1873 in music

Events

• April – The Fisk Jubilee Singers, an African American a cappella ensemble, perform before Queen Victoria during their first European tour.
• August 27 – Sir Arthur Sullivan's oratorio The Light of the World is premièred at the Birmingham Festival.
• December 7 – Première of Camille Saint-Saëns's symphonic poem Phaéton at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, performed by the Concert National conducted by Édouard Colonne.
• Joseph Parry becomes Professor of Music at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth.
• Therese Malten makes her solo debut as Pamina in The Magic Flute at Dresden.

Published popular music

• "The German Polka" by Gus Williams (vaudeville)
• "Good Sweet Ham" by Henry Hart
• "Home on the Range" w. Brewster M. Higley m. Daniel E. Kelley
• "I'se Gwine Back to Dixie" by Charles A. White (musician)
• "Little sweetheart, come listen to me". Words and music by Arthur W. French
• "Silver Threads Among the Gold" w. Eben Eugene Rexford m. Hart Pease Danks

Classical music

• Johannes Brahms
• *Two String Quartets, Op. 51
• *Variations on a Theme by Haydn
• Anton Bruckner – Symphony No. 3
• Antonín Dvořák – String Quartet No. 5; String Quartet no. 6 in A
• Hermann Goetz – Symphony in F, Op. 9
• Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky – The Tempest
• Giuseppe Verdi – String Quartet in E minor
• Camille Saint-Saëns's – ''Phaéton''

Opera

• Léo Delibes — Le roi l'a dit
• Karel Miry — ''Muziek in t'huisgezin''

Musical theater

Births

• January 8 — Grace Van Studdiford, American stage actress and opera singer
• February 1 — Joseph Allard, fiddler and composer
• February 13 — Feodor Chaliapin, operatic bass
• February 27 — Enrico Caruso, operatic tenor
• March 19 — Max Reger, German composer
• April 1 — Sergei Rachmaninoff, Russian composer
• April 18 — Jean Roger-Ducasse, French composer
• May 1 — Harry Evans, composer
• June 1 — Ada Jones, singer
• June 16 — Antonina Nezhdanova, operatic soprano
• July 11 — Nat M. Wills, singer, comedian, and actor
• August 11 — J. Rosamond Johnson, US composer and singer
• August 18 — Otto Harbach, lyricist
• September 21 — Papa Jack Laine, bandleader
• October 14 — José Serrano, composer
• October 23 — Ricardo Villa, composer
• November 1 — Charles Quef, French organist and composer
• November 16 — W. C. Handy, songwriter
• December 9 — Carlo Zangarini, opera librettist and poet
• December 14 — Joseph Jongen, Belgian organist and composer

Deaths

• January 3 — John Lodge Ellerton, composer
• January 28 — Henry Hugo Pierson, composer
• February 14 — Charles Samuel Bovy-Lysberg, composer and pianist
• March 31 — Domenico Donzelli, operatic tenor
• April 13 — Carlo Coccia, opera composer
• April 19 — Pierre-Chéri Lafont, actor and singer
• May 13 — Kašpar Mašek, composer
• June 2 — François George-Hainl, cellist, conductor and composer
• July 4 — Prince Józef Michal Poniatowski, operatic tenor and composer
• July 19 — Ferdinand David, violinist and composer
• August 26 — Karl Wilhelm, choral director
• September 26 — Roderich Benedix, librettist and singer
• October 6 — Friedrich Wieck, music teacher and father of Clara Schumann
• October 8 — Albrecht Agthe, music teacher