1872 in music

Events

• May 29 – Franz Liszt's oratorio 'Christus (Liszt)' premiered in the Protestant church at Weimar.
• June 5 – closure of the Teatro Re following its final performance, Rossini's The Barber of Seville
• June 24 – Karl Müller-Hartung founds an "Orchesterschule" at Weimar.
• * – first performance in England of Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No 3 at a Philharmonic Society concert.
• Friedrich Nietzsche takes up musical composition again after a long break.
• Tomás Bretón and Ruperto Chapí receive the first prize of the Madrid Conservatory.
• Anton Rubinstein begins a tour of the United States at the behest of Steinway and Sons.
• Richard Wagner completes the full draft of Götterdämmerung.

Published popular music

• "The Gospel Train" by Fisk Jubilee Singers
• "Moonlight on the Potomac" by John Philip Sousa
• "Waste Not, Want Not " by Harry Linn & Rollin Howard
• "Only a Dream" by George Cooper & William Vincent Wallace
• "Under the silvery stars," words by Arthur W. French, music by William A. Huntley

Classical music

• Georges Bizet – L'Arlésienne Suite No. 1 from the incidental music to Alphonse Daudet's play of the same name
• Anton Bruckner – Symphony No. 2
• Joseph Callaerts – Grande fantaisie de concert, Op.5
• Antonín Dvořák – Piano Quintet No. 1
• César Franck – Veni creator
• Charles Gounod - Funeral March of a Marionette
• Franz Paul Lachner -Octet for winds, Op. 156
• Franz Liszt - Sunt lacrymae rerum
• Modest Mussorgsky – The Nursery
• Camille Saint-Saëns
• * Cello Concerto No. 1
• * Cello Sonata No. 1
• Johan Svendsen – Carnival in Paris, Op.9
• Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky - Symphony No. 2
• Charles-Marie Widor – Organ Symphony No.4, Op.13 No.4
• August Winding - Three Fantasy Pieces, for clarinet or violin and piano, Op. 19

Opera

• Georges Bizet – Djamileh
• Gialdino Gialdini – La secchia rapita premiered at the Teatro Goldoni, Florence
• Alexandre Charles Lecocq – Les cent vierges
• Miguel Marqués – Justos por pecadores
• Karel Miry
• *De dichter en zijn droombeeld
• *De twee zusters
• Modest Mussorgsky – Boris Gudonov, Revised Version
• Jacques Offenbach – Fantasio
• Camille Saint-Saëns – La princesse jaune, Op. 30

Musical theater

Publications

• Richard Wagner – ''Über die Benennung "Musikdrama"''

Births

• January 1 – Hermine Finck, opera singer
• January 4 – Ottilie Sutro, piano duettist
• January 6 – Alexander Scriabin, Russian composer
• January 11 – Paul Graener, conductor and composer
• January 16 – Henri Büsser, conductor and composer
• January 23 – Adelina de Lara, pianist and composer
• March 6 – Ben Harney, ragtime pianist and songwriter
• March 7 – Vasily Andreyevich Zolotaryov, Russian composer
• March 8 – Paul Juon, Russian-Swiss violinist and composer
• March 10 – Felix Borowski, composer and music teacher
• March 19 – Sergei Diaghilev, choreographer
• March 20 – Bernhard Sekles, composer and music teacher
• March 30 – Sergey Nikiforovich Vasilenko, composer
• April 1 – Tadeusz Joteyko, composer
• April 29 – Eyvind Alnæs, composer
• May 1 – Hugo Alfvén, composer
• June 22 – Clara Mathilda Faisst, pianist
• July 7 – Juan Lamote de Grignon pianist, conductor and composer
• July 8 – Harry Von Tilzer, songwriter
• July 18 – Julius Fučík, composer
• July 20 – Déodat de Séverac, composer
• August 10 – Bill Johnson, dixieland jazz double-bassist
• August 15
• *Harold Fraser-Simson, composer and songwriter
• *Rubin Goldmark, composer
• September 9 – Josef Stránský, conductor
• October 12 – Ralph Vaughan Williams, composer
• November 29 – Anna von Mildenburg, Austrian soprano
• December 17 – Walter Loving, military bandleader
• December 20 – Lorenzo Perosi, Italian composer

Deaths

• January 20 – Raffaele Sacco, lyricist
• February 16 – Henry Fothergill Chorley, music critic
• March 22 – Karolina Bock, singer, dancer and actress
• March 23? - Hugo Ulrich, composer, teacher and arranger
• April 3 – Henriette Widerberg, operatic soprano
• April 12 – Nikolaos Mantzaros, composer
• May 5 – Johann Kulik, luthier
• May 9 – Viktorin Hallmayer, conductor and composer
• May 15 – Thomas Hastings, composer of hymns
• July 26 – Michele Carafa, opera composer
• August 4 – Wilhelm Friedrich Wieprecht, conductor and composer
• August 11 – Lowell Mason, organist and composer
• September 16 – Gall Morel, choirmaster
• November 21
• *Myllarguten, folk musician
• *Emile Steinkühler, composer
• November 29 – Giovanni Tadolini, composer