1876 in music

Events

• February – Baritone Lithgow James joins the English Opera Company, where he begins a partnership with his future wife Florence St. John.
• February 24 – Incidental music composed by Edvard Grieg for Henrik Ibsen's Peer Gynt premieres.
• May 17 – Antonín Dvořák begins composing his Moravian Duets.
• August 16 – Richard Wagner's Siegfried debuts in the new Bayreuth Festspielhaus.
• August 17 – Richard Wagner's Götterdämmerung debuts in the new Bayreuth Festspielhaus.
• Soprano Rosa Hasselbeck marries the conductor and composer Josef Sucher.

Published popular music

• "Grandfather's Clock" by Henry Clay Work
• "The Bonnie Banks o' Loch Lomond" by Andrew Lang
• "Gay As A Lark" by Septimus Winner
• "When The Great Red Dawn is Shining"
• "Old Aunt Jemima" by Billy Kersands
• "Molly Malone"
• "Rose of Killarney" by George Cooper & John Rogers Thomas

  Classical music

• Johannes Brahms – Symphony No. 1
• Pietro Abbà Cornaglia – Requiem
• Felix Draeseke – Six Fugues for piano; Dämmerungsräume: five piano pieces, Op. 14
• Antonín Dvořák – Piano Concerto in G minor, Op. 33
• Gabriel Fauré – Violin Sonata No. 1 in A, Op. 13
• César Franck – Les Éolides
• Benjamin Godard – Concerto Romantique
• Edvard Grieg – Ballade in the Form of Variations on a Norwegian Folk Song, Op. 24
• Édouard Lalo – Cello Concerto
• Gustav Mahler – Piano Quartet movement in A
• Bedřich Smetana – String Quartet No. 1 in E minor, From My Life
• Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky – The Seasons, Op. 37a
• Charles-Marie Widor – Organ Symphonies Nos. 1–3, Op. 13

  Opera

• Arrigo Boito – Mefistofele
• Luigi Denza – Wallenstein
• Amilcare Ponchielli – La Gioconda
• Bedřich Smetana – The Kiss
• Richard Wagner
• *Siegfried
• *Götterdämmerung
• Ivan Zajc – Nikola Šubić Zrinski

  Musical theater

• Richard Genée – Der Seekadette
• Robert Planquette – Les cloches de Corneville

  Births

• January 12
• *Annie Krull, operatic soprano
• *Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari, composer
• January 19 – Rosina Storchio, Italian lyric soprano
• January 29
• *Havergal Brian, composer
• *Ludolf Nielsen, composer
• February 2 – Giovanni Zenatello, tenor
• February 28 – John Alden Carpenter, composer
• March 11 – Carl Ruggles, composer
• May 17 – Carrie Tubb, soprano
• June 2 – Hakon Børresen, Danish composer
• June 5 – Tony Jackson, jazz musician
• August 14 – Florrie Forde, Australian-born English music hall singer
• August 16 – Karl Hoschna, Bohemian-born US composer
• September 15 – Bruno Walter, conductor
• November 23 – Manuel de Falla, composer
• December 11 – Mieczysław Karłowicz, composer
• December 29
• *Pablo Casals, cellist
• *Lionel Tertis, violist

  Deaths

• February 28 – Raimondo Boucheron, composer, 75
• March 5
• *Francesco Maria Piave, librettist and friend of Giuseppe Verdi, 65
• *Marie d'Agoult, lover of Franz Liszt and mother of Cosima Wagner, 70
• March 28 – Joseph Böhm, violinist, 80
• April 19 – Samuel Sebastian Wesley, organist and composer, 65
• June 28 – August Wilhelm Ambros, composer and music historian, 69
• August 29 – Félicien-César David, composer, 66
• September 9 – Mary Shaw, operatic contralto, 62
• September 30 – Henri Bertini, pianist and composer, 77
• October 1 – James Lick, American carpenter and piano builder, 80
• November 8 – Antonio Tamburini, operatic baritone, 76
• November 9 – Édouard Batiste, organist and composer, 56
• November 18 – Nicolas Bosret, blind organist and composer, 77
• December 3 – Hermann Goetz, composer, 35
• December 14 – George Frederick Anderson, violinist, 83