1804 in music

Events

• January 1 – Johann Nepomuk Hummel's Concerto for trumpet and orchestra receives its première in Vienna, in the presence of Nicholas II, Prince Esterházy.
• January 23 – François-Adrien Boieldieu becomes musical director at the court of Tsar Alexander I of Russia.
• February 20 – Giovanni Paisiello is appointed Maestro di Cappella at Naples.
• April 22 – Twelve-year-old Gioachino Rossini gives a concert at Imola.
• May 8 – Seventeen-year-old Carl Maria von Weber becomes Kapellmeister at Breslau in Silesia.
• May 14 – Napoleon proclaims himself emperor, causing Beethoven to tear up the title page of his recently completed Symphony No. 3 and rename it the Eroica.
• September 18 – Composer Muzio Clementi marries 19-year-old pianist Caroline Lehmann, the daughter of Johann Georg Lehmann, director of the Royal Opera, Berlin. There is a 33-year age gap between bride and groom.
• Nicolas Dalayrac is awarded the Légion d'honneur.

  Classical music

• Ludwig van Beethoven
• *Piano Sonata No. 22 in F major
• *Piano Sonata No. 23, Op.57
• *Symphony No. 2
• *Triple Concerto, Op.56
• *Gedenke mein!, WoO 130
• Isabella Colbran – Cavatina di partenza
• Jan Ladislav Dussek – Fantasia and Fugue for piano
• Anton Eberl – Symphony in D minor, Op. 34
• Johann Nepomuk Hummel
• *Rondo in E-flat major, Op. 11
• *Variations for piano Op. 15
• *Rondo-Fantasie, Op. 19
• *Mass in E-flat major, Op. 80
• Leopold Kozeluch – Three Piano Sonatas
• Niccolo Paganini – Divertimenti Carnevaleschi
• Ferdinand Ries – Piano sonata in A minor, Op. 1 No. 2
• Gioachino Rossini – 6 Sonate a quattro
• Antonio Salieri – Requiem in C minor
• Louis Spohr – Concerto for Violin No. 2 in D minor, Op. 2
• Carl Maria von Weber
• *6 Variations sur l'air de Naga de 'Samori', Op.6
• *6 Lieder, Op. 30
• *Turandot, Op.37
• Joseph Wölfl – Symphony in C major, Op. 41

  Opera

• Ludwig van Beethoven – Fidelio, Op.72
• François-Adrien Boieldieu – Aline, reine de Golconde
• Pierre Gaveaux – Le Mariage inattendu
• Adalbert Gyrowetz – Selico
• Ferdinando Paer – Leonora
• Gaspare Spontini – Milton
• Georg Joseph Vogler – Samori

  Births

• January 24 – Delphine de Girardin, lyricist and writer
• January 25 – Antoni Edward Odyniec, librettist and writer
• February 5 – Johan Ludvig Runeberg, lyricist and poet
• March 14 – Johann Strauss I, Austrian composer
• March 30 – Salomon Sulzer, Austrian Jewish composer
• April 15 – Otto Friedrich Gruppe, lyricist and poet
• May 13 – Aleksey Khomyakov, lyricist and philosopher
• May 31 – Louise Farrenc, born Jeanne-Louise Dumont, French pianist and composer
• June 1 – Mikhail Glinka, Russian composer
• June 13 – Gustave de Wailly, librettist and writer
• June 21 – Johann Gabriel Seidl, librettist and archeologist
• July 14 – Julius Schuberth, German author and publisher, founder of Schuberth & Co.
• July 17 – Carl Ferdinand Becker, music collector and musician
• August 19 – Christina Enbom, Swedish operatic soprano
• September 8 – Eduard Mörike, lyricist and poet
• October 1 – Eduard Sobolewski, Polish-American violinist, composer and conductor
• October 18
• *Alexandre Charles Fessy, composer and musician
• *Joseph-Bernard Rosier, librettist and playwright
• November 27 – Sir Julius Benedict, German-born conductor and composer
• date unknown – Ferdinand Giovanni Schediwy, Czech-born organist, conductor and composer

  Deaths

• March 29 – Ivan Khandoshkin, violinist and composer
• June 16 – Johann Adam Hiller, conductor, composer and music writer
• July 17 – Christian Ernst Graf, composer and kapellmeister
• August 24 – Valentin Adamberger, operatic tenor
• November 5 – Maria Anna Adamberger, actress and singer, wife of Valentin Adamberger
• November 19 – Pietro Guglielmi, composer
• date unknown
• *Gioacchino Cocchi, opera composer
• *Marie Louise Marcadet, actress and singer
• *Lorenzo Quaglio, stage designer
• *Giovanni Valentini, composer, poet and painter
• *Christian Felix Weisse, lyricist and writer
• *Abraham Wood, early American composer