1885 in music

Events

*October 25 - Johannes Brahms' "Symphony No. 4" is premiered in Meiningen.
*Tin Pan Alley group of popular song writers & publishers forms in New York City
*Gilbert & Sullivan's "The Mikado" premiers in London

Published popular music

* "American Patrol" m. F. W. Meacham
* "The Boy 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
* "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

*Alexander Borodin - "String Quartet No. 2 in D"
*Johannes Brahms - "Symphony No. 4 op. 98 in E minor"
*George Whitefield Chadwick - "String Quartet No. 3 in D" ( [http://www.geocities.com/iambasboy/chadwickworklist.html] )
*Antonín Dvořák - "Symphony No. 7 op. 70 in D minor"
*Alexander Glazunov - "Stenka Razin"
*Jean Sibelius - "String Quartet in E-flat"
*Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky - Manfred Symphony
*José Vianna da Motta - "Piano Concerto in A"

Opera

*Fromental Halévy, completed by Georges Bizet - "Noé" given its first performance at Karlsruhe.
*Jules Massenet - "Le Cid"
*André Messager - "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 & 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
*January 27 - Jerome Kern
*February 9 - Alban Berg, composer (d. 1935)
*February 12 - James Scott
*February 16 - Will Fyffe, Scottish comedian and singer
*May 5 - Agustín Barrios, composer
*May 14 - Otto Klemperer, conductor and composer
*July 12 - George Butterworth, composer
*July 17 - Benjamin Dale, composer
*October 21 - Egon Wellesz, Austrian composer
*October 25 - Sam M. Lewis, US lyricist
*December 19 - Joe "King" Oliver, jazz musician (d. 1938)

Deaths

*February 15 - Leopold Damrosch, conductor
*March 31 - Franz Wilhelm Abt, composer
*May - Adolphe Blanc, composer
*May 1 - Henry Brinley Richards, composer
*May 12 - Ferdinand Hiller, German composer, conductor and pianist (b. 1811)
*June 29 - Samuel C. Upham, lyricist
*September 11 - Julius Zarebski, Polish pianist and composer (b. 1854)
*September 13 - Friedrich Kiel, German composer (b. 1821)
*October 21 - Michele Novaro, songwriter
*"date unknown"
**Henry Augustus Rawes, hymn-writer
**August Gottfried Ritter, organist and composer