1874 in music

Events

*Richard Wagner moves into the villa at Bayreuth.
*Franz Xaver Haberl founds a school for church musicians at Regensburg.

Classical music

* Anton Bruckner - "Symphony No. 4"
*Albert Dietrich - "Violin Concerto"
* Antonín Dvořák - "String Quartet No. 7 opus 16 in A minor"
* Friedrich Kiel - "Christus" (oratorio)
* Edouard Lalo - "Symphonie Espagnole opus 21 in D minor"
* Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky - "Pictures at an Exhibition" (for piano)
* Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky - "Piano Concerto No. 1"
* Giuseppe Verdi - "Requiem"

Opera

*Alfred Cellier - "The Sultan of Mocha" (premiered at Manchester)
*Gialdino Gialdini - "L'Idolo cinese" (premiered at the Teatro delle Logge, in Florence)
*Karel Miry - "Het arme kind" (opera in 1 act, libretto by J. Story, premiered in Ghent)
*Emile Pessard - "Don Quichotte" (premiered on February 13 at the Salle Erard, in Paris)
*Johann Strauss II - "Die Fledermaus"

Published popular music

* "Crimson Roses In the Heather" by Caroline Dana Howe & William Howard Doane
* "Laughing Eyes Of Blue" w. J. Cheever Goodwin m. Edward E. Rice. Performed by Eliza Weathersby in the burlesque musical "Evangeline"
* "Oh! Dat Watermelon!" by Luke Schoolcraft

Musical theater

* "Evangeline" a US burlesque musical based upon a poem by Longfellow opened at Niblo's Gardens on July 27 and ran for only 16 performances before moving to Boston.
* "Whittington", London production

Births

* January 4 - Josef Suk - Czech composer and violinist (d. 1935)
* February 6 - David Evans, composer (d. 1948)
* February 20 - Mary Garden, operatic soprano d. 1967)
* March 31 - Henri Marteau, French composer and violinist (d. 1934)
* July 26 - Serge Koussevitzky, Russian-born conductor and double-bassist (d. 1951)
* September 13 - Arnold Schoenberg, composer (d. 1951)
* September 21 - Gustav Holst, English composer (d. 1934)
* October 20 - Charles Ives, American composer (d. 1954)
* November 12 - Bert Williams, entertainer (d. 1922)
* November 15 - Alberto Zelman, conductor (d. 1927)
* December 13 - Josef Lhévinne, Russian pianist (d. 1944)
* December 22 - Franz Schmidt, Austrian composer (d. 1939)
* December 25 - Lina Cavalieri, glamourous opera singer (d. 1944)
* December 31 - Ernest Austin, English composer (d. 1947)

Deaths

*February 13 - Johann Friedrich Franz Burgmüller, pianist and composer (b. 1806)
*March 20 - Hans Christian Lumbye, Danish composer and conductor (b. 1810)
*May 1 - Vilém Blodek, flautist, pianist and composer (b. 1834)
*June 30 - Blanche d'Antigny, singer and actress (b. 1840) (typhoid)
*October 6 - Thomas Tellefsen, pianist and composer (b. 1823)
*October 26 - Peter Cornelius, German composer (b. 1824)
*December 27 - Johann Peter Pixis, German pianist and composer
*"date unknown"
**Sanford Faulkner, fiddle player and composer (b. 1806)
**Dominique Peccatte, luthier (b. 1810)