1859 in music

Events

• January 14 – Hans von Bülow interrupts a performance of Franz Liszt's Die Ideale at the Berlin Singakademie to ask for hostile elements in the audience to be silent.
• January 22 – The First Piano Concerto of Johannes Brahms is given its first public performance in Hanover.
• February 8 – Count Michael Wielhorsky invites musical associates to his home in an attempt to revive the Symphonic Society; this indirectly results in the formation of the Russian Musical Society, under the patronage of Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna and her protégé, Anton Rubinstein.
• March 4 – Charter of the French Opera House, New Orleans, which opens on December 1 of this year with a gala performance of Rossini's William Tell.
• March 11 – Giuseppe Verdi announces his retirement to friends at a dinner party.
• March 12 – The Prelude to Act 1 of Tristan und Isolde receives its first public performance at the Sophieninselsaal in Prague, at a charity concert in aid of poor medical students, conducted by Hans von Bülow, who provides his own concert ending for the occasion. Wagner completes the opera this year.
• April 3 – Richard Wagner takes up residence in Lucerne, Switzerland.
• April 4 – Bryant's Minstrels premiere the minstrel song "Dixie" at Mechanics' Hall in New York City as part of their blackface show.
• April 4 – Tannhäuser is performed at the Stadt Theater in New York City under the musical direction of Carl Bergmann. It is the first performance of a Wagner opera in the United States.
• May 6 – At the first concert of the Victoria Philharmonic Society, its future conductor John Bayley is a soloist on both clarinet and violin.
• July 1 – A monument to George Frideric Handel is unveiled in his birthplace, Halle; Franz Liszt is among those present.
• October 23 – Richard Wagner and an ailing Hector Berlioz meet in Paris and make up their differences.
• December 19 – César Franck inaugurates the new organ at the basilia of Sainte-Clotilde, Paris, an instrument built by Aristide Cavaillé-Coll.
• Alexander Borodin begins a period of chemical research at Heidelberg, working on benzene derivatives.
• Alberto Mazzucato becomes musical director of La Scala opera house.

Published popular music

• "Darling little blue eyed Nell" w. B. E. Woolf m. Frederick Buckley
• "I’m on My Journey Home" Sarah Lancaster
• "Thou Art the Queen of My Song" Stephen Foster
• In 1859, John Freeman Young published the English translation of Silent Night that is most frequently sung today.
• "Upidee", arranged by H. G. Spaulding

Classical music

• Charles-Valentin Alkan – Concerto for Solo Piano
• Mily Balakirev – Overture to King Lear
• Hector Berlioz
• *arrangement of Plaisir d’amour, H.134
• *Hymne pour la consécration du nouveau tabernacle, H 135
• Johannes Brahms
• *Piano Concerto No. 1
• *Serenade No. 2 in A
• *Psalm 13, Op.27
• Max Bruch
• *Piano Trio, Op.5
• *String Quartet No. 1 in C minor, Op. 9
• Felix Draeseke – Helges Treue
• Jules Egghard – Méditation d'une jeune fille, Op.41
• Edvard Grieg
• * 23 Little Piano Pieces, EG 104
• * Siehst du das Meer, for voice and piano
• Fromental Halévy – Italie
• Friedrich Hegar – Violin Sonata in C minor
• Stephen Heller – 2 Valses, Op.93
• Theodor Kirchner – 16 Preludes, Op.9
• Franz Liszt
• *Totentanz
• *first version of Psalm 23
• *Prelude after a theme from Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen for piano
• *Deux Épisodes d'apres le Faust de Lenau
• *Festgesang, S.26
• *Te Deum II for chorus, organ, brass and percussion, S. 27
• *Künstlerfestzug zur Schillerfeier 1859, S.114
• Giacomo Meyerbeer – Le revenant du vieux château de Bade, ballade
• Stanisław Moniuszko – Śpiewnik domowy No.5
• Michał Kleofas Ogiński – 6 Polonaises
• Joachim Raff – 6 Morceaux, Op.85
• Stanislas Verroust
• *Solo de concert No.4, Op.77
• *Solo de concert No.5, Op.78
• *Solo de concert No.6, Op.79

Opera

• César Cui – The Mandarin's Son
• Félicien David – Herculanum, premiered March 4 in Paris
• Léo Delibes – L'Omelette à la Follembuche
• Charles Gounod – Faust first performed March 19 in Paris. Libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré, based on a work by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
• Giacomo Meyerbeer – Le pardon de Ploërmel
• Giuseppe Verdi – Un ballo in maschera, premiered February 17 in Rome.

Musical theater

• Jacques Offenbach
• *Geneviève de Brabant, original version. Premiered November 19 in Paris.
• *''Les vivandières de la grande armée''

Births

• January 26 – W. O. Forsyth, pianist and composer
• February 1 – Victor Herbert, cellist, conductor and composer
• March 8
• *Karl Eduard Goepfart, composer
• *Otto Taubmann, composer
• March 10 – Pauline Schöller, Austrian soprano
• April 3 – Reginald de Koven, US composer
• April 5 – Wilhelm Harteveld, composer
• April 11 – Basil Harwood, organist and composer
• May 13
• *August Enna, composer
• *Cora S. Briggs, organist and composer
• June 22 – Frank Heino Damrosch, founder of Institute of Music
• June 27 – Mildred J. Hill, composer of "Happy Birthday to You"
• July 11 – Alfred Maria Willner, composer
• July 15 – Carlo Munier, musician
• July 21 – Charles H. Taylor, lyricist
• September 21 – Otto Lohse, conductor and composer
• September 24 – Julius Klengel, cellist, composer
• October 14 – Camille Chevillard, conductor and composer
• October 20
• *John Lund, conductor and composer
• *Guglielmo Zuelli, opera composer
• October 26 – Arthur Friedheim, Russian-born pianist
• November 15 – Joseph Vidal, composer
• November 17 – Gerhard Rosenkrone Schjelderup, composer
• November 19 – Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov, conductor and composer
• November 22 – Cecil Sharp, folk music revivalist
• November 30 – Sergei Lyapunov, pianist and composer
• December 21 – Max Fiedler, conductor and composer
• December 23 – Adrian Ross, English lyricist
• December 24 – Roman Statkowski, composer
• December 27 – William Henry Hadow, musicologist
• December 30 – Josef Bohuslav Foerster, composer

Deaths

• January 7 – Peter Ferdinand Funck, violinist and composer
• January 13 – Francisco José Debali, composer
• January 20 – Bettina von Arnim, composer
• February 6 – Jane Stirling, pianist and friend of Frédéric Chopin
• February 26 – Ferdinand Lukas Schubert, composer
• March 14 – Nicola Tacchinardi, cellist and operatic tenor
• March 30 – Philippe Musard, composer
• April 14 – Ignaz Bösendorfer, piano manufacturer
• July 23 – Marceline Desbordes-Valmore, actress, singer and poet
• July 29
• *Léon-Lévy Brunswick, librettist
• *Auguste Mathieu Panseron, composer and singing teacher
• August 18 – Antonio D'Antoni, opera composer and conductor
• August 28 – Edward Holmes, musicologist, music critic, pianist and music educator
• October 16 – John Fane, 11th Earl of Westmorland, soldier, politician, diplomat and musician
• October 22 – Louis Spohr, violinist, conductor and composer
• November 7 – Carl Gottlieb Reißiger, Kapellmeister and composer
• December 13 – Daniel Liszt, son of Franz Liszt and Countess Marie d'Agoult
• December 31 – Luigi Ricci, composer
• Date unknown – Lewis Henry Lavenu, conductor, composer and impresario