1878 in music

List of years in music (Table)
… 1868 1869 1870 1871 1872 1873 1874 1875 1876 1877 1878 1879 1880 1881 1882 1883 1884 1885 1886 1887 1888 …
Related time period or subjects
… 1875 1876 1877 1878 1879 1880 1881 … … 1840s 1850s 1860s 1870s 1880s 1890s 1900s … … 18th century 19th century 20th century …
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Events

April 9? – Franz Berwald's Symphony No. 4 receives its premiere performance, conducted by Ludvig Norman.
May 28 – Gilbert & Sullivan's H.M.S. Pinafore debuts in London

Johannes Brahms - Motets Op. 74; Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 77
Anton Bruckner - Symphony No. 4 (Bruckner) - 2nd version; Symphony No. 5 (Bruckner)
Ferruccio Busoni – Piano Concerto in D, op. 17, for piano and string orchestra
George Whitefield Chadwick - String Quartet No. 1
Felix Otto Dessoff - String Quartet in F, Op. 7
Antonín Dvořák -
- Serenade for Wind Instruments (Dvořák) (op. 44/B. 77)
- String Sextet (Dvořák), (op. 48/B. 80)
- Slavonic Dances, Set 1 (op. 46/B. 83)
- Three Slavonic Rhapsodies (op. 45/B. 86)
Gabriel Fauré - Chanson Apres un rêve (Op. 7 No. 1)
Niels Gade – Capriccio for violin and orchestra in A minor
Hans Huber - Piano Concerto No. 1 in C minor, Op. 36
Vincent d'Indy - La forêt enchantée
Édouard Lalo - Fantaisie norvegienne
Giuseppe Martucci - Piano Concerto No. 1 in D minor; Piano Quintet in C major, Op. 45
Joachim Raff - Symphony No. 9 Im Sommer, Op. 208
Josef Rheinberger - Mass in E-flat (Cantus Missæ) for double choir, Op. 109; Organ Sonata No. 5 in F-sharp Minor, Op. 111; Trio for Piano and Strings No. 2 in A, Op. 112; Piano Quintet in C, Op. 114^[1]
Bernhard Scholz - String Quintet Op. 47^[2]
Sergei Taneyev – Symphony no 2 in B flat minor
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
- Symphony No. 4 in F minor, op. 36
- Violin Concerto in D major

Alfred Cellier – After All!
Charles Gounod – Polyeucte (opera)
Charles Edouard Lefebvre – Lucrèce
Miguel Marqués – El anillo de hierro (libretto by Marcos Zapata, premiered in Madrid)
Joseph Parry – Blodwen
Emile Pessard
- Le char premiered on January 18 at the Théâtre de l'Opéra-Comique, Paris
- Le Capitaine Fracasse premiered on July 2 at the Théâtre Lyrique, Paris
Joachim Raff - Benedetto Marcello

January 15 - Carlo Blasis, dancer and choreographer (b. 1797)
February 2 – Josif Runjanin, composer (b. 1821)
April 8 – Henriette "Jetty" Treffz, singer, first wife and business manager of Johann Strauss II (b. 1818)
April 21 - Temistocle Solera, librettist and composer (b. 1815)
May 6 - François Benoist, organist and composer (b. 1794)
July 2 - François Bazin, opera composer (b. 1816)
August 23 - Adolf Fredrik Lindblad, composer (b. 1801)
October - Ludwig Wilhelm Maurer, violinist, conductor and composer (b. 1789)
November - Marco Aurelio Zani de Ferranti, guitarist and composer (b. 1801)
December 18 - Heinrich Proch, composer (b. 1809)
December 28 – José Bernardo Alcedo, composer of the Peruvian national anthem (b. 1788)
date unknown
- Carl Heissler, violinist (b. 1826)
- Robert Heller, pianist and magician (b. 1826)

^ Rheinberger quintet op. 114 given date 1878 at Sheetmusicplus.com.
^ Musgrave, Michael (1999). The Cambridge Companion to Brahms at Google Books. Cambridge University Press. page 296. ISBN 978-0-521-48581-4.
^ "FIMIC Link About Selim Palmgren". Archived from the original on October 26, 2007. http://web.archive.org/web/20071026094553/http://www.fimic.fi/fimic/fimic.nsf/mainframe?readform&570E66C33E0DEC49C2256793002E08BD. Retrieved 2009-01-05.