1886 in music
Specific locations
Events
Published popular music
- Eugen d'Albert – Symphony op. 4 in F
- Anton Arensky – Margarite Gautier, Fantasia for Orchestra, op. 9
- Johannes Brahms – Cello Sonata No. 2 op. 99 in F, Violin Sonata No. 2 op. 100 in A, Piano Trio No. 3 op. 101 in C minor
- Charles Bordes – Paysages Tristes
- George Whitefield Chadwick – Symphony No. 2 op. 21 in B-flat
- Felix Draeseke – String Quartet No. 2 op. 35 in E minor, Piano Concerto op. 36 in E-flat, Symphony No. 3 in C major Tragica
- Gabriel Fauré – Piano Quartet No. 2 op. 45 in G minor
- Arthur Foote – In the Mountains
- César Franck – Sonata for Violin and Piano in A Major
- Alexander Glazunov – Five Novelettes for String Quartet, Op. 15, Symphony No. 2, Op. 16
- Vincent d'Indy – Symphonie sur un chant montagnard français
- Hans Pfitzner – String Quartet in D minor
- Josef Rheinberger – String Quartet No. 2, Op. 147 in F
- Camille Saint-Saëns – The Carnival of the Animals, Symphony No. 3 (Organ)
- Charles Villiers Stanford – Piano Quintet op. 25 in D minor
- Ludwig Thuille – Symphony
- Emil Waldteufel – España
- Charles-Marie Widor – Symphony No. 2, Op. 54
- John Philip Sousa – "The Gladiator" March
- Richard Strauss – Aus Italien
- Bernard Zweers – Symphony No. 3
Births
- January 9 – Lloyd Loar, American sound engineer and instrument designer
- January 22 – John J. Becker, American composer and editor
- January 25 – Wilhelm Furtwängler, conductor
- March 3 – R. O. Morris, British composer, teacher of Michael Tippett among others
- April 26 – Ma Rainey, blues singer
- April 30 – Frank Merrick, British pianist and composer
- May 3 – Marcel Dupré, French composer and organist
- May 4 – Shelton Brooks, Canadian-African American-song composer
- May 13 – Joseph Achron, Lithuanian Jewish composer
- May 24 – Paul Paray, conductor and composer
- May 26 – Al Jolson, singer and actor
- May 28 – Nikolai Sokoloff, Russian-American conductor and violinist
- June 9 – Kosaku Yamada, Japanese composer and conductor
- June 12 – E. Ray Goetz, US songwriter
- June 13 – Art Hickman, US bandleader
- July 4 – Heinrich Kaminski, German composer
- August 5 – Carlo Giorgio Garofalo, Italian composer and organist
- August 8 – Pietro Yon, Italian composer and organist, emigrated to US
- August 19 – Robert Heger, German composer and conductor
- August 27
- * Rebecca Clarke, English composer and violist
- * Eric Coates, English composer and conductor
- August 31 – L. Wolfe Gilbert, Russian-born US songwriter
- September 1 – Othmar Schoeck, Swiss composer
- September 11 – Launy Grøndahl, Danish composer and conductor
- September 25 – Jesús Guridi, composer
- October 1 – Ali-Naqi Vaziri, composer
- October 6 – Edwin Fischer, pianist and conductor
- November 6 – Gus Kahn, German-born US lyric writer
- December 25 – Kid Ory, jazz musician
Deaths
- January 16
- *Joseph Maas, operatic tenor
- *Amilcare Ponchielli, opera composer
- February 16 – Louis Köhler, conductor, composer and piano teacher
- March 23 – Max Wolff, composer
- March 27 – Dobri Chintulov, poet, teacher and composer
- March 31
- *Marie Heilbron, operatic soprano
- *Giovanni Rossi, composer, conductor, organist, and conservatory director
- April 13 – Károly Thern, pianist, conductor and composer
- July 23 – Emil Scaria, operatic bass-baritone
- July 31 – Franz Liszt, pianist and composer
- August 17 – John Woodcock Graves, composer
- September 10 – John Liptrot Hatton, composer
- September 14 – Hubert Ries, violinist and composer
- October 15 – Vilhelm Christian Holm, composer
- November 20 – Róza Laborfalvi, actress and singer
- date unknown
- *Sonya Adler, actress and singer
- *Heraclio Fernández, composer and journalist