1896 in music

Events in the year 1896 in music.

Specific locations

 * 1896 in Norwegian music

Events

 * March 18 – Danish composer Carl Nielsen conducts a performance of his First Symphony in Dresden; the event marks the beginning of his international success.
 * March 19 – Leo Stern is soloist in the première of Dvořák's Cello Concerto, in B minor, Op. 104, B. 191, at the Queen's Hall in London.
 * April 13 – Jean Sibelius conducts the world première of his Lemminkäinen Suite in Helsinki.
 * December 27 – Formal première of Ernest Chausson's Poème for violin and orchestra, Op. 25, with Eugène Ysaÿe as soloist, at Nancy, France.
 * Engelbert Humperdinck is created a professor of music by the Kaiser.
 * Gabriel Fauré takes over from Théodore Dubois as organist of the church of La Madeleine, Paris.
 * In Moscow, Mariya Kerzina and her husband Arkadiy Kerzin form the Circle of Russian Music Lovers, a performance society.

Published popular music



 * "All Coons Look Alike to Me"    w.m. Ernest Hogan
 * "Årstiderna"    w.m. Alice Tegnér
 * "The Amorous Goldfish"    w. Harry Greenbank m. Sidney Jones
 * "Chin, Chin, Chinaman"    w. Harry Greenbank m. Sidney Jones
 * "El Capitan March"    m. John Philip Sousa
 * "Eli Green's Cakewalk"    w.m. David Reed & Sadie Koninsky
 * "Elsie From Chelsea"    w.m. Harry Dacre
 * "Going For A Pardon"    w. James Thornton & Clara Havenschild m. James Thornton
 * "Happy Days In Dixie"    m. Kerry Mills
 * "Hot Tamale Alley" by George M. Cohan
 * "A Hot Time In The Old Town"    w. Joseph Hayden m. Theodore A. Metz
 * "I Love You In The Same Old Way – Darling Sue"    w. Walter H. Ford m. John Walter Bratton
 * "In The Baggage Coach Ahead"    w.m. Gussie L. Davis
 * "A Jovial Monk Am I"    w. (Eng) Arthur Sturgess m. Edmond Audran
 * "Kentucky Babe"    w. Richard Henry Buck m. Adam Geibel
 * "Laugh And The World Laughs With You"    w. Ella Wheeler Wilcox m. Louis Gottschalk
 * "Love Makes The World Go 'Round"    w. Clyde Fitch m. arr. William Furst
 * "Mister Johnson, Turn Me Loose"    w.m. Ben Harney
 * "Mother Was A Lady"    w. Edward B. Marks m. Joseph W. Stern
 * "Musetta's Waltz Song"    m. Giacomo Puccini
 * "My Gal Is A High Born Lady"    w.m. Barney Fagan arr. Gustave Luders
 * "Remus Takes the Cake" by J. H. Ellis
 * "The Saint Louis Cyclone" by Ren Shields & George Evans
 * "Sambo at the Cakewalk" by Alfred E. Marks
 * "Stars & Stripes Forever" by John Philip Sousa
 * "Sweet Rosie O'Grady" w.m. Maude Nugent
 * "To A Wild Rose"    m. Edward MacDowell
 * "Warmest Baby in the Bunch" by George M. Cohan
 * "When the Saints Are Marching In"    w. Katharine E. Purvis m. James M. Black
 * "You've Been a Good Old Wagon but You Done Broke Down" w.m. Ben Harney

Recorded popular music

 * "All Coons Look Alike to Me" (w.m. Ernest Hogan) – Dan W. Quinn on Edison Records
 * "The Amorous Goldfish" (w. Harry Greenbank m. Sidney Jones) – Dan W. Quinn on Edison Records
 * "And Her Golden Hair Was Hanging Down Her Back" (w. Monroe H. Rosenfeld m. Felix McGlennon) – Maud Foster on Berliner Records
 * "Annie Laurie" (w. William Douglas m. Lady John Douglas Scott) – George J. Gaskin on Edison –  Edison Male Quartette on Edison
 * "Auld Lang Syne" (w. adapted Robert Burns) – Edison Male Quartette on Edison
 * "The Band Played On" (w. John F. Palmer m. Charles B. Ward) – Dan W. Quinn on Columbia records and Berliner
 * "The Belle of Avenoo A" (w.m. Safford Waters) – Dan W. Quinn on Berliner
 * "Ben Bolt" (w. Thomas Dunn English m. Nelson Kneass) – George J. Gaskin on Berliner
 * "The Blue Danube" (m. Johann Strauss) – Edison Grand Concert Band on Edison
 * "Chin, Chin, Chinaman" (w. Harry Greenbank m. Sidney Jones) – Dan W. Quinn on Edison
 * "La Donna è Mobile" (w. Francesco Piave m. Giuseppe Verdi) – Ferruccio Giannini on Berliner
 * "Don't You Hear Dem Bells?" (w.m. D. S. McCosh) – Brilliant Quartet on Berliner
 * "Down in Poverty Row" (w. Gussie L. Davis m. Arthur Trevelyan) – Dan W. Quinn on Berliner –  George J. Gaskin on Edison
 * "Elsie from Chelsea" (w.m. Harry Dacre) – Dan W. Quinn on Edison
 * "Funiculì, Funiculà" (w. G. Turco m. Luigi Denza) – Ferruccio Giannini on Berliner
 * "The Future Mrs 'Awkins" (w.m. Albert Chevalier) – George J. Gaskin on Berliner
 * "The Gladiators" (m. John Philip Sousa) – Edison Grand Concert Band on Edison
 * "Hallelujah Chorus" (w. Charles Jennes m. George Frideric Handel) – Edison Grand Concert Band on Edison
 * "The Holy City" (w. Frederick Edward Weatherly m. Stephen Adams) – Ferruccio Giannini on Berliner
 * "Home Sweet Home" (w. John Howard Payne m. Sir Henry Rowley Bishop) – George J. Gaskin on Edison
 * "The Honeymoon" (m. George Rosey) – Edison Grand Concert Band on Edison
 * "I Don't Want to Play in Your Yard" (w. Philip Wingate m. Henry W. Petrie) – George J. Gaskin on Berliner –  Maud Foster on Berliner
 * "In the Baggage Coach Ahead" (w.m. Gussie L. Davis) – George J. Gaskin on Edison – Dan W. Quinn
 * "I'se Gwine Back to Dixie" (w.m. C. A. White) – Brilliant Quartet on Berliner
 * "I've Been Hoodoed" – Dan W. Quinn on Berliner
 * "Just Tell Them That You Saw Me" (w.m. Paul Dresser) – George J. Gaskin on Berliner –  Dan W. Quinn on Berliner
 * "Kathleen" (w.m. Helene Mora) – George J. Gaskin on Edison
 * "Kathleen Mavourneen" (w. Annie Crawford (Barry) m. Frederick William Nichols Crouch) – George J. Gaskin on Berliner
 * "King Cotton March" (m. John Philip Sousa) – Edison Grand Concert Band on Edison
 * "Listen to the Mocking Bird" (w. Alice Hawthorne m. Richard Milburn) – whistling Billy Golden on Edison
 * "The Lost Chord" (w. Adelaide Anne Procter m. Sir Arthur Sullivan) – Edison Grand Concert Band on Edison
 * "Marching Through Georgia" (w.m. Henry Clay Work) – George J. Gaskin on Berliner
 * "La Marseillaise" (w.m. Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle) – Ferruccio Giannini on Berliner
 * "McKinley Is Our Man" – Dan W. Quinn on U.S. Phonograph Records
 * "My Angeline" (w. Harry B. Smith m. Victor Herbert) – Frank Daniels on Berliner
 * "My Best Girl's a New Yorker" (w.m. John Stromberg) – Dan W. Quinn on Berliner
 * "My Gal Is a High Born Lady" (w.m. Barney Fagan arr. Gustave Luders) – George J. Gaskin on Edison –  Dan W. Quinn on Berliner
 * "My Pearl Is A Bowery Girl" (w. William Jerome m. Andrew Mack) – George J. Gaskin on Berliner
 * "Nearer, My God, To Thee" (w. Sarah F. Adams m. Lowell Mason) – J. W. Myers on Berliner –  Len Spencer & Roger Harding on Columbia
 * "Onward, Christian Soldiers" (w. Rev. Sabine Baring-Gould m. Sir Arthur Sullivan) – J. W. Myers on Berliner
 * "The Palms" (Jean-Baptiste Faure) – Ferruccio Giannini on Berliner
 * "La Paloma" (w. anon m. Sebastian Yradier) – Ferruccio Giannini on Berliner
 * "Private Tommy Atkins" (w. Henry Hamilton m. S. Potter) – George J. Gaskin on Berliner
 * "Put Me Off at Buffalo" (Dillon Brothers, w. Harry Dillon m. John Dillon) – Dan W. Quinn on Berliner
 * "Rock of Ages" (w. Augustus Montague Toplady m. Thomas Hasting) – J. W. Myers on Berliner
 * "'Round His Bed I'm Goin' to Creep" –  Len Spencer on Columbia
 * "Sally in Our Alley" (w. Henry Carey m. trad) – Edison Male Quartette on Edison –  George J. Gaskin on Berliner
 * "She Is More to Be Pitied Than Censured" (w.m. William B. Gray) – Steve Porter on Columbia
 * "She May Have Seen Better Days" (w.m. James Thornton) – Dan W. Quinn on Berliner
 * "The Sidewalks of New York" (w.m. Charles B. Lawlor & James W. Blake) – George J. Gaskin on Edison and on Berliner
 * "The Streets of Cairo" (w.m. James Thornton) – Dan W. Quinn on Berliner
 * "The Sunshine of Paradise Alley" (w. Walter H. Ford m. John Walter Bratton) – George J. Gaskin on Berliner
 * "Tenting on the Old Camp Ground" (w.m. Walter Kittredge) – George J. Gaskin on Berliner
 * "Then You'll Remember Me" (w. Alfred Bunn m. Michael William Balfe) – Ferruccio Giannini on Berliner
 * "There's Only One Girl in the World for Me" (w.m. Dave Marion) – J. W. Myers on Berliner
 * "They Are the Best Friends of All" – Helene Mora on US Phonograph Records
 * "Toreador Song" (w. Henri Meilhac, Ludovic Halévy m. Georges Bizet) – J. W. Myers on Berliner
 * "Tramp, Tramp, Tramp" (w.m. George Frederick Root) – George J. Gaskin on Berliner
 * "Trilby Song" – Maurice Farkoa with  piano Frank Lambert on Berliner
 * "Watchman Tell Us of the Night" (Bowring, Mason) – J. W. Myers on Berliner
 * "'Way Down Yonder in the Cornfield" – Columbia Quartette on Columbia
 * "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" (w.m. Louis Lambert) – George J. Gaskin on Berliner
 * "Where Is My Wandering Boy, Tonight?" (w.m. Rev. R. Lowry) – J. W. Myers on Berliner
 * "Wot Cher!" (w. Albert Chevalier m. Charles Ingle) – George J. Gaskin on Berliner

Classical music

 * Eyvind Alnæs – Symphony No. 1
 * Amy Beach
 * Symphony in E minor "Gaelic"
 * Violin Sonata
 * Johannes Brahms
 * Vier ernste Gesänge
 * Eleven Chorale Preludes for organ
 * Anton Bruckner – Symphony No. 9 (finished three movements, sketches of finale)
 * Ernest Chausson – Poème for violin and orchestra
 * Cornelis Dopper – Symphony No. 1
 * Antonín Dvořák
 * The Water Goblin
 * The Noon-Day Witch (and two other "Erben tone-poems", given their premiere later in the year in London)
 * Quartet in A-flat major Op. 105
 * The Wild Dove, Op.110
 * Louis Ganne – Extase
 * Gustav Holst – Quintet for piano and winds
 * Vincent d'Indy – Istar
 * Charles Ives – String Quartet no. 1, From the Salvation Army
 * Edward MacDowell – Woodland Sketches
 * Albéric Magnard – Symphony No. 3 Opus 11 (1895–96)
 * Gustav Mahler – Symphony No. 3 completed
 * Hans Pfitzner – Piano Trio in F Opus 8
 * Sergei Rachmaninoff – Symphony No. 1 (1895–96)
 * Maurice Ravel
 * "D'Anne jouant de l'espinette"
 * La parade
 * "Sainte"
 * Camille Saint-Saëns
 * Piano Concerto No. 5 ("Egyptian")
 * Violin Sonata No. 2
 * Alexander Scriabin
 * 24 Preludes for Piano, Op. 11
 * 5 Preludes for Piano, Op. 15
 * Piano Concerto in F-sharp minor, Op. 20
 * Jean Sibelius – Coronation Cantata
 * Richard Strauss – Also sprach Zarathustra
 * George Templeton Strong – 4 Poems, Op.36
 * Francisco Tárrega – Recuerdos de la Alhambra
 * Alexander von Zemlinsky
 * String Quartet No. 1
 * Trio for Clarinet, Cello and Piano

Opera

 * August Enna – Aucassin og Nicolette
 * Zdeněk Fibich – Hedy, premiered February 12 in Prague
 * Gialdino Gialdini – La Pupilla premiered October 23 at the Societá Filarmonica Drammatica, Trieste
 * Umberto Giordano – Andrea Chénier
 * Paul Juon – Aleko
 * Ruggiero Leoncavallo – Chatterton
 * Friedrich Lux – The Duchess of Athens
 * Giacomo Puccini – La Bohème, Teatro Regio in Turin.
 * Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov – Sadko
 * Charles Villiers Stanford – Shamus O'Brien (revised 1907)
 * Hugo Wolf – Der Corregidor

Musical theater

 * The Art Of Maryland    Broadway production
 * El Capitan    Broadway production
 * The Circus Girl    London production
 * The Gay Parisienne    London production
 * The Geisha    London production
 * The Geisha    Broadway production
 * The Girl From Paris    London production
 * The Grand Duke    London production

Births

 * January 20 – Elmer Diktonius, poet and composer (d. 1961)
 * January 25 – Florence Mills, cabaret and jazz performer (d. 1927)
 * January 28 – Elsie Carlisle, English singer (d. 1977)
 * February 3 – Kid Thomas Valentine, jazz trumpeter (d. 1987)
 * February 9 – Steffy Goldner, harpist (d. 1962)
 * February 22 – Nacio Herb Brown, US songwriter (d. 1964)
 * March 1 – Dimitris Mitropoulos, pianist, conductor and composer (d. 1960)
 * April 10 – Edith Day, US actress, singer and dancer (d. 1971)
 * April 30 – Reverend Gary Davis, blues and gospel singer and instrumentalist (d. 1972)
 * June 20 – Wilfrid Pelletier, Canadian conductor (d. 1982)
 * July 10
 * Stefan Askenase, Polish-Belgian classical pianist and pedagogue (d. 1985)
 * Maurice Zbriger, Ukrainian-born Canadian violinist, composer and conductor (d. 1981)
 * August 2 – Lorenzo Herrera, singer and composer (d. 1960)
 * August 15 – Léon Theremin, Russian inventor of the musical instrument named after him (d. 1993)
 * September 2 – Amanda Randolph, actress and singer (d. 1967)
 * September 8 – Howard Dietz, lyricist (d. 1983)
 * September 10 – Adele Astaire, US dancer and singer (d. 1981)
 * September 15 – Bert Ambrose, English bandleader and violinist (d. 1971)
 * September 25 – Roberto Gerhard, composer (d. 1970)
 * October 7 – Phil Ohman, US bandleader (d. 1954)
 * October 17 – Fernando Obradors, composer (d. 1945)
 * October 18 – Friedrich Hollaender, composer (d. 1976)
 * October 28 – Howard Hanson, composer (d. 1981)
 * October 31 – Ethel Waters, singer (d. 1977)
 * November 23 – Ruth Etting, US singer (d. 1978)
 * November 25 – Virgil Thomson, composer and critic (d. 1989)
 * December 6 – Ira Gershwin, lyricist (d. 1983)
 * December 12 – Jenö Ádám, conductor, composer and music teacher (d. 1982)
 * December 21 – Leroy Robertson, composer and music teacher (d. 1971)
 * December 28 – Roger Sessions, composer (d. 1985)

Deaths

 * January 28 – Sir Joseph Barnby, conductor and composer (b. 1838)
 * February 5 – Henry David Leslie, conductor and composer (b. 1822)
 * February 6 – Juliette Dorus-Gras, operatic soprano (born 1896)
 * February 12 – Ambroise Thomas, composer (b. 1811)
 * February 13 – Carl Martin Reinthaler, organist, conductor and composer (b. 1822)
 * March 5 – Hiromori Hayashi, composer (b. 1831)
 * April 12 – Alexander Ritter, composer and violinist (b. 1833)
 * May 12 – Juan Morel Campos, danza composer (b. 1857)
 * May 20 – Clara Schumann, Austrian composer (b. 1819)
 * June 7 – Pavlos Carrer, composer (b. 1829)
 * June 22 – Sir Augustus Harris, librettist and impresario (b. 1852)
 * June 28 – Jenny Hill, music hall performer (b. 1848; tuberculosis)
 * July 14 – Luther Whiting Mason, music educator (b. 1818)
 * July 17 – Alfred Novello, music publisher (b. 1810)
 * July 26 – Théodore Salomé, organist and composer (b. 1834)
 * August 1 – Wilhelm Herman Barth, violinist, composer and music theorist (b. 1813)
 * August 18 – Frederick Crouch, cellist and composer (b. 1808)
 * September 16 – Antônio Carlos Gomes, composer (b. 1836)
 * September 22 – Katharina Klafsky, Wagnerian soprano (b. 1855)
 * September 23 – Gilbert Duprez, operatic tenor (b. 1806)
 * October 11 – Anton Bruckner, Austrian composer (b. 1824)
 * October 17 – Henry Eugene Abbey, theatre manager (b. 1846)
 * November 25 – Spyridon Xyndas, composer (b. 1812)
 * December 3 – László Erkel, Hungarian composer, son of Ferenc Erkel
 * December 13 – Wilhelm Joseph von Wasielewski, musicologist, conductor, and composer (b. 1822)
 * December 17 – Richard Pohl, writer, critic and composer (b. 1826)
 * December 24 – Anders Ljungqvist, fiddler (b. 1815)
 * date unknown
 * Luigia Abbadia, operatic mezzo-soprano (b. 1821)
 * Gopalakrishna Bharati, poet and Carnatic music composer (b. 1810)