1897 in music

Specific locations

• 1897 in Norwegian music

  Events

• January 13 – At a memorial concert in Paris for composer Emmanuel Chabrier, the first act of his uncompleted work, Briséïs, is performed for the first time.
• March 27 – The première of Sergei Rachmaninoff's First Symphony is a complete disaster, leaving many wondering whether Alexander Glazunov, the conductor for the event, was drunk or just disliked the music so much that he did not care about a good performance. It would be years before Rachmaninoff would compose a major piece of music again.
• September 8 – October 8 – Gustav Mahler becomes director of the Vienna Court Opera, and is obliged to convert from Judaism to Roman Catholicism.
• The Cakewalk matures into Ragtime music.
• John Philip Sousa's band makes phonograph recordings of Cakewalks and early Ragtime.
• Early publications by Scott Joplin.
• André Messager becomes musical director of the Opéra-Comique.
• Ralph Vaughan Williams studies with Max Bruch in Berlin.
• Teatro Nuovo in Bergamo changes its name to Teatro Donizetti.
• The pan-African anthem "Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika" is composed as a Xhosa hymn by South African teacher Enoch Sontonga; versions become the national anthem of 5 countries including Tanzania's "Mungu ibariki Afrika".
• Composer Alexander Scriabin marries pianist Vera Ivanovna.

  Publications

• Ben Harney – Ben Harney's Rag Time Instructor

  Published popular music

• "Asleep In The Deep" w. Arthur J. Lamb m. Henry W. Petrie
• "At A Georgia Camp Meeting" w.m. Kerry Mills
• "Badinage" m. Victor Herbert
• "Beautiful Isle of Somewhere" w. Mrs Jessie Brown Pounds m. John S. Fearis
• "Break The News To Mother" w.m. Charles K. Harris
• "Danny Deever" w. Rudyard Kipling m. Walter Damrosch
• "Harlem Rag" m. Tom Turpin
• "Let 'em All Come" w.m. T. W. Connor
• "Louisiana Rag" m. Theodore H. Northrup
• "On The Banks Of The Wabash Far Away" w.m. Paul Dresser
• "Our Lodger's Such A Nice Young Man" w.m. Fred Murray & Laurence Barclay
• "Roustabout Rag" m. Paul Sarebresole
• "The Shuffling Coon" by J. R. Todd
• "Song Of India" m. Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
• "The Stars and Stripes Forever" m. John Philip Sousa
• "Syncopated Sandy" by Wayburn & Whiting
• "Take Back Your Gold" w.m. Monroe H. Rosenfeld
• "There's A Little Star Shining For You" w.m. James Thornton
• "Ye Boston Tea Party" by Arthur Pryor

  Recorded popular music

• "A Hot Time in the Old Town"

• "Little Kinkies"

• "My Mother Was a Lady"

• "There's a Little Star Shining for You"

• "Je suis pocharde!"

Classical music">European classical music">Classical music

• Hugo Alfvén – Symphony No. 1
• Ferruccio Busoni – Violin Concerto
• Ernest Chausson
• * Chant funèbre, for four female voices
• * Piano Quartet in A, Op. 30
• * Vêpres pour le commun des vierges, for organ, Op. 31
• * String Quartet, Op. 35
• * Piece for cello or viola, and piano, Op. 39
• Frederick Delius – Piano Concerto
• Felix Draeseke – String Quintet in A "Stelzner"-Quintet
• Paul Dukas – The Sorcerer's Apprentice
• George Enescu –
• *Piano Suite No. 1 in G minor, "Dans le style ancien" Op. 3
• *Poème roumain, Op. 1
• *Sonata no. 1 for violin and piano in D major, Op. 2
• *Trio in G minor for piano, violin, and cello
• August Enna – Concerto for violin and orchestra in D major
• Asger Hamerik – Symphony no. 6 for string orchestra
• Alexander Mackenzie – Piano Concerto
• Carl Nielsen – Hymnus amoris
• Dora Pejačević – Berceuse, Op. 2, for solo piano
• Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov – Symphony No. 2 "Antar"
• Arnold Schoenberg – String Quartet in D major
• Alexander Scriabin – Piano Sonata No. 2
• Richard Strauss – Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche
• Alexander von Zemlinsky – Symphony No. 2

  [Opera]

• Frederick Delius – Koanga
• August Enna – The Little Match Girl
• Zdeněk Fibich – Šárka
• Eduard Holst – Our Flats, premiered in New York
• Wilhelm Kienzl – Don Quixote
• Luigi Mancinelli – Ero e Leandro
• Jules Massenet – Sapho
• Johann Strauss II – Die Göttin der Vernunft
• Alexander Zemlinsky – Sarema

  [Musical theater]

• The Belle of New York Broadway production
• The Charlatan Broadway production
• The Circus Girl Broadway production
• The Glad Hand Broadway production
• Pousse Café Broadway production
• The Yashmak – Adaptation of an Armenian operetta, Leblébidji Horhor, with music by Napoleon Lambelet and libretto by Cecil Raleigh and Seymour Hicks, runs from 31 March 1897 to 31 July 1897 at the Shaftesbury Theatre, London.

  Births

• January 2 – Jane Green, US singer
• January 9 – Luis Gianneo, Argentine composer, pianist, and conductor
• January 10 – Sam Chatmon, blues musician
• January 22
• *Rosa Ponselle, soprano
• *Leslie Sarony, English singer, comedian and songwriter
• February 12 – Břetislav Bakala, conductor and pianist
• February 27 – Marian Anderson, contralto
• March 3 – Sandy MacPherson, theatre organist
• March 9 – Pedro Flores, composer
• March 11 – Henry Cowell, composer
• March 13 – Maria Nemeth, Hungarian operatic soprano
• March 26 – David McCallum, Sr., violinist and father of David McCallum
• April 1 – Lucille Bogan, blues singer
• April 8 – John Frederick Coots, US composer
• April 17 – Harald Sæverud, composer
• April 19 – Vivienne Segal, US actress and singer
• April 23 – Pixinguinha, choro composer and woodwind player
• May 14 – Sidney Bechet, jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, and composer
• May 29 – Erich Wolfgang Korngold, composer
• June 3
• *Memphis Minnie, blues singer
• *Boris Kroyt, classical violinist and violist, member of the Budapest String Quartet from 1936 to 1967
• June 12 – Alexandre Tansman, pianist and composer
• June 15 – Mary Ellis, actress and singer
• June 22 – Bulbul, opera and folk singer
• July 11 – Blind Lemon Jefferson, blues musician
• June 27 – Maceo Pinkard, composer, lyricist and music publisher
• August 4 – Abe Lyman, US bandleader, composer and drummer
• August 29 – Helge Rosvaenge, operatic tenor
• September 3 – Francisco Mignone, composer
• September 8 – Jimmie Rodgers, country singer
• September 18
• *Pablo Sorozábal, composer
• *Sam H. Stept, Russian-born US composer, pianist and conductor
• October 11 – Leo Reisman, violinist and bandleader
• October 26 – Tiana Lemnitz, operatic soprano
• November 2 – Dennis King, British singer and actor
• November 12 – Karl Marx, conductor and composer )
• November 20 – Margaret Sutherland, composer
• November 25 – Willie 'The Lion' Smith, US jazz pianist
• December 9 – Hermione Gingold, actress and singer
• December 18 – Fletcher Henderson, jazz musician
• December 30 – Alfredo Bracchi, Italian lyricist
• date unknown – Aileen Stanley, singer

  Deaths

• January 24 – Sarah Edith Wynne, operatic soprano and concert singer, 54
• February 10 – Antonio Bazzini, violinist, composer and music, 78
• February 23 – Woldemar Bargiel, composer and teacher, 68
• February 25 – Cornélie Falcon, opera singer, 83
• March 7 – Leonard Labatt, operatic tenor, 58
• April 3 – Johannes Brahms, composer, 63
• April 8 – George Garrett, composer, 62
• April 23 – Clement Harris, pianist and composer, 25
• May 21 – Carl Mikuli, pianist and composer, 77
• June 9
• *Ignace Gibsone, pianist and composer, 70
• *Pavel Pabst, pianist and composer, 43
• June 18 – Franz Krenn, composer and music teacher, 81
• August 1 – Gaetano Antoniazzi, violin-maker, 71
• September 16 – Edward Edwards, choirmaster and composer, 81
• September 20
• *Karel Bendl, composer, 59
• *Grenville Dean Wilson, pianist and composer, 64
• October 11 – Léon Boëllmann, organist and composer, 35
• November 6 – Edouard Deldevez, conductor, composer and violinist, 80
• November 14 – Giuseppina Strepponi, operatic soprano, 82
• December – Slavka Atanasijević, Serbian pianist and composer, 47
• December 4 – Adolf Neuendorff, German-American composer, conductor, pianist and violinist, 54