1887 in music

Specific locations

 * 1887 in Norwegian music

Events
25 May – A fire during the 745th performance there of Mignon largely destroys the second Salle Favart, home of the Opéra-Comique in Paris; 84 people are recorded dead.

Published popular music

 * "Angels Without Wings" w.m. George Dance
 * "Away In A Manger" w. anon m. James Ramsey Murray
 * "Calvary" w. Henry Vaughn m. Paul Rodney
 * "Comrades" Felix McGlennon & George Horncastle
 * "The Song That Reached My Heart" w.m. Julian Jordan
 * "Ti! Hi! Tiddelly Hi!", w.m. Joseph Tabrar
 * From the score of Ruddigore (Music: Arthur Sullivan Lyrics: W. S. Gilbert):
 * "I Know A Youth Who Loves A Maid"
 * "I Shipped, D'Ye See, In A Revenue Sloop"
 * "My Boy, You May Take It From Me"
 * "There Grew A Little Flower"
 * "When The Night Wind Howls"

Classical music

 * Isaac Albéniz
 * Sonatas Nos. 3, 4 and 5 for piano
 * Concierto fantástico in A minor
 * Johannes Brahms – Concerto for Violin, Cello and Orchestra, Op. 102
 * Anton Bruckner – Symphony No. 8
 * Ruperto Chapi – La Bruja (zarzuela)
 * Gustave Charpentier – Didon (cantata)
 * Felix Draeseke – Sonata for Clarinet (or Violin) and Piano in B♭, Op. 38
 * Antonín Dvořák
 * Piano Quintet No. 2 in A, Op. 81
 * Mass in D major, Op. 86
 * Gabriel Fauré
 * 2 Songs, Op. 46
 * Pavane in F-sharp minor, Op. 50
 * Robert Fuchs – Symphony No. 2 in E♭, Op. 45
 * Edvard Grieg – Third Sonata for Violin and Piano in C minor, opus 45
 * Asger Hamerik – Requiem
 * Sergei Lyapunov – Symphony No. 1 in B minor, Op. 12
 * José Vianna da Motta – Piano Concerto in A major
 * Hans Pfitzner – Scherzo in C minor
 * Josef Rheinberger
 * Organ Sonata No. 11 in D minor, op. 148
 * Suite for organ, violin and cello, op. 149
 * Camille Saint-Saëns
 * Caprice sur des airs danois et russes, Op. 79
 * Souvenir d'Italie, Op. 80
 * Feuillet d'album, Op. 81
 * Pas redoublé, Op. 86
 * Alexander Scriabin – Étude in C-sharp minor, No. 1 from Trois morceaux, Op. 2
 * Charles Villiers Stanford – An Irish Symphony (Symphony No. 3 in F minor), Op. 28
 * Richard Strauss – Violin Sonata in E♭, Op. 18
 * Hugo Wolf – Italian Serenade for string quartet

Opera

 * Aleksandr Borodin – Prince Igor (finished by Rimsky-Korsakov)
 * Emmanuel Chabrier – Le roi malgré lui
 * Charles Edouard Lefebvre – Zaïre premiered in Lille
 * Adolf Neuendorff – Prince Waldmeister
 * Camille Saint-Saëns – Proserpine
 * Johann Strauss II – Simplicius
 * Giuseppe Verdi – Otello

Musical theater

 * Dorothy Broadway production opened at the Standard Theatre on November 5 and transferred to the Grand Opera House on April 16, 1888, for a total run of 51 performances
 * Ruddigore London and Broadway productions

Births

 * January 28 – Arthur Rubinstein, pianist (died 1982)
 * February 3 – Georg Trakl, poet and lyricist (died 1914)
 * February 7 – Eubie Blake, jazz pianist and composer (died 1983)
 * February 23 – Oskar Lindberg, composer (died 1955)
 * March 3 – Hart Wand, composer, fiddler, bandleader (died 1960)
 * March 4 – Violet MacMillan, Broadway and silent movie actress (died 1953)
 * March 5 – Heitor Villa-Lobos, Brazilian composer (died 1959)
 * March 7 – Heino Eller, composer (died 1970)
 * March 22 – Chico Marx, piano-playing comedian (died 1961)
 * March 23 – Anthony van Hoboken, musicologist (died 1983)
 * March 25 – Nicolae Bretan, opera composer (died 1968)
 * March 31 – José María Usandizaga, opera and symphonic composer (died 1915)
 * April 9 – Florence Price, composer (died 1953)
 * April 10 – Heinz Tiessen, composer (died 1971)
 * May 12 – Bertha Lewis, operatic contralto (died 1931)
 * May 30 – Emil Reesen, Danish composer, conductor, and pianist (d. 1964)
 * June 25 – George Abbott, US librettist and director (died 1995)
 * July 2 – Marcel Tabuteau, oboist (died 1966)
 * July 29 – Sigmund Romberg, composer (died 1951)
 * August 25 – Fartein Valen, composer (died 1952)
 * September 14 – Paul Kochanski, violinist (died 1934)
 * September 15 – Ernest Whitfield, 1st Baron Kenswood, violinist and welfare worker (died 1963)
 * September 16 – Nadia Boulanger, composer, conductor and music teacher (died 1979)
 * September 19 – Rosita Marstini, dancer and film actress (died 1948)
 * October 6 – Maria Jeritza, operatic soprano (died 1982)
 * October 11 – Oscar Shaw, actor and singer (died 1967)
 * October 14 – Ernest Pingoud, composer (died 1942)
 * November 1 – Max Trapp, composer (died 1971)
 * December 6 – Joseph Lamb, ragtime composer (died 1960)
 * December 7 – Ernst Toch, composer (died 1964)
 * December 8 – Vicente Emilio Sojo, musicologist and composer (died 1974)
 * December 12 – Kurt Atterberg, composer (died 1974)
 * December 24 – Lucrezia Bori, operatic soprano (died 1960)
 * December 27
 * Gertie Gitana, music hall singer (died 1957)
 * Bernard van Dieren, composer (died 1936)
 * date unknown
 * David Beigelman, violinist (died 1945; in Auschwitz concentration camp)
 * Carlo Jachino, composer (died 1971)

Deaths

 * January 19 – Nelly Power, music hall performer (born 1854)
 * January 30 – Frederick Lablache, singer (born 1815)
 * February 7 – Hanna Brooman, composer, translator and educator (born 1809)
 * February 21 – James Lorraine Geddes, songwriter (born 1827
 * February 27 – Alexander Borodin, composer (born 1833)
 * March 2 – Wilhelm Troszel, operatic bass and composer (born 1823)
 * March 11 – Ludvig Mathias Lindeman, composer (born 1812)
 * March 24 – Justin Holland, classical guitarist and civil rights activist (born 1819)
 * April 23 – John Ceiriog Hughes, lyricist and collector of folk tunes (born 1832)
 * May 12 – Francesco Malipiero, composer (born 1824)
 * June 1 – Joseph Philip Knight, composer (born 1812)
 * June 24 – Filippo Filippi, music critic (born 1830)
 * July 17 – Louis Mérante, dancer and choreographer (born 1828)
 * August 15 – Hedvig Willman, opera singer (born 1841)
 * August 16 – Alice May, singer and actress (born 1847; "congestion of the brain")
 * October 1 – Robert Stoepel, conductor and composer (born 1821)
 * October 18 – Matteo Salvi, opera composer (born 1816)
 * October 31 – George Alexander Macfarren, composer (born 1813)
 * November 2 – Jenny Lind, singer, "the Swedish Nightingale" (born 1820)
 * November 18 – Eduard Marxsen, pianist and composer (born 1806)
 * December 2 – Thomas Philander Ryder, composer, organist, teacher, conductor, and organ builder (born 1836)
 * December 5 – Eliza R. Snow, lyricist (born 1804)
 * date unknown – Georg Unger, operatic tenor (born 1837)