1894 in music

List of years in music (Table)
… 1884 1885 1886 1887 1888 1889 1890 1891 1892 1893 1894 1895 1896 1897 1898 1899 1900 1901 1902 1903 1904 …
Related time period or subjects
… 1891 1892 1893 1894 1895 1896 1897 … … 1860s 1870s 1880s 1890s 1900s 1910s 1920s … … 18th century 19th century 20th century …
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Events

• March 14 - Johan Svendsen conducts the world premiere of Carl Nielsen's Symphony No. 1 in Copenhagen
• December 22 - Claude Debussy's Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune is premiered in Paris
• Enrico Caruso makes his operatic debut
• George W. Johnson is said to have recorded over 25,000 phonograph records
• The National College of Music, London, was formed by the Moss Family. The college still exists today as an examination board for music and drama.
• George H. Thomas develops the first illustrated song to promote The Little Lost Child, which goes on to sell more than two million copies of its sheet music nationwide.

Published popular music

The Little Lost Child sheet music cover

Owls' Serenade sheet music cover

• "Airy, Fairy Lillian" w. Tony Raymond m. Maurice Levi
• "And Her Golden Hair Was Hanging Down Her Back" w. Monroe H. Rosenfeld m. Felix McGlennon
• "At Trinity Church I Met My Doom" w.m. Fred Gilbert
• "Don't Be Cross" by Karl Zeller from the operetta Der Obersteiger
• "Forgotten" w. Flora Wulschner m. Eugene Cowles
• "His Last Thoughts Were Of You" w. Edward B. Marks m. Joseph W. Stern
• "The Honeymoon" m. George Rosey
• "Humoresque" m. Antonín Dvořák
• "I Don't Want To Play In Your Yard" w. Philip Wingate m. Henry W. Petrie
• "If It Wasn't For The 'Ouses In Between" w. Edgar Bateman m. George Le Brunn
• "I'll Be True To My Honey Boy" w.m. George Evans
• "I've Been Working on the Railroad" w.m. trad (first copyright 1894)
• "Kathleen" w.m. Helene Mora
• "Little Kinkies" w.m. M. Tobias
• "The Little Lost Child" w. Edward B. Marks m. Joseph W. Stern
• "Long Ago In Alcala" w. Frederick Edward Weatherley & Adrian Ross m. André Messager
• "My Friend The Major" w.m. E. W. Rogers
• "My Pearl Is A Bowery Girl" w. William Jerome m. Andrew Mack
• "Oh! That Gorgonzola Cheese" w. Fred W. Leigh m. Harry Champion
• "The Owls Serenade" w. Arthur J. Lamb, m. H.W. Petrie
• "She Is More To Be Pitied Than Censured" w.m. William B. Gray
• "She May Have Seen Better Days" w.m. James Thornton
• "The Sidewalks of New York" w.m. Charles B. Lawlor & James W. Blake
• ""Why Did Nellie Leave Home?" by George M. Cohan
• "Yale Society Two-Step" by C. VanBaar
• "You've Been A Good Old Wagon But You've Done Broke Down" by Ben Harney

Recorded popular music

• "And Her Golden Hair was Hanging Down Her Back"
  - Dan W. Quinn, Berliner Records
• "My Pearl is a Bowery Girl"
  - Dan W. Quinn, Berliner Records

Classical music

• Anton Arensky - Piano Trio No. 1 in D minor, Op. 32
• Johannes Brahms - Two Clarinet Sonatas, Op. 120
• Claude Debussy - Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune
• Robert Fuchs - Serenade No. 5 in D, Op. 53
• Alexander Gretchaninov - String Quartet no 1 (2?) in G major, Op. 2
• Victor Herbert - Concerto for Cello no 2 in E minor
• Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov - Caucasian Sketches
• Joseph Jongen - Quartet for Strings no 1 in C minor, op. 3
• Alexander Kopylov - String Quartet no 2 in F major, op. 23
• Carl Nielsen - Symphony No. 1 in G minor; Symfonisk Suite for piano, FS 19
• Josef Rheinberger - Sonata for Horn and Piano in E flat major
• Adolphe Samuel - Symphony No. 7 Opus 48
• Wilhelm Stenhammar - String Quartet No. 1 in C major, Op. 2
• Louis Vierne - String Quartet in D minor, Op. 12 (c. 1894)

Opera

• Granville Bantock - The Pearl of Iran
• Julius Bechgaard - Frau Inge
• Herman Bemberg - Cleopatra
• Frederick Delius - The Magic Fountain
• Charles-Édouard Lefebvre - Djelma premiered on May 25 at the Théâtre de l'Opéra in Paris
• Hamish MacCunn - Jeanie Deans
• Jules Massenet - Thaïs (opera)
• Emile Pessard - Le muet
• Sergei Taneyev - Oresteia (completed 1894, premiered 1895)

Musical theater

• A Gaiety Girl - Broadway production opened at Daly's Theatre on September 17 and ran for 81 performances
• Der Obersteiger - Austrian production opened at the Theater an der Wien on January 5
• The Passing Show - Broadway production opened at the Casino Theatre on May 5
• Rob Roy Broadway production opened at the Herald Square Theatre on October 29 and ran for 168 performances
• The Shop Girl - London production opened at the Gaiety Theatre on November 24 and ran for 546 performances
• A Trip To Chinatown - London production opened at Toole's Theatre on September 29 and ran for 125 performances

Births

• January 31 - Isham Jones, US bandleader and composer (d. 1956)
• February 11 - Alfonso Leng, dentist and part-time composer (d. 1974)
• April 3 - Dooley Wilson, pianist and singer (d. 1953)
• April 15 - Bessie Smith, blues singer (d. 1937)
• April 27 - Nicolas Slonimsky, conductor and composer (d. 1995)
• May 10 - Dimitri Tiomkin, Russian-born US composer, pianist and conductor
• May 29 -Beatrice Lillie, Canadian actress and singer (d. 1989)
• June 4 - La Bolduc (Mary Travers), Québécois singer (d. 1941)
• June 10 - Punch Miller, jazz trumpeter (d. 1971)
• July 10 - Jimmy McHugh, US composer and pianist
• August 15 - Harry Akst, US composer and pianist
• September 3 – Marie Dubas, French music-hall singer (d. 1972)
• September 18 - Willard Robison, US songwriter and bandleader
• September 26 - Vaughn De Leath, US singer and radio pioneer
• December 31 - Ernest John Moeran, British composer (d. 1950)

Deaths

• January 13 - Nadezhda von Meck, patron of Tchaikovsky (b. 1831)
• January 21 - Guillaume Lekeu, composer (b. 1870) (typhoid)
• February 4
  • Louis Lewandowski, composer (b. 1821)
  • Adolphe Sax, Belgian instrument maker, inventor of the saxophone (b. 1814)
• February 11 - Emilio Arrieta, composer (b. 1823)
• February 12 - Hans von Bülow, pianist, conductor and composer (b. 1830)
• February 18 - Camillo Sivori, violinist and composer (b. 1815)
• March 21 - Jakob Rosenhain, pianist and composer (b. 1813)
• April 13
  • Marie Carandini, opera singer (b. 1826)
  • Philipp Spitta, musicologist and biographer of Bach (b. 1841)
• June 9 - Juventino Rosas, violinist and composer (b. 1868)
• June 23 - Marietta Alboni, operatic contralto (b. 1826)
• July 9 - Juventino Rosas, violinist, bandleader and composer (b. 1868)
• July 26 - Eduard Tauwitz, composer (b. 1812)
• September 13 - Emmanuel Chabrier, composer (b. 1841)
• September 21 - Emma Fursch-Madi, operatic soprano (b. 1847)
• October 16 - Johanna Jachmann-Wagner, opera singer, actress and music teacher (b. 1826)
• October 28 - Rudolf Hildebrand, historian of the German folk song (b. 1824)
• November 4 - Eugène Oudin, composer (b. 1858)
• November 20 - Anton Rubinstein, pianist and composer (b. 1829)