1896 in music

Specific locations

• 1896 in Norwegian music

  Events

• March 18 – Danish composer Carl Nielsen conducts a performance of his First Symphony in Dresden; the event marks the beginning of his international success.
• March 19 – Leo Stern is soloist in the première of Dvořák's Cello Concerto, in B minor, Op. 104, B. 191, at the Queen's Hall in London.
• December 27 – Formal première of Ernest Chausson's Poème for violin and orchestra, Op. 25, with Eugène Ysaÿe as soloist, at Nancy, France.
• Engelbert Humperdinck is created a professor of music by the Kaiser.
• Gabriel Fauré takes over from Théodore Dubois as organist of the church of La Madeleine, Paris.
• In Moscow, Mariya Kerzina and her husband Arkadiy Kerzin form the Circle of Russian Music Lovers, a performance society.

  Published popular music

• "All Coons Look Alike to Me" w.m. Ernest Hogan
• "Årstiderna" w.m. Alice Tegnér
• "The Amorous Goldfish" w. Harry Greenbank m. Sidney Jones
• "Chin, Chin, Chinaman" w. Harry Greenbank m. Sidney Jones
• "El Capitan March" m. John Philip Sousa
• "Eli Green's Cakewalk" w.m. David Reed & Sadie Koninsky
• "Elsie From Chelsea" w.m. Harry Dacre
• "Going For A Pardon" w. James Thornton & Clara Havenschild m. James Thornton
• "Happy Days In Dixie" m. Kerry Mills
• "Hot Tamale Alley" by George M. Cohan
• "A Hot Time In The Old Town" w. Joseph Hayden m. Theodore A. Metz
• "I Love You In The Same Old Way – Darling Sue" w. Walter H. Ford m. John Walter Bratton
• "In The Baggage Coach Ahead" w.m. Gussie L. Davis
• "A Jovial Monk Am I" w. Arthur Sturgess m. Edmond Audran
• "Kentucky Babe" w. Richard Henry Buck m. Adam Geibel
• "Laugh And The World Laughs With You" w. Ella Wheeler Wilcox m. Louis Gottschalk
• "Love Makes The World Go 'Round" w. Clyde Fitch m. arr. William Furst
• "Mister Johnson, Turn Me Loose" w.m. Ben Harney
• "Mother Was A Lady" w. Edward B. Marks m. Joseph W. Stern
• "Musetta's Waltz Song" m. Giacomo Puccini
• "My Gal Is A High Born Lady" w.m. Barney Fagan arr. Gustave Luders
• "Remus Takes the Cake" by J. H. Ellis
• "The Saint Louis Cyclone" by Ren Shields & George Evans
• "Sambo at the Cakewalk" by Alfred E. Marks
• "Stars & Stripes Forever" by John Philip Sousa
• "Sweet Rosie O'Grady" w.m. Maude Nugent
• "To A Wild Rose" m. Edward MacDowell
• "Warmest Baby in the Bunch" by George M. Cohan
• "When the Saints Are Marching In" w. Katharine E. Purvis m. James M. Black
• "You've Been a Good Old Wagon but You Done Broke Down" w.m. Ben Harney

  Recorded popular music

• "All Coons Look Alike To Me"

• "The Amorous Goldfish"

• "And Her Golden Hair Was Hanging Down Her Back"

• "Annie Laurie"

• "Auld Lang Syne"

• "The Band Played On"

• "The Belle Of Avenoo A"

• "Ben Bolt"

• "The Blue Danube"

• "Chin, Chin, Chinaman"

• "La Donna è Mobile"

• "Don't You Hear Dem Bells?"

• "Down In Poverty Row"

• "Elsie From Chelsea"

• "Funiculì, Funiculà"

• "The Future Mrs 'Awkins"

• "The Gladiators"

• "Hallelujah Chorus"

• "The Holy City"

• "Home Sweet Home"

• "The Honeymoon"

• "I Don't Want To Play In Your Yard"

• "In The Baggage Coach Ahead"

• "I'se Gwine Back To Dixie"

• "I've Been Hoodoed"

• "Just Tell Them That You Saw Me"

• "Kathleen"

• "Kathleen Mavourneen"

• "King Cotton March"

• "Listen to the Mocking Bird"

• "The Lost Chord"

• "Marching Through Georgia"

• "La Marseillaise"

• "McKinley is our Man"

• "My Angeline"

• "My Best Girl's A New Yorker"

• "My Gal Is A High Born Lady"

• "My Pearl Is A Bowery Girl"

• "Nearer, My God, To Thee"

• "Onward, Christian Soldiers"

• "The Palms"

• "La Paloma"

• "Private Tommy Atkins"

• "Put Me Off at Buffalo"

• "Rock Of Ages"

• "'Round His Bed I'm Goin' To Creep"

• "Sally In Our Alley"

• "She Is More To Be Pitied Than Censured"

• "She May Have Seen Better Days"

• "The Sidewalks Of New York"

• "The Streets Of Cairo"

• "The Sunshine Of Paradise Alley"

• "Tenting On The Old Camp Ground"

• "Then You'll Remember Me"

• "There's Only One Girl In the World For Me"

• "They Are The Best Friends Of All"

• "Toreador Song"

• "Tramp, Tramp, Tramp"

• "Trilby Song"

• "Watchman Tell Us Of The Night"

• "'Way Down Yonder In The Cornfield"

• "When Johnny Comes Marching Home"

• "Where Is My Wandering Boy, Tonight?"

• "Wot Cher!"

Classical music

• Eyvind Alnæs – Symphony No. 1
• Amy Beach
• * Symphony in E minor "Gaelic"
• * Violin Sonata
• Johannes Brahms
• * Vier ernste Gesänge
• * Eleven Chorale Preludes for organ
• Anton Bruckner – Symphony No. 9
• Ernest Chausson – Poème for violin and orchestra
• Cornelis Dopper – Symphony No. 1
• Antonín Dvořák
• * The Water Goblin
• * The Noon-Day Witch
• * Quartet in A-flat major Op. 105
• Gustav Holst – Quintet for piano and winds
• Vincent d'Indy – Istar
• Charles Ives – String Quartet no. 1, From the Salvation Army
• Edward MacDowell – Woodland Sketches
• Albéric Magnard – Symphony No. 3 Opus 11
• Gustav Mahler – Symphony No. 3 completed
• Hans Pfitzner – Piano Trio in F Opus 8
• Sergei Rachmaninoff – Symphony No. 1
• Maurice Ravel
• *"D'Anne jouant de l'espinette"
• *La parade
• *"Sainte"
• Camille Saint-Saëns
• *Piano Concerto No. 5
• *Violin Sonata No. 2
• Alexander Scriabin
• *24 Preludes for Piano, Op. 11
• *5 Preludes for Piano, Op. 15
• *Piano Concerto in F-sharp minor, Op. 20
• Jean Sibelius – Coronation Cantata
• Richard Strauss – Also sprach Zarathustra
• Francisco Tárrega – Recuerdos de la Alhambra
• Alexander von Zemlinsky
• *String Quartet No. 1
• *Trio for Clarinet, Cello and Piano

  [Opera]

• August Enna – Aucassin og Nicolette
• Gialdino Gialdini – La Pupilla premiered October 23 at the Societá Filarmonica Drammatica, Trieste
• Umberto Giordano – Andrea Chénier
• Paul Juon – Aleko
• Ruggiero Leoncavallo – Chatterton
• Friedrich Lux – The Duchess of Athens
• Giacomo Puccini – La Bohème, Teatro Regio in Turin.
• Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov – Sadko
• Charles Villiers Stanford – Shamus O'Brien
• Hugo Wolf – Der Corregidor

  [Musical theater]

• The Art Of Maryland Broadway production
• El Capitan Broadway production
• The Circus Girl London production
• The Gay Parisienne London production
• The Geisha London production
• The Geisha Broadway production
• The Girl From Paris London production
• The Grand Duke London production

  Births

• January 20 – Elmer Diktonius, poet and composer
• January 25 – Florence Mills, cabaret and jazz performer
• January 28 – Elsie Carlisle, English singer
• February 3 – Kid Thomas Valentine, jazz trumpeter
• February 22 – Nacio Herb Brown, US songwriter
• March 1 – Dimitris Mitropoulos, pianist, conductor and composer
• April 10 – Edith Day, US actress, singer and dancer
• April 30 – Reverend Gary Davis
• June 20 – Wilfrid Pelletier, conductor
• August 2 – Lorenzo Herrera, singer and composer
• August 15 – Léon Theremin, Russian inventor of the musical instrument named after him
• September 2 – Amanda Randolph, actress and singer
• September 8 – Howard Dietz, lyricist
• September 10 – Adele Astaire, US dancer and singer
• September 15 – Bert Ambrose, English bandleader and violinist
• September 25 – Roberto Gerhard, composer
• October 7 – Phil Ohman, US bandleader
• October 18 – Friedrich Hollaender, composer
• October 28 – Howard Hanson, composer
• October 31 – Ethel Waters, singer
• November 23 – Ruth Etting, US singer
• November 25 – Virgil Thomson, composer and critic
• December 6 – Ira Gershwin, lyricist
• December 12 – Jenö Ádám, conductor, composer and music teacher
• December 21 – Leroy Robertson, composer and music teacher
• December 28 – Roger Sessions, composer

  Deaths

• January 28 – Sir Joseph Barnby, conductor and composer
• February 5 – Henry David Leslie, conductor and composer
• February 12 – Ambroise Thomas, composer
• February 13 – Carl Martin Reinthaler, organist, conductor and composer
• March 5 – Hiromori Hayashi, composer
• April 12 – Alexander Ritter, composer and violinist
• May 12 – Juan Morel Campos, danza composer
• May 20 – Clara Schumann, Austrian composer
• June 7 – Pavlos Carrer, composer
• June 22 – Sir Augustus Harris, librettist and impresario
• June 28 – Jenny Hill, music hall performer
• July 14 – Luther Whiting Mason, music educator
• July 17 – Alfred Novello, music publisher
• July 26 – Théodore Salomé, organist and composer
• August 1 – Wilhelm Herman Barth, violinist, composer and music theorist
• August 18 – Frederick Crouch, cellist and composer
• September 16 – Antônio Carlos Gomes, composer
• September 22 – Katharina Klafsky, Wagnerian soprano
• September 23 – Gilbert Duprez, operatic tenor
• October 11 – Anton Bruckner, Austrian composer
• October 17 – Henry Eugene Abbey, theatre manager
• November 25 – Spyridon Xyndas, composer
• December 3 – László Erkel, Hungarian composer, son of Ferenc Erkel
• December 17 – Richard Pohl, writer, critic and composer
• December 24 – Anders Ljungqvist, fiddler
• date unknown
• *Luigia Abbadia, operatic mezzo-soprano
• *Gopalakrishna Bharati, poet and Carnatic music composer