1888 in music

List of years in music (Table)
… 1878 1879 1880 1881 1882 1883 1884 1885 1886 1887 1888 1889 1890 1891 1892 1893 1894 1895 1896 1897 1898 …
Related time period or subjects
… 1885 1886 1887 1888 1889 1890 1891 … … 1850s 1860s 1870s 1880s 1890s 1900s 1910s … … 18th century 19th century 20th century …
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Events

• Wax phonograph cylinders are mass marketed.
• Hamish MacCunn marries Alison, daughter of John Pettie, RA.
• July : first performance of The Internationale in Lille, France

Published popular music

• "Drill, Ye Tarriers, Drill"     anon poss Thomas F. Casey
• "Over The Waves" ("Sobre las Olas")     w.m. Juventino Rosas
• "Where Did You Get That Hat?"     w.m. Joseph J. Sullivan
• "The Whistling Coon"     w.m. Sam Devere

Classical music

• Johannes Brahms – Violin Sonata in D Minor (opus 108)
• Cécile Chaminade – Scarf Dance, Callirhoe (ballet)
• Claude Debussy – Arabesque No. 1, L. 66 for piano
• Frederick Delius – Hiawatha (tone poem)
• César Franck – Symphony in D Minor
• Edvard Grieg
  • Lyric Pieces for Piano, Book IV
  • Peer Gynt Suite No. 1, Op. 46
• Gustav Mahler – Symphony No. 1, Lieder aus "Des Knaben Wunderhorn" (song collection)
• Carl Nielsen – Suite for String Orchestra
• Ignacy Jan Paderewski – Piano Concerto in A minor
• Max Reger – String Quartet in D minor (with double bass obbligato; without op.) (1888–9)
• Joseph Rheinberger – Organ Sonata No. 12 in D-flat, Op. 154
• Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov – Russian Easter Festival Overture
• Erik Satie – Three Gymnopédies for piano
• Richard Strauss
  • Don Juan, Macbeth (first version)
• Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
  • Sleeping Beauty (ballet)
  • Symphony No. 5
• Hugo Wolf
  • Goethe-Lieder
  • Mörike-Lieder
• Edwin Lemare
  • Andantino in D-flat, also known as Moonlight and Roses, op.83 no.2

Opera

• Karel Miry – La Napolitaine (opera in 1 act, libretto by J. de Bruyne, premiered on February 25 in Antwerp)
• Emile Pessard – Tartarin sur les Alpes premiered on November 17 at the Théâtre de la Gaîté, Paris
• Carl Maria von Weber, completed by Gustav Mahler – Die Drei Pintos

Musical theater

• The Yeomen of the Guard by W. S. Gilbert and Sir Arthur Sullivan – London and Broadway productions

Births

• January 26 – Lisa Steier, Swedish ballerina
• February 9 – Ernst Mehlich, German-Brazilian conductor and composer
• February 27 – Lotte Lehmann, singer (d. 1976)
• May 10 – Max Steiner, composer (d. 1971)
• May 11 – Irving Berlin, composer (d. 1989)
• May 27 – Louis Durey, composer, member of Les Six (d. 1979)
• June 3 – Tom Brown, jazz musician (d. 1958)
• June 6 – Pete Wendling, American composer, pianist, and piano roll recording artist
• June 16 – Bobby Clark, US comedian and singer
• August 16 – Armand J. Piron, jazz musician (d. 1943)
• September 12 – Maurice Chevalier, French singer and actor (d. 1972)
• October 7 – Cecil Coles, composer (d. 1918)
• December 28 – Gabriel von Wayditch, American composer of operas (d. 1969)

Deaths

• January 5 – Henri Herz, pianist and composer, 84
• January 14 – Stephen Heller, pianist and composer, 74
• February 22 – Jean-Delphin Alard, violinist and music teacher, 72
• March 10 – Ciro Pinsuti, pianist and composer, 58
• March 21 – Thomas German Reed, composer and theatre manager, 72
• March 29 – Charles-Valentin Alkan, French pianist and composer, 74 (killed in freak accident, trapped beneath a falling coat-rack)
• April 21 – Julius Weissenborn, bassoonist, 51
• August 8 – Friedrich Wilhelm Jähns, composer, music teacher and cataloguer, 79
• August 31 - Blanche Cole, operatic soprano, 37 (dropsy)
• November 17 – Jakob Dont, violinist and composer, 73
• December 2 – Franz Xaver Witt, church musician and composer, 54
• December 26 – Alfred Vance, English music hall singer and comedian, 49 (died on stage)