1869 in music

• February 28 – The premiere of Brahms' Rinaldo took place in Vienna at a concert of the Akademischer Gesangverein. The composer conducted, with the tenor Gustav Walter, a student chorus numbering 300, and the Court Opera orchestra. • April 3 – Edvard Grieg's Piano Concerto is premiered at Copenhagen's Casino. • May 25 – The Vienna State Opera is inaugurated with a performance of Mozart's Don Giovanni. • September 22 – Richard Wagner's opera Das Rheingold debuts at the Königlich Hof- und Nationaltheater in Munich. • Approximate date – Start of "golden age" of flamenco. • Tchaikovsky completes the initial version of Romeo and Juliet. It will be revised the next year and in 1880. • Richard Wagner resumes work on Siegfried after a twelve year break. Act 3 is begun in March. • Also in 1869 • Ernesto Köhler leaves his native Italy at the age of twenty to acquire an position as an orchestral flautist in Vienna. " 1869 sheet music cover == Published popular music ==

• "The Little Brown Jug" by J. Eastburn Winner • "Now the Day is Over" w. Sabine Baring-Gould m. Joseph Barnby • "Shoo Fly, Don't Bother Me" attributed to T. Brigham Bishop (possibly w. Billy Reeves m. Frank Campbell) • "Sweet Genevieve" w. George Cooper m. Henry Tucker == Classical music ==

• Mili Balakirev – Islamey an "Oriental Fantasy" for piano. • Johannes Brahms • Ein deutsches Requiem • Hungarian Dances • Anton Bruckner • Mitternacht, WAB 80 • Symphony in D minor ("Die Nullte") • Teresa Carreño – Un bal en rêve, Op.26 • Henri Duparc • Feuilles volantes, Op.1 • Soupir • Louis Moreau Gottschalk – Grande fantaisie triomphale sur l'hymne national brésilien, Op.69 • Louis James Alfred Lefébure-Wély – Vade-mecum de l'organiste, Op. 187 • Heinrich Lichner – Figurinen, Op.57 • Joachim Raff – Fantaisie, Op.142 • Camille Saint-Saëns • Orient et occident, Op. 25 • La coccinelle • Paraphrase sur Mandolinata de Paladilhe • George Stephanescu – Symphony in A • Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky – Six Romances, Op. 6 including None but the lonely heart == Opera ==

• Frederic Clay – Ages Ago • Karel Miry – Een engel op wacht (opera in 1 act, libretto by P. Geiregat, premiered on December 8 in Brussels) • Richard Wagner – Das Rheingold == Births ==

• January 20 – George Hamlin, American opera singer (d. 1923) • February 1 – Kerry Mills, American violinist and songwriter (d. 1948) • February 3 – Giulio Gatti-Casazza, opera manager (d. 1940) • February 12 – Theodor Bertram, German opera singer (d.1907) • March 3 • Franz Wilczek, Austrian-American violinist (d.1916) • Henry Wood, conductor (d. 1944) • March 23 – Frederick E. Hahn, American violinist, composer, and music educator (d. 1942) • May 5 – Hans Pfitzner, composer (d. 1949) • June 6 – Siegfried Wagner, composer (d. 1930) • July 9 – Arnold Volpe, composer (d. 1940) • July 13 – Florence Perry, opera singer (d. 1949) • August 14 – Armas Järnefelt, Finnish composer and conductor (d. 1958) • September 2 – Carlos Hartling, composer of the national anthem of Honduras (d. 1920) • September 6 – Walford Davies, British composer and organist, Master of the King's Musick (d. 1941) • September 21 – Henryk Melcer-Szczawiński, Polish composer, pianist, conductor, and teacher (d. 1928) • September 30 – E. A. Couturier, American cornet virtuoso, composer, inventor and instrument manufacturer (d. 1950) • October 8 (September 26 O.S.) – Komitas, born Soghomon Soghomonian, Turkish Armenian priest and ethnomusicologist (d. 1935) • date unknown • Kate Carney, born Catherine Pattinson, English music hall singer (d. 1950) • Maximilian Maksakov, born Max Schwartz, Austro-Russian operatic baritone (d. 1936) == Deaths ==

• January 10 – Joan Aulí, organist and composer (b. 1796) • January 17 – Alexander Dargomyzhsky, Russian composer (b. 1813) • January 30 – Charlotte Alington Barnard ('Claribel'), English ballad composer (b. 1830) • March 8 – Hector Berlioz, composer (b. 1803) • March 23 – Charles Lucas, cellist (b. 1808) • April 1 – Alexander Dreyschock, pianist and composer (b. 1818) • April 12 – Antonie Brentano, friend of Beethoven (b. 1780) • April 15 – August Wilhelm Bach, German composer and organist (b. 1796) • April 20 – Carl Loewe, composer, baritone, conductor (b. 1796) • May 10 – Bernhard Molique, German violinist and composer (b. 1802) • May 16 – Giovanni Peruzzini, Italian opera librettist, poet, and translator of German literature (b. 1815) • June 4 – Joseph Ascher, pianist and composer (b. 1829) • June 15 – Albert Grisar, composer (b. 1808) • July 18 – Louis Bouilhet, lyricist (born 1822) • August 13 – Giuseppe Persiani, opera composer (b. 1799) • August 24 – Macedonio Alcalá, pianist, violinist and songwriter (b. 1831) • November 29 – Giulia Grisi, opera singer (b. 1811) • December 18 – Louis Moreau Gottschalk, composer and pianist (b. 1829) (overdose of quinine) • December 23 – Julian Fontana, pianist (b. 1810) • December 31 – Louis James Alfred Lefébure-Wély, organist (b. 1817) ==References==