1878 in music

Events

* May 28 – Gilbert & Sullivan's H.M.S. Pinafore debuts in London

Published popular music

* "Aloha `Oe" w.m. Queen Liliuokalani of Hawaii
* "Carry Me Back To Old Virginny" w.m. James A. Bland
* "De Gospel Raft" by Frank Dumont
* "Emmet's Lullaby" Joseph K. Emmet
*From "HMS Pinafore": (words by W. S. Gilbert, music by Arthur Sullivan)
**"I Am The Captain Of The Pinafore"
**"I Am The Ruler Of The Queen's Navee"
**"I'm Called Little Buttercup"
**"Kind Captain"
**"Never Mind the Why and Wherefore"
**"When I Was a Lad"
* "In The Evening By the Moonlight" w.m. James A. Bland
* "Keep In De Middle Ob De Road" w.m. Will Hays
* "Ten Little Injuns" w. & m. Septimus Winner

Classical music

*Ferruccio Busoni – "Piano Concerto in D, op. 17, for piano and string orchestra"
*Niels Gade – "Capriccio for violin and orchestra in A minor"
*Sergei Taneyev – "Symphony no 2 in B flat minor"
*Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky
**Symphony No. 4 in F minor, op. 36
**Violin Concerto in D major

Opera

*Alfred Cellier – "After All!"
*Charles Gounod – "Polyeucte"
*Charles Edouard Lefebvre – "Lucrèce"
*Miguel Marqués – "El anillo de hierro" (libretto by Marcos Zapata, premiered in Madrid)
*Joseph Parry – "Blodwen"
*Emile Pessard
**"Le char" premiered on January 18 at the Théâtre de l'Opéra-Comique, Paris
**"Le Capitaine Fracasse" premiered on July 2 at the Théâtre Lyrique, Paris

Musical theater

*Gilbert and Sullivan – "H.M.S. Pinafore", London production
*Jacques Offenbach – "Madame Favart", Paris production

Births

* March 4 – Egbert Van Alstyne, US songwriter
* March 29 – Albert Von Tilzer, US songwriter
* May 25 – Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, American tap dancer, singer, actor
* July 4 – George M. Cohan, US songwriter, entertainer
* July 21 – Ernest R. Ball, US composer
* July 25 – Heinrich Gebhard, composer
* October 19 – Alphonse Picou, clarinettist
* November 4 – Jean Schwartz, songwriter

Deaths

*January 15 - Carlo Blasis, dancer and choreographer (b. 1797)
*February 2 – Josif Runjanin, composer (b. 1821)
*April 8 – Henriette "Jetty" Treffz, singer, first wife and business manager of Johann Strauss II (b. 1818)
*April 21 - Temistocle Solera, librettist and composer (b. 1815)
*May 6 - François Benoist, organist and composer (b. 1794)
*July 2 - François Bazin, opera composer (b. 1816)
*August 23 - Adolf Fredrik Lindblad, composer (b. 1801)
*October - Ludwig Wilhelm Maurer, violinist, conductor and composer (b. 1789)
*November - Marco Aurelio Zani de Ferranti, guitarist and composer (b. 1801)
*December 18 - Heinrich Proch, composer (b. 1809)
*December 28 – José Bernardo Alcedo, composer of the Peruvian national anthem (b. 1788)
*"date unknown"
**Carl Heissler, violinist (b. 1826)
**Robert Heller, pianist and magician (b. 1826)