1885 in music

Events in the year 1885 in music.

Specific locations

 * 1885 in Norwegian music

Events

 * October 25 – Johannes Brahms' Symphony No. 4 is premiered in Meiningen
 * Tin Pan Alley group of popular songwriters and publishers forms in New York City

Published popular music



 * "American Patrol"    m. F. W. Meacham
 * "The Boy I Love is Up in the Gallery"    w.m. George Ware
 * "Dars a Lock on de Chicken Coop Door" by Sam Lucas
 * "Funny Things They Do Upon The Sly"    w. G. W. Hunter & John Cooke Jnr m. G. W. Hunter
 * "Open Road"    Johann Strauss II
 * "Raise me, Jesus, to thy bosom," w. by George Birdseye, m. by William A. Huntley
 * "Saffi's Aria"    Johann Strauss II
 * "Some Sweet Day" by Edward L. Park & William Howard Doane
 * "This Is The House That Jerry Built"    w. T. S. Lonsdale m. W. G. Eaton
 * "What Cheer 'Ria"    w. Will Herbert m. Bessie Bellwood
 * From the score of The Mikado:
 * "A More Humane Mikado" ("Let the Punishment fit the Crime")
 * "The Flowers That Bloom In The Spring"
 * "There Is Beauty In The Bellow Of The Blast"
 * "Three Little Maids From School"
 * "A Wand'ring Minstrel I"

Classical music

 * Johannes Brahms – Symphony No. 4, Op. 98, in E minor
 * Anton Bruckner – Symphony No. 7
 * George Whitefield Chadwick – String Quartet No. 3 in D
 * Antonín Dvořák – Symphony No. 7, Op. 70, in D minor
 * Cesar Franck
 * Symphonic Variations for piano and orchestra
 * Danse lente for piano
 * Alexander Glazunov – Stenka Razin
 * Camille Saint-Saëns – Violin Sonata No. 1
 * Jean Sibelius – String Quartet in E-flat
 * Richard Strauss
 * Piano Quartet in C minor, Op. 13
 * Concerto No. 1 in E-flat Major for horn and orchestra
 * Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky – Manfred Symphony
 * José Vianna da Motta – Piano Concerto in A

Opera

 * Emmanuel Chabrier – Gwendoline
 * Fromental Halévy, completed by Georges Bizet – Noé given its first performance at Karlsruhe.
 * Jules Massenet – Le Cid
 * André Messager
 * La fauvette du temple
 * La Béarnaise
 * Emile Pessard – Tabarin premiered on January 12 at the Théâtre de l'Opéra, Paris
 * Amilcare Ponchielli – Marion Delorme
 * George Stephanescu – Scaiul barbatilor

Musical theater

 * Edward Jakobowski – Erminie (libretto by Claxson Bellamy and Harry Paulton) London production
 * William S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan – The Mikado London production
 * Johann Strauss II – Der Zigeunerbaron (The Gypsy Baron) Vienna production

Births

 * January 13 – James V. Monaco, Italian-born US composer (d. 1945)
 * January 27 – Jerome Kern, composer and songwriter (d. 1945)
 * February 9 – Alban Berg, composer (d. 1935)
 * February 12 – James Scott, ragtime composer (d. 1938)
 * February 16 – Will Fyffe, Scottish comedian and singer (d. 1947)
 * March 15 – Bertha Raffetto, American singer (d. 1952)
 * May 5 – Agustín Barrios, composer (d. 1944)
 * May 14 – Otto Klemperer, conductor and composer (d. 1973)
 * May 30 – Erna Ellmenreich, German operatic soprano (d. 1976)
 * June 13 – John Palm, Curaçao-born composer (d. 1925)
 * June 28 – Marino Capicchioni, Italian musical instrument maker (d. 1977)
 * July 12 – George Butterworth, composer (d. 1916)
 * July 17 – Benjamin Dale, composer (d. 1943)
 * August 9 – Pietro Frosini, accordionist (d. 1951)
 * October 15 – Therese Wiet, Austrian operetta singer (d. 1971)
 * October 21 – Egon Wellesz, Austrian composer (d. 1974)
 * October 25 – Sam M. Lewis, US lyricist (d. 1959)
 * December 19 – Joe "King" Oliver, jazz musician (d. 1938)

Deaths

 * February 15 – Leopold Damrosch, conductor, 52 (complications from a cold)
 * March 31 – Franz Abt, composer, 65
 * April 24 – Henry Augustus Rawes, hymn-writer, 58
 * May – Adolphe Blanc, composer, 56
 * May 1 – Henry Brinley Richards, composer, 67
 * May 12 – Ferdinand Hiller, German composer, conductor and pianist, 73
 * June 29 – Samuel C. Upham, lyricist, 66
 * August 26 – August Gottfried Ritter, organist and composer, 74
 * September 11 – Julius Zarebski, Polish pianist and composer, 31
 * September 13 – Friedrich Kiel, German composer, 63
 * October 21 – Michele Novaro, songwriter, 66