1863 in music

Events

• Modest Mussorgsky begins work on an opera, Salammbô, which is never finished.
• Georges Bizet's opera, Les pêcheurs de perles debuts at the Théâtre Lyrique in Paris (September 30)
• Les Troyens, opera by Hector Berlioz, debuts, also at the Théâtre Lyrique (November 4)
• Jules Massenet wins the Prix de Rome in the Musical Composition category.

Published popular music

• "All Quiet On The Potomac Tonight"     w.m. John Hill Hewitt
• "Eton Boating Song" w. William Johnson Cory m. Capt. Algernon Drummond
• "Just Before the Battle, Mother" by George F. Root
• "Mother Would Comfort Me" w.m. Charles C. Sawyer
• "My Darling Clementine" 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 Barnby
• "Tenting on the Old Camp Ground" w.m. Walter Kittredge
• "Weeping Sad And Lonely" w. Charles Carroll Sawyer m. Henry Tucker
• "When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again" by Louis Lambert & Patrick Gilmore
• "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 Hewitt

Classical music

• Anton Bruckner - Study Symphony in F minor
• Franz Liszt - Christus completed about now; Salve Polonia (S 518), 'Venezia e Napoli' - Tarantella, and St Francis of Paule walking on the waves written
• Camille Saint-Saëns - Piano Trio No. 1 in F major opus 18, Spartacus overture for overture in E-flat major

Opera

• Hector Berlioz - Les Troyens
• Georges Bizet - Les pêcheurs de perles (The Pearl Fishers)
• Charles Gounod - Mireille
• Giovanni Pacini - Carmelita (not performed)

Musical theater

• Ixion London production opened at the Royalty Theatre 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 Moór, composer
• March 20 - Ernesto Nazareth, composer, pianist
• March 23 - Hugo Kaun, composer (d. 1932)
• April 19 (April 17 o.s.) - Felix Blumenfeld, Russian composer, pianist (d. 1931)
• May 12 - Charles Bordes, composer
• June 2 - Felix von Weingartner, composer, conductor
• June 5 - Arthur Somervell (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 Reisenauer, composer
• November 3 - Eugene Samuel-Holeman, composer
• November 30 - Gellio Benevenuto Coronaro, composer
• December 2 - Gustav Wohlgemuth, composer
• December 7 - Pietro Mascagni, composer
• December 17 - Ion Vidu, composer

Deaths

• January 9 - Ferdinand Huber, composer
• April 8 - Joseph Netherclift, composer
• April 15 - Jan Nepomuk Kanka, composer
• May 14 - Emile Racine Gauthier Prudent, composer
• June 7 - Franz Gruber, composer of "Silent Night"
• July 22 - Carl Schuberth, composer
• August 5 - Adolf Friedrich Hesse, composer
• November 21 - Joseph Mayseder, violinist and composer

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