1864 in music

Events

• February 24 – Bedřich Smetana's symphonic poem Hakon Jarl is premiered in Prague.
• February 29 – Composer Gioachino Rossini celebrates his 72nd birthday with a party.
• May – Richard Wagner meets his new patron, the young Ludwig II of Bavaria, in Munich.
• December 17 – Jacques Offenbach's operetta La Belle Hélène receives its first performance at the Paris Variétés
• Hans von Bülow takes over from Franz Lachner at the Munich opera.
• Mili Balakirev begins sketching his Symphony No. 1. It will not be performed till 1898.

  Published popular music

• "Beautiful Dreamer" by Stephen Foster
• "Der Deitcher's Dog" by Septimus Winner
• "The Picture on the Wall" by Henry Clay Work
• "Pretty Polly Perkins of Paddington Green" w. Harry Clifton m. traditional?
• "Shall We Gather at the River?" w.m. Robert Lowry
• "Somebody's Darling" w.m. John Hill Hewitt
• "Tramp! Tramp! Tramp! " by George F. Root

  Classical music

• Johannes Brahms – Piano Quintet Op. 34
• Anton Bruckner – Symphony in D minor
• Niels Gade – 3 Fantasie pieces for clarinet and piano, Op. 43
• Louis Gottschalk – The Dying Poet
• Friedrich Kiel – Piano Concerto
• Franz Strauss – Nocturno for Horn and Piano
• Thomas Tellefsen – Trio for piano, violin and cello
• Robert Volkmann – Symphony no. 2
• Peter Tchaikovsky – The Storm

  Opera

• Flor van Duyse – Rosalinde
• Karel Miry – Bouchard-d'Avesnes
• Jacques Offenbach – Die Rheinnixen

  Musical theatre

• La Belle Hélène opens at the Théâtre des Variétés, Paris, on December 17.

  Births

• February 7
• *Ricardo Castro, Mexican concert pianist and composer
• *Arthur Collins, singer
• April 10 – Eugen d'Albert, composer, pianist
• May 23 – Louis Glass, composer
• June 11 – Richard Strauss, composer, conductor
• July 6 – Alberto Nepomuceno, composer and conductor
• August 18 – Gemma Bellincioni, operatic soprano
• October 7 – Louis F. Gottschalk, composer
• date unknown – Alice Esty, operatic soprano

  Deaths

• January 13 – Stephen Foster, songwriter
• January 15 – Isaac Nathan, English-born composer and musicologist, "father of Australian music"
• January 26 – Otto Lindblad, composer
• February 16 – Václav Jindřich Veit, lawyer and composer
• March 30 – Louis Schindelmeisser, clarinettist, conductor and composer
• May 2 – Giacomo Meyerbeer, composer
• June 3 – Anna Maria Sessi, opera singer
• September 4 – Manuel Antonio Carreño, Venezuelan musician, teacher and diplomat
• October 1 – Christian Friedrich Ludwig Buschmann, musical instrument maker
• October 7 – Apollon Grigoryev, poet and songwriter
• December 20 – Josef Proksch, pianist and composer