1861 in music

List of years in music       (table)
... 1851 .  1852 .  1853 .  1854  . 1855  . 1856  . 1857 ... 1858 1859 1860 -1861- 1862 1863 1864 ... 1865 .  1866 .  1867 .  1868  . 1869  . 1870  . 1871 ...
Art . Archaeology . Architecture . Literature . Music . Philosophy . Science +...

Events

• February 18 - To celebrate the opening of the parliament of the new Italian nation at Turin, Giuseppe Verdi's opera La Favorita is performed in the Teatro Regio. Verdi himself is a deputy in the new parliament.
• March 13 - Tannhäuser scandal in Paris.

Published popular music

• "Abide With Me", w. Rev Henry Francis Lyte m. William Henry Monk (Words 1847)
• "Alice, Where Art Thou", w. Wellington Guernsey m. Joseph Ascher
• "Aura Lea", w. W. W. Fosdick m. George R. Poulton
• "The Bonnie Blue Flag", w. Mrs Annie Chamber-Ketchum m. Harry MacCarthy
• "Eternal Father, Strong to Save", w. William Whiting m. Rev. John Bacchus Dykes
• "Go Down, Moses", trad spiritual
• "Holy! Holy! Holy! Lord God Almighty", w. Reginald Heber m. John Bacchus Dykes
• "I'm Going Home to Dixie", w. Dan Emmett a. C. S. Grafully
• "John Brown's Body", w. anon m. William Steffe
• "Maryland, My Maryland", w. James Ryder Randall m. Walter de Mapers (Music "Mini est Propositum" 12th century)
• "The Vacant Chair", w. Henry S. Washburne m. George Frederick Root

Classical music

• Antonín Dvořák - String Quintet No. 1 in A-minor, Op. 1
• Hermann Goetz - Piano Concerto in E-flat

Opera

• Ferenc Erkel - Bank Ban
• Stanislaw Moniuszko - Verbum Nobile
• Amilcare Ponchielli - La Savoiarda

Musical theater

• Orpheus In The Underworld by Offenbach, New York production

Births

• February 21 - Pierre de Bréville, composer (d. 1949)
• April 7 - Clara Novello Davies, singer, conductor and music teacher (d. 1943)
• April 26 - Ferdinand Buescher, instrument manufacturer (d. 1937)
• May 19 - Nellie Melba, operatic soprano (d. 1931)
• June 15 - Ernestine Schumann-Heink, operatic contralto (d. 1936)
• June 17 - Sidney Jones, composer of musical comedies (d. 1946)
• June 27 - Fanny Davies, pianist (d. 1934)
• August 11 - Anton Arensky, pianist and composer (d. 1906)
• November 29 - Spyridon Samaras, Greek opera composer, who also set to music the Olympic Anthem (d. 1917)
• December 5 - James Thornton, English-born US songwriter and vaudeville comedian (d. 1938)
• December 18 - Lionel Monckton, English composer 9d. 1924)
• date unknown
  • Camille D'elmar, opera singer (d. 1902)
  • Giuseppe Fiorini, musical instrument maker (d. 1934)
  • Sigismund Zaremba, composer (d. 1915)
  • Ferdinand Ellsworth Olds, instrument manufacturer (d. 1928)

Deaths

• January 17 - Lola Montez, dancer (b. 1821)
• January 22 - Giovanni Velluti, castrato singer (b. 1780)
• February 12 - Hippolyte André Jean Baptiste Chélard, conductor and composer (b. 1789)
• February 20 - Eugène Scribe, librettist (b. 1791)
• March 14 - Louis Niedermeyer, composer (b. 1802)
• August 9 - Vincent Novello, composer and music publisher (b. 1781)
• October 24 - Elisabeth Frösslind, opera singer (b. 1793)
• December 14 - Heinrich Marschner, composer (b. 1795)
• December 16 - Karol Lipiński, violinist and composer (b. 1790)
• December 18 - Ernst Anschütz, organist, composer and poet (b. 1780)
• December 25 - Natale Abbadia, composer (b. 1792)
• date unknown - Anthony Philip Heinrich, composer (b. 1781)