 including None but the lonely heart

Opera

 * Frederic Clay – Ages Ago
 * Karel Miry – Een engel op wacht (opera in 1 act, libretto by P. Geiregat, premiered on December 8 in Brussels)
 * Richard Wagner – Das Rheingold

Births

 * January 20 – George Hamlin, American opera singer (d. 1923)
 * February 1 – Kerry Mills, American violinist and songwriter (d. 1948)
 * February 3 – Giulio Gatti-Casazza, opera manager (d. 1940)
 * February 12 – Theodor Bertram, German opera singer (d.1907)
 * March 3 – Henry Wood, conductor (d. 1944)
 * May 5 – Hans Pfitzner, composer (d. 1949)
 * June 6 – Siegfried Wagner, composer (d. 1930)
 * July 9 – Arnold Volpe, composer (d. 1940)
 * July 13 – Florence Perry, opera singer (d. 1949)
 * August 14 – Armas Järnefelt, Finnish composer and conductor (d. 1958)
 * September 2 – Carlos Hartling, composer of the national anthem of Honduras (d. 1920)
 * September 6 – Walford Davies, British composer and organist, Master of the King's Musick (d. 1941)
 * September 21 – Henryk Melcer-Szczawiński, Polish composer, pianist, conductor, and teacher (d. 1928)
 * September 30 – E. A. Couturier, American cornet virtuoso, composer, inventor and instrument manufacturer (d. 1950)
 * October 8 (September 26 O.S.) – Komitas, born Soghomon Soghomonian, Turkish Armenian priest and ethnomusicologist (d. 1935)
 * date unknown
 * Kate Carney, born Catherine Pattinson, English music hall singer (d. 1950)
 * Maximilian Maksakov, born Max Schwartz, Austro-Russian operatic baritone (d. 1936)

Deaths

 * January 10 – Joan Aulí, organist and composer (b. 1796)
 * January 17 – Alexander Dargomyzhsky, Russian composer (b. 1813)
 * January 30 – Charlotte Alington Barnard ('Claribel'), English ballad composer (b. 1830)
 * March 8 – Hector Berlioz, composer (b. 1803)
 * March 23 – Charles Lucas, cellist (b. 1808)
 * April 1 – Alexander Dreyschock, pianist and composer (b. 1818)
 * April 12 – Antonie Brentano, friend of Beethoven (b. 1780)
 * April 15 – August Wilhelm Bach, German composer and organist (b. 1796)
 * April 20 – Carl Loewe, composer, baritone, conductor (b. 1796)
 * May 10 – Bernhard Molique, German violinist and composer (b. 1802)
 * June 4 – Joseph Ascher, pianist and composer (b. 1829)
 * June 15 – Albert Grisar, composer (b. 1808)
 * July 18 – Louis Bouilhet, lyricist (born 1822)
 * August 13 – Giuseppe Persiani, opera composer (b. 1799)
 * August 24 – Macedonio Alcalá, pianist, violinist and songwriter (b. 1831)
 * November 29 – Giulia Grisi, opera singer (b. 1811)
 * December 18 – Louis Moreau Gottschalk, composer and pianist (b. 1829) (overdose of quinine)
 * December 23 – Julian Fontana, pianist (b. 1810)
 * December 31 – Louis James Alfred Lefébure-Wély, organist (b. 1817)