1854 in music

Events

• February 27 – Robert Schumann unsuccessfully attempts suicide by throwing himself from a bridge into the River Rhine.
• Anton Rubinstein begins a four-year concert tour of Europe, establishing his reputation as the leading piano virtuoso of his generation.
• Richard Wagner completes Das Rheingold.

  Published popular music

• "Hard Times Come Again No More" w.m. Stephen Collins Foster
• " Jeanie With the Light Brown Hair" w.m. Stephen Collins Foster
• "Maggie by My Side" Stephen Collins Foster
• "Old Dog Tray" Stephen Collins Foster
• "What Is Home Without A Mother" w.m. Septimus Winner

  Classical music

• Hector Berlioz – L'enfance du Christ
• Charles Gounod – Chant de paix
• Franz Liszt – Les préludes
• Henri Wieniawski – Le carnaval russe for violin and piano
• Johannes Brahms
• *Piano Trio No. 1, Op. 8
• *Variations on a Theme by Robert Schumann in F-sharp minor, Op. 9, for piano. The theme is from Op. 99, Bunte Blätter.
• *Ballades, Op. 10
• *Fourteen Variations on a Hungarian Melody, in D major, Op. 21 No. 2
• Charles Sandys Packer – "City of Sydney Polka"

  Opera

• Karel Miry – La Lanterne magique
• Franz Schubert – Alfonso und Estrella

  Births

• January 21 – Georges Ernest Street, composer
• April 13 – António D'Andrade, opera singer
• May 6 – Laura Joyce Bell, contralto singer and actress
• July 3 – Leoš Janáček, composer
• July 14 – Alexander Kopylov, violinist and composer
• August 24 – Alfred Dudley Turner, composer
• September 1 – Engelbert Humperdinck, composer
• November 6 – John Philip Sousa, composer
• November 14 – Dina Edling, opera singer

  Deaths

• January 12 – Philip Klitz, composer
• March 3 – Giovanni Battista Rubini, operatic tenor
• March 26 – Emilie Hammarskjöld, pianist, singer and composer
• April 18 – Józef Elsner, composer and teacher
• May 1 – Jean Coralli, dancer and choreographer
• May 31 – Vatroslav Lisinski, composer
• June 17 – Henriette Sontag, operatic soprano
• July 14 – Louis-Pierre Norblin, cellist
• August 21 – August Ferdinand Anacker, composer
• October – Luigi Tarisio, violin dealer and collector
• November 2 – Anton Pann, poet, musicologist and composer
• November 17 – Alberich Zwyssig, composer of the Swiss national anthem