# 1880 in music

This article is about music-related events in 1880.

## Specific locations

* 1880 in Norwegian music

## Events

* April 3 – Gilbert and Sullivan's comic opera The Pirates of Penzance has its London premiere at the Opera Comique on the Strand.
* June 12 – Richard Strauss completes composition of his first major work, his Symphony in D minor, at age 16.
* June–August – Gustav Mahler takes his first professional conducting job, in a small wooden theatre in the Austrian spa town of Bad Hall, conducting operetta.
* November 1 – Mahler completes composition of Das klagende Lied.
* November 27 – The Teatro Costanzi in Rome is inaugurated with a performance of Rossini's opera Semiramide.

## Published popular music

* "The Beauty of Limerick" – David Braham
* "Blow the Man Down" trad
* "Funiculì Funiculà" w. G. Turco m. Luigi Denza
* "Keep the Horseshoe Over the Door" w. m. Joseph P. Skelly
* "Haste to the Wedding" published by Jean White
* "In The Evening By The Moonlight" w. m. James A. Bland
* "O Canada!" w. Adolphe-Basile Routhier m. Calixa Lavallée
* "Roses from the South" m. Johann Strauss II
* "Sailing, Sailing" w.m. Godfrey Marks
* "Softly and Tenderly" w.m. Will L. Thompson
* From The Pirates of Penzance, w. W. S. Gilbert m. Arthur Sullivan
** "Away, Away! My Heart's On Fire"
** "Now for The Pirates' Lair"
** "Oh, Better Far To Live And Die"
** "A Rollicking Band Of Pirates, We"
** "To Gain A Brief Advantage"
** "When A Felon's Not Engaged"
** "When The Foeman Bares His Steel"
** "When You Had Left Our Pirate Fold"
** "Yes! I Am Brave! Oh, Family Descent"
* "Come and meet me, Rosa darling," w. by Samuel N. Mitchell, m. by William A. Huntley

## Classical music

* Ján Levoslav Bella – String Quartet No. 2 in C minor
* Giovanni Bottesini – Gran Duo Concertante
* Johannes Brahms
** Tragic Overture
** Academic Festival Overture
** 2 Rhapsodies, Op.79, premiered January 20 in Krefeld.
* Alfons Czibulka – Stephanie-Gavotte, Op.312
* Felix Draeseke – Weihestunden. Six songs for baritone (or mezzo-soprano) and piano
* Antonín Dvořák
** Waltzes, Op.54
** Violin Sonata, Op. 57 (B. 106)
** Symphony No. 6 in D major, Op. 60 (B. 112)
** Songs My Mother Taught Me
* Gabriel Fauré – Élégie, for cello and piano
* César Franck – Piano Quintet, premiered January 17
* Niels Gade – Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in D minor, Op.56
* Edvard Grieg – 2 Elegiac Melodies, Op.34
* Emilie Mayer – Faust Overture
* Ion Ivanovici – The Danube Waves
* Hubert Parry – Piano Concerto
* Giacomo Puccini – Messa di Gloria
* Hans Rott – Symphony in E major
* Camille Saint-Saëns
** Suite algérienne in C major
** Violin Concerto No. 3
** Septet
* Pablo Sarasate – Spanish Dances for violin and piano, Book III
* Richard Strauss – Symphony in D minor
* Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
** 1812 Overture
** Italian Capriccio, Op.45, premiered December 18 in Moscow.
** Serenade for Strings

## Opera

* Dudley Buck – Deseret, or A Saint's Affliction
* Léo Delibes – Jean de Nivelle
* Miguel Marqués – Florinda
* Adolf Neuendorff – The Rat-Charmer of Hamelin/Der Rattenfänger von Hameln
* Anton Rubinstein – The Merchant Kalashnikov
* George Stephănescu
** Peste Dunare
** Sinziana si Pepelea
* Johann Strauss, Jr. – Das Spitzentuch der Königin, premiered October 10 in Vienna.

## Musical theater

* La Mascotte Paris production
* The Pirates of Penzance London production

## Published Writings

* Alexander John Ellis – The History of Musical Pitch

## Births

* January 3 – Lina Abarbanell, German-American singer and actress (d. 1963)
* January 5 – Nikolai Medtner, Russian pianist and composer. (d. 1951)
* January 6 – John McKenna, traditional Irish flute player (d. 1947)
* February 19 – Arthur Shepherd, American composer (d. 1958)
* April 7 – Fritz Grünbaum, Austrian Caberet artist (murdered 1941)
* June 13 – Vincent Rose, Italian-born American bandleader and composer (d. 1944)
* July 5 – Jan Kubelík, Czech violinist (d. 1940)
* July 24 – Ernest Bloch, Swiss-born American Jewish composer (d. 1959)
* July 31 – Manuel Penella, Spanish composer (d. 1939)
* September 19 – Zequinha de Abreu, Brazilian musician and composer (d. 1935)
* September 20 – Ildebrando Pizzetti, Italian composer (d. 1968)
* September 27 – Jacques Thibaud, French violinist (d. 1953)
* October 12 – Healey Willan, English-born Canadian composer (d. 1968)
* November 2
** John Foulds, English-born composer (d. 1939)
** Brian Hooker, American lyricist and librettist (died 1946)
* Aunt Molly Jackson, American folk singer and union activist (d. 1960)

## Deaths

* January 24 – George Jackson Lambert, English organist and composer (born 1794)
* February 18 – Christina Enbom, Swedish operatic soprano (born 1804)
* March 20 – Joaquim Antônio da Silva Calado, choro composer and flautist (born 1848)
* March 31 – Henryk Wieniawski, violinist and composer (born 1835) (heart attack)
* May 1 – Samuel Naumbourg, composer (born 1817)
* May 9 – Hermann Berens, composer (born 1826)
* May 30 – James Planché, word artist (born 1796)
* August 16 – Ernst Ferdinand Wenzel (born 1808)
* August 17 – Ole Bull, Norwegian violinist (born 1810)
* October 5 – Jacques Offenbach, composer (born 1819)
* October 7 – Fredrika Stenhammar, operatic soprano (born 1836)
* November 24 – Napoléon Henri Reber, composer (born 1807)
* November 27 – William Saurin Lyster, opera impresario (born 1828)
* December 2 – Josephine Lang, composer (born 1815)
* December 27 – Alessandro Nini, composer (born 1805)
* date unknown – Knut Eriksson Helland, Hardanger fiddle maker (born 1851)