1883 in music

Specific locations

• 1883 in Norwegian music

  Events

• October 22 – Opening of the first Metropolitan Opera House.
• Friedrich Kiel is involved in a traffic accident from which he never completely recovered.
• The Gretsch Company, manufacturers of drums, banjos and guitars, opens in Brooklyn, N.Y.

  Published popular music

• "A Boy's Best Friend Is His Mother" w. Henry Miller m. Joseph P. Skelly
• "The Farmer in the Dell" trad
• "La golondrina" m. Narciso Serradell Sevilla
• "Polly Wolly Doodle " trad
• "Ring Dem Heavenly Bells" by Sam Lucas
• "She Does the Fandango All Over the Place" w.m. G. W. Hunt
• "There Is a Tavern in the Town" anon
• "Transit of Venus March" m. John Philip Sousa

  [Classical music]

• Isaac Albéniz – Barcarola for piano No. 1
• Anton Arensky
• *Piano Concerto in F minor, Op. 2
• *Symphony No. 1 in B minor
• Johannes Brahms – Symphony No. 3
• Emmanuel Chabrier – España, rapsodie pour orchestre
• George Whitefield Chadwick – Thalia
• Antonín Dvořák – Scherzo capriccioso, Op. 66/B. 131
• Charles Gounod – The Redemption
• Franz Liszt – La lugubre gondola
• Pablo de Sarasate – Carmen Fantasy
• Sergei Taneyev – Canzona for Clarinet and Strings in F minor
• Emil Waldteufel –Estudiantina

  [Opera]

• Alfredo Catalani – Dejanice
• César Cui – Prisoner of the Caucasus
• Charles-Édouard Lefebvre – Le Trésor premiered in Angers
• Miguel Marqués – La cruz de fuego
• Karel Miry – De kleine patriot

  [Musical theater]

• Cordelia's Aspirations Broadway production opened at the New Theatre Comique on November 5 and ran for 176 performances
• Johann Strauss II – Eine Nacht in Venedig Berlin and Vienna productions

  Births

• January 30 – Peeter Süda, Estonian organist and composer
• February 11 – Paul von Klenau, Danish-born composer
• March 10 – Maria Barrientos, Spanish operatic soprano
• March 15 - Ford Dabney, American composer and vaudevillian
• March 16 – Ernie Hare, U.S. bass/baritone
• March 19 – Josef Matthias Hauer, Austrian composer and theorist
• March 21 – Jules Van Nuffel, Belgian composer and choir conductor
• April 1 – Malcolm McEachern, Australian-born concert bass singer
• April 6 – Vernon Dalhart, U.S. singer
• April 13 – Alexander Vasilyevich Alexandrov, Russian Soviet composer
• May 4 – Nikolai Malko, Ukrainian conductor
• May 5 – Petar Konjović, composer
• May 28
• *George Dyson, English musician and composer
• *Václav Talich, Czech conductor
• *Riccardo Zandonai, opera composer
• July 7 – Toivo Kuula, Finnish conductor and composer
• July 25 – Alfredo Casella, composer
• July 29 – Manuel Infante, pianist and composer
• August 13 – Joseph C. Smith, American dance band leader
• August 19 – Emilius Bangert, Danish composer and organist
• September 18 – Gerald Tyrwhitt-Wilson, 14th Baron Berners, British composer
• October 2 – Frico Kafenda, Slovak composer
• October 22 – Victor Jacobi, operetta composer
• November 8 – Arnold Bax, English composer
• December 3 – Anton Webern, Austrian composer
• December 22 – Edgard Varèse, French composer

  Deaths

• January 24 – Friedrich von Flotow, composer
• February 13 – Richard Wagner, German composer
• February 17 – Napoléon Coste, guitarist and composer
• April 10 – Emilie Mayer, composer
• April 26 – Napoleon Orda, pianist, composer and artist
• June 6
• *Ciprian Porumbescu, composer
• *Per Lasson, composer
• June 10 – Karl Graedener, cellist, singing teacher and composer
• July 14 – Svend Grundtvig, Danish folk song collector
• July 27 – Franz Doppler, flute virtuoso and composer
• October 4 – Giovanni Guicciardi, Italian opera singer
• October 30 – Robert Volkmann, composer
• December 3 – Gustav Hölzel, operatic bass-baritone
• December 11 – Mario, operatic tenor
• date unknown – Enrico Ceruti, violin maker