1863 in music
Encyclopedia
Events
- May 10 - Violinist Joseph JoachimJoseph JoachimJoseph Joachim was a Hungarian violinist, conductor, composer and teacher. A close collaborator of Johannes Brahms, he is widely regarded as one of the most significant violinists of the 19th century.-Origins:...
marries contralto Amalie Schneeweiss. - September 30 - Georges BizetGeorges BizetGeorges Bizet formally Alexandre César Léopold Bizet, was a French composer, mainly of operas. In a career cut short by his early death, he achieved few successes before his final work, Carmen, became one of the most popular and frequently performed works in the entire opera repertory.During a...
's operaOperaOpera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
, Les pêcheurs de perlesLes pêcheurs de perlesLes pêcheurs de perles is an opera in three acts by the French composer Georges Bizet, to a libretto by Eugène Cormon and Michel Carré. It was first performed on 30 September 1863 at the Théâtre Lyrique in Paris, and was given 18 performances in its initial run...
debuts at the Théâtre LyriqueThéâtre LyriqueThe Théâtre Lyrique was one of four opera companies performing in Paris during the middle of the 19th century . The company was founded in 1847 as the Opéra-National by the French composer Adolphe Adam and renamed Théâtre Lyrique in 1852...
in ParisParisParis is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
. - November 4 - Les TroyensLes TroyensLes Troyens is a French opera in five acts by Hector Berlioz. The libretto was written by Berlioz himself, based on Virgil's epic poem The Aeneid...
, opera by Hector BerliozHector BerliozHector Berlioz was a French Romantic composer, best known for his compositions Symphonie fantastique and Grande messe des morts . Berlioz made significant contributions to the modern orchestra with his Treatise on Instrumentation. He specified huge orchestral forces for some of his works; as a...
, debuts, also at the Théâtre LyriqueThéâtre LyriqueThe Théâtre Lyrique was one of four opera companies performing in Paris during the middle of the 19th century . The company was founded in 1847 as the Opéra-National by the French composer Adolphe Adam and renamed Théâtre Lyrique in 1852... - Modest MussorgskyModest MussorgskyModest Petrovich Mussorgsky was a Russian composer, one of the group known as 'The Five'. He was an innovator of Russian music in the romantic period...
begins work on an opera, Salammbô, which is never finished. - Jules MassenetJules MassenetJules Émile Frédéric Massenet was a French composer best known for his operas. His compositions were very popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and he ranks as one of the greatest melodists of his era. Soon after his death, Massenet's style went out of fashion, and many of his operas...
wins the Prix de RomePrix de RomeThe Prix de Rome was a scholarship for arts students, principally of painting, sculpture, and architecture. It was created, initially for painters and sculptors, in 1663 in France during the reign of Louis XIV. It was an annual bursary for promising artists having proved their talents by...
in the Musical Composition category.
Published popular music
- "All Quiet On The Potomac Tonight" w.m. John Hill HewittJohn Hill HewittJohn Hill Hewitt was an American songwriter, playwright, and poet. He is best known for his songs about the American South, including "A Minstrel's Return from the War", "The Soldier's Farewell", "The Stonewall Quickstep", and "Somebody's Darling"...
- "Eton Boating Song" w. William Johnson Cory m. Capt. Algernon Drummond
- "Just Before the Battle, MotherJust before the Battle, MotherJust before the Battle, Mother was a popular song during the American Civil War, particularly among troops in the Union Army. It was written and published by Chicago-based George F. Root...
" by George F. Root - "Mother Would Comfort Me" w.m. Charles C. Sawyer
- "Oh My Darling, ClementineOh My Darling, ClementineOh My Darling, Clementine is an American western folk ballad usually credited to Percy Montrose , although it is sometimes credited to Barker Bradford. The song is believed to have been based on another song called Down by the River Liv'd a Maiden by H. S...
" by Percy Montrose & H S. Thompson - "Polly Perkins of Paddington Green" w. Harry Clifton m. traditional
- "Sweet and Low" words by Alfred Tennyson, music by Joseph BarnbyJoseph BarnbySir Joseph Barnby , English musical composer and conductor, son of Thomas Barnby, an organist, was born at York. He was a chorister at York Minster from the age of seven, was educated at the Royal Academy of Music under Cipriani Potter and Charles Lucas, and was appointed in 1862 organist of St...
- "Tenting on the Old Camp GroundTenting on the Old Camp Ground"Tenting on the Old Camp Ground" was a popular song during the American Civil War. A particular favorite of enlisted men in the Union army, it was written in 1863 by Walter Kittredge and first performed in that year at Old High Rock, Lynn, Massachusetts....
" w.m. Walter KittredgeWalter KittredgeWalter Kittredge , was a famous musician during the American Civil War.Born in Merrimack, New Hampshire, the tenth of eleven children, Kittredge was a talented self-taught musician who played the seraphine, the melodeon , and the violin. Kittredge toured solo and with the Hutchinson Family, a... - "Weeping Sad And Lonely" w. Charles Carroll Sawyer m. Henry Tucker
- "When Johnny Comes Marching Home AgainWhen Johnny Comes Marching Home"When Johnny Comes Marching Home" is a popular song of the American Civil War that expressed people's longing for the return of their friends and relatives who were fighting in the war.-Origins:...
" by Louis LambertLouis LambertLouis Joseph Lambert, Jr. , is a Louisiana attorney, businessman, former member and chairman of the Louisiana Public Service Commission, and a former Louisiana state senator....
& Patrick GilmorePatrick GilmorePatrick Sarsfield Gilmore was an Irish-born composer and bandmaster who lived and worked in the United States after 1848. Whilst serving in the Union Army during the Civil War, Gilmore wrote the lyrics to the song "When Johnny Comes Marching Home", the tune he took from an old Irish antiwar folk... - "You Are Going to the Wars, Willie Boy!|You Are Going To The Wars, Willie Boy!" w.m. John Hill Hewitt
- "The Young Volunteer" w.m. John Hill HewittJohn Hill HewittJohn Hill Hewitt was an American songwriter, playwright, and poet. He is best known for his songs about the American South, including "A Minstrel's Return from the War", "The Soldier's Farewell", "The Stonewall Quickstep", and "Somebody's Darling"...
Classical music
- Anton BrucknerAnton BrucknerAnton Bruckner was an Austrian composer known for his symphonies, masses, and motets. The first are considered emblematic of the final stage of Austro-German Romanticism because of their rich harmonic language, complex polyphony, and considerable length...
- Study SymphonyStudy SymphonyAnton Bruckner's Study Symphony in F minor, , or simply Symphony in F minor, WAB 99, was written in 1863 as an exercise under Otto Kitzler's instruction in form and orchestration. Scholars at first believed that the next symphony Bruckner wrote was Symphony No. 0 in D minor, thus this symphony is...
in F minorF minorF minor is a minor scale based on F, consisting of the pitches F, G, A, B, C, D, and E. The harmonic minor raises the E to E. Its key signature has four flats .... - Franz LisztFranz LisztFranz Liszt ; ), was a 19th-century Hungarian composer, pianist, conductor, and teacher.Liszt became renowned in Europe during the nineteenth century for his virtuosic skill as a pianist. He was said by his contemporaries to have been the most technically advanced pianist of his age...
- Christus completed about now; Salve Polonia (SHumphrey SearleHumphrey Searle was a British composer.-Biography:He was born in Oxford where he was a classics scholar before studying — somewhat hesitantly — with John Ireland at the Royal College of Music in London, after which he went to Vienna on a six month scholarship to become a private pupil of Anton...
518), Rhapsodie espagnoleRhapsodie espagnole (Liszt)Rhapsodie espagnole , S.254, R.90, is a composition for solo piano composed by Franz Liszt in 1863. The piece is very suggestive of traditional Spanish music, and was inspired by Liszt's tour in Spain and Portugal in 1845. When played, this piece takes roughly 11-14 Minutes and contains many...
(SHumphrey SearleHumphrey Searle was a British composer.-Biography:He was born in Oxford where he was a classics scholar before studying — somewhat hesitantly — with John Ireland at the Royal College of Music in London, after which he went to Vienna on a six month scholarship to become a private pupil of Anton...
254), 'Venezia e Napoli' - Tarantella, and St Francis of Paule walking on the waves written - Camille Saint-SaënsCamille Saint-SaënsCharles-Camille Saint-Saëns was a French Late-Romantic composer, organist, conductor, and pianist. He is known especially for The Carnival of the Animals, Danse macabre, Samson and Delilah, Piano Concerto No. 2, Cello Concerto No. 1, Havanaise, Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso, and his Symphony...
- Piano Trio No. 1 in F majorF majorF major is a musical major scale based on F, consisting of the pitches F, G, A, B, C, D, and E. Its key signature has one flat . It is by far the oldest key signature with an accidental, predating the others by hundreds of years...
opus 18, Spartacus overture for overture in E-flat major
Opera
- Hector BerliozHector BerliozHector Berlioz was a French Romantic composer, best known for his compositions Symphonie fantastique and Grande messe des morts . Berlioz made significant contributions to the modern orchestra with his Treatise on Instrumentation. He specified huge orchestral forces for some of his works; as a...
- Les Troyens - Georges BizetGeorges BizetGeorges Bizet formally Alexandre César Léopold Bizet, was a French composer, mainly of operas. In a career cut short by his early death, he achieved few successes before his final work, Carmen, became one of the most popular and frequently performed works in the entire opera repertory.During a...
- Les pêcheurs de perlesLes pêcheurs de perlesLes pêcheurs de perles is an opera in three acts by the French composer Georges Bizet, to a libretto by Eugène Cormon and Michel Carré. It was first performed on 30 September 1863 at the Théâtre Lyrique in Paris, and was given 18 performances in its initial run...
(The Pearl Fishers) - Charles GounodCharles GounodCharles-François Gounod was a French composer, known for his Ave Maria as well as his operas Faust and Roméo et Juliette.-Biography:...
- Mireille - Giovanni PaciniGiovanni PaciniGiovanni Pacini was an Italian composer, best known for his operas. Pacini was born in Catania, Sicily, the son of the buffo Luigi Pacini, who was to appear in the premieres of many of Giovanni's operas...
- Carmelita (not performed) - Jacques OffenbachJacques OffenbachJacques Offenbach was a Prussian-born French composer, cellist and impresario. He is remembered for his nearly 100 operettas of the 1850s–1870s and his uncompleted opera The Tales of Hoffmann. He was a powerful influence on later composers of the operetta genre, particularly Johann Strauss, Jr....
- Il signor FagottoIl signor FagottoIl signor Fagotto is a one-act opérette by Jacques Offenbach to a French libretto by Charles-Louis-Étienne Nuitter and Étienne Tréfeu, first performed in 1863...
Musical theater
- IxionIxionIn Greek mythology, Ixion was king of the Lapiths, the most ancient tribe of Thessaly, and a son of Ares, or Leonteus, or Antion and Perimele, or the notorious evildoer Phlegyas, whose name connotes "fiery". Peirithoös was his son...
LondonWest End theatreWest End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London's 'Theatreland', the West End. Along with New York's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English speaking...
production opened at the Royalty TheatreRoyalty TheatreThe Royalty Theatre was a small London theatre situated at 73 Dean Street, Soho and opened on 25 May 1840 as Miss Kelly's Theatre and Dramatic School and finally closed to the public in 1938. The architect was Samuel Beazley, a resident in Soho Square, who also designed St James's Theatre, among...
on September 28 and ran for 153 performances
Births
- January 17 - Henry Charles Tonking, composer
- February 5 - Armand Parent, composer
- February 7 - Mieczyslaw Soltys, composer
- February 19 - Emánuel MoórEmánuel MoórEmánuel Moór was a Hungarian composer, pianist, and inventor of musical instruments....
, composer - March 20 - Ernesto NazarethErnesto NazarethErnesto Júlio de Nazareth was a Brazilian composer and pianist, especially noted for his creative tango and Choro compositions.Ernesto Nazareth was born in Rio de Janeiro, one of five children. His mother, Carolina da Cunha gave him his first piano lessons...
, pianist and composer - March 21 - Hugo KaunHugo KaunHugo Wilhelm Ludwig Kaun was a German composer, conductor, and music teacher.Kaun was born in Berlin, and completed his musical training in his native city. In 1886 , he left Germany for the United States and settled in Milwaukee, which was home to a well-established German immigrant community...
, conductor, composer and music teacher (d. 1932) - April 19 (April 17 o.s.) - Felix BlumenfeldFelix BlumenfeldFelix Mikhailovich Blumenfeld was a Russian composer, conductor, pianist and teacher.He was born in Kovalevka, Kherson Governorate, Russian Empire , the son of Austrian Mikhail Frantsevich Blumenfeld and the Polish Marie Szymanowska, and studied composition at the St...
, Russian composer, pianist (d. 1931) - May 12 - Charles BordesCharles BordesCharles Bordes was a French music teacher and composer.-Timeline:Bordes studied pianoforte with Antoine François Marmontel and composition with César Franck. He was organist and maître de chapelle at Nogent-sur-Marne from 1887 to 1890...
, composer - June 2 - Felix von Weingartner, composer, conductorConductingConducting is the art of directing a musical performance by way of visible gestures. The primary duties of the conductor are to unify performers, set the tempo, execute clear preparations and beats, and to listen critically and shape the sound of the ensemble...
- June 5 - Arthur SomervellArthur SomervellSir Arthur Somervell was an English composer, and after Hubert Parry one of the most successful and influential writers of art song in the English music renaissance of the 1890s-1900s....
(d. 1937) - June 13 - Josef Venantius von Woss, composer
- June 16 - Paul Antonin Vidal, composer
- August 11 - Arpad Szendy, composer
- September 8 - Gustavo Emilio Campa, composer
- September 15 - Horatio William Parker, composer
- October 11 - Xavier Henry Napoleon Leroux, composer
- October 24 - Manuel Manrique de Lara y Berry, composer
- November 1 - Alfred ReisenauerAlfred ReisenauerAlfred Reisenauer was a German pianist, composer, and music educator.Reisenauer was a pupil of Louis Köhler and Franz Liszt...
, composer - November 3 - Eugene Samuel-Holeman, composer
- November 30 - Gellio Benevenuto Coronaro, composer
- December 2 - Gustav Wohlgemuth, composer
- December 7 - Pietro MascagniPietro MascagniPietro Antonio Stefano Mascagni was an Italian composer most noted for his operas. His 1890 masterpiece Cavalleria rusticana caused one of the greatest sensations in opera history and single-handedly ushered in the Verismo movement in Italian dramatic music...
, composer - December 17 - Ion ViduIon ViduIon Vidu , was a Romanian composer and choral conductor. Under his influence the small town of Lugoj, which up until that time had not had much in the way of artistic institutions, became a well-known center of choral music in Romania....
, composer
Deaths
- January 9 - Ferdinand Huber, composer
- February 4 - Giuseppe LilloGiuseppe LilloGiuseppe Lillo was an Italian composer. He is best known for his operas which followed in the same vein of Gioachino Rossini. He also produced works for solo piano, a small amount of sacred music, and some chamber music....
, composer (b. 1814) - February 25 - Laure Cinti-DamoreauLaure Cinti-DamoreauLaura Cinti-Damoreau was a French soprano particularly associated with Rossini roles.- Life and career :...
, operatic soprano (b. 1801) - April 8 - Joseph NethercliftJoseph NethercliftJoseph Netherclift was an English composer and lithographer.Netherclift was born 8 September, 1792.Perhaps his most famous work is "We Happy Shepherd Swains"....
, composer (b. 1792) - April 15 - Jan Nepomuk Kanka, composer
- May 14 - Émile PrudentÉmile PrudentÉmile Racine Gauthier Prudent was a French pianist and composer.Born at Angoulême, he never knew his parents and was adopted at an early age by a piano tuner, who gave him his first musical instruction. At ten, he entered the Paris Conservatoire, winning a first prize in piano in 1833, and a...
, composer (b. 1817) - June - Filippo ColiniFilippo ColiniFilippo Colini was an Italian operatic baritone. He is best known today for creating roles in the world premieres of several operas by Giuseppe Verdi, including Giacomo in Giovanna d'Arco , Rolando in La battaglia di Legnano , and Stankar in Stiffelio...
, operatic baritone (b. 1811) - June 7 - Franz Gruber, composer of "Silent Night"
- June 20 - Luigi Felice RossiLuigi Felice RossiLuigi Felice Rossi was an Italian composer, music teacher, musicologist, and music theorist. He mainly composed instrumental and sacred music. He did write one opera, Gli avventurieri , which premiered successfully in Turin in 1835...
, composer (b. 1805) - July 22 - Carl Schuberth, composer
- August 5 - Adolf Friedrich HesseAdolf Friedrich HesseAdolf Friedrich Hesse was a German organist and composer.-Life:Hesse studied in Breslau with the organists Friedrich Wilhelm Berner and Ernst Köhler. In 1831, he became the First Organist at the Bernhardinkirche in his hometown...
, composer - November 21 - Joseph Mayseder, violinist and composer