# 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" (probably written by Dan Emmett) 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 (by Hermann Heidel) 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 (cantata)
* 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 (orchestral arrangement)
** 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 (died 1937)
* February 1 – Victor Herbert, cellist, conductor and composer (died 1924)
* March 8
** Karl Eduard Goepfart, composer (died 1942)
** Otto Taubmann, composer (died 1929)
* April 3 – Reginald de Koven, US composer (died 1920)
* April 5 – Wilhelm Harteveld, composer (died 1927)
* April 11 – Basil Harwood, organist and composer (died 1949)
* May 13
** August Enna, composer (died 1939)
** Cora S. Briggs, organist and composer (died 1935)
* June 22 – Frank Heino Damrosch, founder of Institute of Music (died 1937)
* June 27 – Mildred J. Hill, composer of "Happy Birthday to You" (died 1916)
* July 11 – Alfred Maria Willner, composer (died 1929)
* July 15 – Carlo Munier, musician (died 1911)
* July 21 – Charles H. Taylor, lyricist (died 1907)
* September 21 – Otto Lohse, conductor and composer (died 1925)
* September 24 – Julius Klengel, cellist, composer (died 1933)
* October 14 – Camille Chevillard, conductor and composer (died 1923)
* October 20 – Guglielmo Zuelli, opera composer (died 1941)
* October 26 – Arthur Friedheim, Russian-born pianist
* November 15 – Joseph Vidal, composer (died 1924)
* November 17 – Gerhard Rosenkrone Schjelderup, composer (died 1933)
* November 19 – Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov, conductor and composer (died 1935)
* November 22 – Cecil Sharp, folk music revivalist (died 1924)
* November 30 – Sergei Lyapunov, pianist and composer (died 1924)
* December 21 – Max Fiedler, conductor and composer (died 1939)
* December 23 – Adrian Ross, English lyricist (died 1933)
* December 24 – Roman Statkowski, composer (died 1925)
* December 27 – William Henry Hadow, musicologist (died 1937)
* December 30 – Josef Bohuslav Foerster, composer (died 1951)

## Deaths

* January 7 – Peter Ferdinand Funck, violinist and composer (born 1788)
* January 13 – Francisco José Debali, composer (born 1791)
* January 20 – Bettina von Arnim, composer (born 1785)
* February 6 – Jane Stirling, pianist and friend of Frédéric Chopin (born 1804; ovarian cyst)
* February 26 – Ferdinand Lukas Schubert, composer (born 1794)
* March 14 – Nicola Tacchinardi, cellist and operatic tenor (born 1772)
* March 30 – Philippe Musard, composer (born 1792)
* April 14 – Ignaz Bösendorfer, piano manufacturer (born 1796)
* July 23 – Marceline Desbordes-Valmore, actress, singer and poet (born 1786)
* July 29
** Léon-Lévy Brunswick, librettist (born 1805)
** Auguste Mathieu Panseron, composer and singing teacher (born 1796)
* August 18 – Antonio D'Antoni, opera composer and conductor (born 1801)
* August 28 – Edward Holmes, musicologist, music critic, pianist and music educator (born 1797)
* October 16 – John Fane, 11th Earl of Westmorland, soldier, politician, diplomat and musician (born 1784)
* October 22 – Louis Spohr, violinist, conductor and composer (born 1784)
* November 7 – Carl Gottlieb Reißiger, Kapellmeister and composer (born 1798)
* December 13 – Daniel Liszt, son of Franz Liszt and Countess Marie d'Agoult (born 1839; tuberculosis)
* December 31 – Luigi Ricci, composer (born 1805)
* Date unknown – Lewis Henry Lavenu, conductor, composer and impresario (born 1818)