1864 in music

Events

• February 29 - Composer Gioachino Rossini celebrates his 72nd (18th) birthday with a party.
• December 17 - Jacques Offenbach's operetta La Belle Hélène receives its first performance at the Paris Variétés
• Hans von Bülow takes over from Franz Lachner at the Munich opera.
• Anton Bruckner composes his Symphony No. 0 ("Die Nullte").

Published popular music

• "Beautiful Dreamer" by Stephen Foster
• "The Picture on the Wall" by Henry Clay Work
• "Shall We Gather at the River?" w.m. Robert Lowry
• "Somebody's Darling" w.m. John Hill Hewitt
• "Tramp! Tramp! Tramp! (The Boys Are Marching)" by George F. Root

Classical music

• Louis Gottschalk - The Dying Poet
• Friedrich Kiel - Piano Concerto
• Franz Strauss - Nocturno for Horn and Piano
• Thomas Tellefsen - Trio for piano, violin and cello (opus 31)
• Robert Volkmann - Symphony no. 2

Opera

• Flor van Duyse - Rosalinde (libretto by Karel Versnaeyen, premiered in Antwerp)
• Karel Miry - Bouchard-d'Avesnes (opera in 5 acts, libretto by Hippoliet van Peene, premiered on March 6 in Ghent)
• Jacques Offenbach - Die Rheinnixen (The Rhine Fairies)

Births

• February 7 - Arthur Collins, singer (d. 1933)
• April 10 - Eugen d'Albert, composer, pianist
• June 11 - Richard Strauss, composer, conductor (d. 1949)
• July 6 - Alberto Nepomuceno, composer and conductor (d. 1920)
• August 18 - Gemma Bellincioni, operatic soprano (d. 1950)
• October 7 - Louis F. Gottschalk, composer (d. 1934)
• date unknown - Alice Esty, operatic soprano (d. 1935)

Deaths

• January 13 - Stephen Foster, songwriter (b. 1826) (domestic accident)
• January 26 - Otto Lindblad, composer (b. 1809)
• February 16 - Václav Jindřich Veit, lawyer and composer (b. 1806)
• March 30 - Louis Schindelmeisser, clarinettist, conductor and composer (b. 1811)
• May 2 - Giacomo Meyerbeer, composer (b. 1791)
• October 1 - Christian Friedrich Ludwig Buschmann, musical instrument maker (b. 1805)
• October 7 - Apollon Grigoryev, poet and songwriter (b. 1822) (alcoholism)
• December 20 - Josef Proksch, pianist and composer (b. 1794)