1891 in music

Events

• February 23 - Fourteen-year-old cellist Pablo Casals gives a solo recital in Barcelona.
• March 16 - A performance of the Budapest Opera is interrupted by a spontaneous demonstration in support of musical director Gustav Mahler, at the time in conflict with intendant Géza Zichy and already negotiating for a position elsewhere.
• May 10 - Danish composer Carl Nielsen marries sculptor Anne Marie Brodersen in Florence, Italy.
• October 16 - The Chicago Symphony Orchestra gives its inaugural concert.
• The Peabody Mason Concerts are inaugurated with a performance by Ferruccio Busoni.

Published popular music

• "Actions Speak Louder Than Words" w. George Horncastle m. Felix McGlennon
• "Don't mind, my Darling!" w.m. Paul Steinmark
• "Hey, Rube!" w. J. Sherrie Matthews m. Harry Bulger
• "High School Cadets March" m. John Philip Sousa
• "Little Boy Blue" w. Eugene Field m. Ethelbert Nevin
• "The Man Who Broke The Bank At Monte Carlo" w.m. Fred Gilbert
• "The Miner's Dream Of Home" w.m. Will Godwin & Leo Dryden
• "Molly O!" w.m. William J. Scanlan
• "Narcissus" m. Ethelbert Nevin
• "The Pardon Came Too Late" w.m. Paul Dresser
• "The Picture That's Turned To The Wall" w.m. Charles Graham
• "Reuben And Cynthia" w.m. Percy Gaunt
• "Ta-ra-ra-boom-de-ay" w.m. Henry J. Sayers
• "Wot Cher!" w. Albert Chevalier m. Charles Ingle

Recorded popular music

• "The Laughing Song" - George W. Johnson

Classical music

• Anton Arensky - Cantata on the 10th Anniversary of the Coronation
• Johannes Brahms - Clarinet Quintet in B Minor, Opus 115
• Max Bruch - Concerto for Violin No. 3
• Carl Nielsen - Fantasy Pieces for Oboe and Piano
• Ethelbert Nevin - Water Scenes
• Erik Satie - 6 Gnossiennes for Piano

Opera

• Frederick Delius - Irmelin
• Robert Fuchs - Die Teufelsglocke
• Miguel Marqués - El monaguillo (libretto by Emilio Sánchez Pastor, premiered in Madrid)
• Emile Pessard - Les folies amoureuses premiered on April 15 at the Théâtre de l'Opéra-Comique, Paris

Musical theater

• Robin Hood, Broadway production
• The Tyrolean, Broadway production
• Der Vogelhändler (The Tyrolean), Vienna production

Top hits

• "The Laughing Song" by George Washington Johnson

Births

• January 25 - Wellman Braud, jazz musician (d. 1966)
• February 5 - Dino Borgioli, operatic tenor (d. 1960)
• March 22 - Alexis Roland-Manuel, French composer and critic (d. 1966)
• April 2 - Jack Buchanan, Scottish singer, actor, dancer and director (d. 1957)
• April 23 - Sergei Prokofiev, composer (d. 1953)
• May 16 - Richard Tauber, Austrian singer (d. 1948)
• May 30 - Ben Bernie, US bandleader (d. 1943)
• June 9 - Cole Porter, songwriter (d. 1964)
• June 10 - Al Dubin, Swiss-born American lyricist (d. 1945)
• June 21 - Hermann Scherchen, German conductor (d. 1966)
• July 14 - Fréhel, French singer, actress (d. 1951)
• July 16 - Blossom Seeley, US singer and vaudeville performer (d. 1974)
• August 2 - Arthur Bliss, composer (d. 1975)
• September 11 - Noël Gallon, French composer and music educator (d. 1966)
• September 14 - Czesław Marek, Polish composer, pianist, and piano teacher (d. 1985)
• September 26 - Charles Munch, Alsatian symphonic conductor and violinist (d. 1968)
• October 29 - Fanny Brice, US actress, comedian and singer (d. 1951)
• November 18 - Ernest Frank Pechin, US Cornetist and bandleader (d. 1946)
• November 27 - Giovanni Breviario, operatic tenor (d. 1982)
• date unknown
  • Charles McCarron, composer and lyricist (d. 1919)
  • Margaret Morris, dancer and choreographer (d. 1980)

Deaths

• January 5 - Emma Abbott, singer (b. 1850)
• January 8 - Fredrik Pacius, composer and conductor (b. 1809)
• January 17 - Johannes Verhulst, conductor and composer (b. 1816)
• January 16 - Léo Delibes, composer (b. 1836)
• January 21 - Calixa Lavallée, composer (b. 1842)
• May 23 - Ignace Leybach, pianist, organist and composer (b. 1817)
• July 3 - Stefano Golinelli, pianist and composer (b. 1818)
• July 21 - Franco Faccio, composer and conductor (b. 1840)
• August 5 - Henry Litolff, keyboard virtuoso and composer (b. 1818)
• November 9 - Frederick Mathushek, piano maker (b. 1814)
• December 28 - Alfred Cellier, composer (b. 1844)
• date unknown - Fanny Salvini-Donatelli, operatic soprano (b. c.1815)