1864 in music explained

Events

• January 13 – American songwriter Stephen Foster ("Oh! Susanna", "Old Folks at Home") dies aged 37 in New York City leaving a scrap of paper reading "Dear friends and gentle hearts". His parlor song "Beautiful Dreamer" is published in March.
• February 24 – Bedřich Smetana's symphonic poem Hakon Jarl is premiered in Prague.
• February 29 – Composer Gioachino Rossini celebrates his 72nd (17th) birthday with a party. It is 32 years since his last opera.
• May – Richard Wagner meets his new patron, the young Ludwig II of Bavaria, in Munich.^[1]
• December 17 – Jacques Offenbach's operetta La Belle Hélène receives its first performance at the Paris Variétés
• Hans von Bülow takes over from Franz Lachner at the Munich opera.
• Mili Balakirev begins sketching his Symphony No. 1. It will not be performed till 1898.

Published popular music

• "Beautiful Dreamer" by Stephen Foster
• "Der Deitcher's Dog" ("O Where, O Where Has My Little Dog Gone?") by Septimus Winner
• "The Picture on the Wall" by Henry Clay Work
• "Pretty Polly Perkins of Paddington Green" w. Harry Clifton m. traditional?
• "Shall We Gather at the River?" w.m. Robert Lowry
• "Somebody's Darling" w.m. John Hill Hewitt
• "Tramp! Tramp! Tramp! (The Boys Are Marching)" by George F. Root

Classical music

• Gaetano Braga – Souvenir du Rhin
  • • Johannes Brahms 9 Lieder and Songs, Op.32
  • Piano Quintet Op. 34
    • Anton Bruckner Mass No.1 in D minor, WAB 26
  • Herbstlied, WAB 73
  • Um Mitternacht, WAB 89
• Aleksandr Dargomyzhsky – Kazachok
• Félicien David – Allegretto agitato
• Niels Gade – 3 Fantasie pieces for clarinet and piano, Op. 43
• Hermann Goetz – Frühlings-Ouvertüre, Op.15
• Louis Gottschalk – The Dying Poet
  • • Ferdinand Hiller Operette ohne Text, Op.106
  • 12 Lieder (Hiller Album), Op.111
• Salomon Jadassohn – Symphony No.2, Op.28
  • • Adolf Jensen Präludium und Romanze, Op.19
  • 7 Gesänge aus dem spanischen Liederbuche, Op.21
  • 6 Lieder, Op.24
  • Piano Sonata, Op.25
• Friedrich Kiel – Piano Concerto
• Heinrich Lichner – 3 Piano Sonatas, Op.4
• William Mason – Ballade et barcarole, Op.15
• Josef Rheinberger – 5 Motets, Op.40
• Gioachino Rossini – Petite messe solennelle
• Ernst Rudorff – String Sextet, Op.5
• Camille Saint-Saëns – Piano Trio No.1, Op.18
• Franz Strauss – Nocturno for Horn and Piano
• Peter Tchaikovsky – The Storm
• Thomas Tellefsen – Trio for piano, violin and cello (Opus 31)
• Stanislas Verroust – Solo de concert No.11, Op.85
• Pauline Viardot – 12 Poems by Pushkin, Fet and Turgenev
• Robert Volkmann – Symphony no. 2
  • • Władysław Żeleński Valse-caprice, Op.9
  • 2 Morceaux de salon, Op.11

Opera

• Daniel François Esprit Auber – La fiancée du roi de Garbe (premiered January 11 in Paris)
• Flor van Duyse – Rosalinde (libretto by Karel Versnaeyen, premiered in Antwerp)
• Charles Gounod - Mireille, opera premiered on March 19, in Paris
• Karel Miry – Bouchard-d'Avesnes (opera in 5 acts, libretto by Hippoliet van Peene, premiered on March 6 in Ghent)
• Jacques Offenbach – Die Rheinnixen (The Rhine Fairies)
• George Alexander Macfarren – Helvellyn, (opera in 4 acts, libretto by John Oxenford, premiered on November 3 in London)

Musical theatre

• La Belle Hélène (Lyrics: Henri Meilhac & Ludovic Halévy Music: Jacques Offenbach) opens at the Théâtre des Variétés, Paris, on December 17.^[2]

Births

• February 6 – John Henry Mackay, lyricist (died 1933)
  • • February 7 Ricardo Castro, Mexican concert pianist and composer (d. 1907)^[3]
  • Arthur Collins, singer (d. 1933)
• February 9 – Miina Härma, Estonian organist, composer, and conductor (d. 1941)^[4]
• March 12 – Alice Tegnér, organist, composer (d. 1943)^[5]
• April 10 – Eugen d'Albert, composer, pianist (d. 1932)
• May 23 – Louis Glass, composer (d. 1936)
• June 11 – Richard Strauss, composer, conductor (d. 1949)
• July 6 – Alberto Nepomuceno, composer and conductor (d. 1920)
• July 20 – Erik Axel Karlfeldt, lyricist (died 1931)
• August 18 – Gemma Bellincioni, operatic soprano (d. 1950)
• October 7 – Louis F. Gottschalk, composer (d. 1934)
• date unknown – Alice Esty, operatic soprano (d. 1935)

Deaths

• January 13 – Stephen Foster, songwriter (b. 1826)
• January 15 – Isaac Nathan, English-born composer and musicologist, "father of Australian music" (b. c.1791)
• January 26 – Otto Lindblad, composer (b. 1809)
• February 16 – Václav Jindřich Veit, lawyer and composer (b. 1806)
• March 30 – Louis Schindelmeisser, clarinettist, conductor and composer (b. 1811)
• May 2 – Giacomo Meyerbeer, composer (b. 1791)
• June 3 – Anna Maria Sessi, opera singer (b. 1790)
• July 28 – Johann Hermann Kufferath, composer (born 1797)
• August 13 – Berthold Sigismund, lyricist (born 1819)
• September 4 – Manuel Antonio Carreño, Venezuelan musician, teacher and diplomat (b. 1812)^[6]
• October 1 – Christian Friedrich Ludwig Buschmann, musical instrument maker (b. 1805)
• October 7 – Apollon Grigoryev, poet and songwriter (b. 1822) (alcoholism)
• December 20 – Josef Proksch, pianist and composer (b. 1794)

Notes and References

1. Web site: Friendship with Richard Wagner. 2020-07-24.
2. Melnitz, Leo ed., The Opera Goer's Complete Guide, 1921
3. Book: Robert Murrell Stevenson. South American national anthems and other area studies: Mexico after the Mexican anthem. 2009. Pacific Press. 131.
4. Book: Kändler, Tiit. Küllike. Lengi-Cooper. A Hundred Great Estonians of the 20th Century. Tallinn. Estonian Encyclopaedia Publishers. 2002. 52. 978-9-98570-103-4.
5. Book: Julie Anne. Sadie. Rhian. Samuel. The New Grove Dictionary of Women Composers. London. Macmillan. 2006. 457. 978-0-33351-598-3.
6. Book: Diccionario de Historia de Venezuela. Fundación Polar. 1997. 980-6397-37-1. Spanish.