1857 in music

Events

• January 21 – Giacomo Meyerbeer conducts a work by Mikhail Glinka, at a concert in Berlin attended by the composer. Glinka catches a cold and dies a few weeks later, aged 52; autopsy results are inconclusive.^[1]
• February 7 – Louis Gottschalk leaves New York to begin a concert tour of Cuba.^[1]
• March 14 – Stephen Foster sells all his copyrights to his music publisher for $1,872.28.^[1]
• April 28 – Richard Wagner moves into Green Hill at Zürich, a villa owned by Otto Wesendonck.^[1]
• July 4 – Georges Bizet wins the Prix de Rome.
• August 27 – Joseph Joachim writes to Franz Liszt, ending their professional relationship.^[1]
• October 8 – Irish opera diva Catherine Hayes marries her manager, William Avery Bushnell, in San Francisco; he dies less than a year later.^[2]
• November 12 – 73-year-old Louis Spohr is forced into retirement from his post at the Hesse-Kassel court.^[1]

Published popular music

• "Does He Love Me?" w. Annie Chambers Bradford m. F. W. Smith
• "Lorena" w. Reverend Henry D. L. Webster m. Joseph Philbrick Webster
• James Pierpont – "Jingle Bells"
• Johann Strauss II – Le beau Monde

Classical music

• Charles-Valentin Alkan – Sonate de Concert in E, Op. 47 for cello and piano
• Georges Bizet – Herminie (cantata)
• Franz Liszt
  • Dante Symphony
  • Hunnenschlacht
  • Piano Concerto No. 1 in E flat
• Modest Mussorgsky – Souvenir d'Enfance
• Bedřich Smetana – Piano Trio in G minor, Op. 15 (revised version – original finished 1855)
• Julius Reubke – The 94th Psalm

Opera

• Karel Miry – Karel V (opera in 5 acts, libretto by Hippoliet van Peene, premiered on January 29 in Ghent)
• Ambroise Thomas – Le carnaval de Venise
• Giuseppe Verdi – Simon Boccanegra

Births

• January 17 – Wilhelm Kienzl, Austrian composer (died 1941)
• February 28 – Gustave Kerker, German-born composer (died 1923)
• March 3 – Alfred Bruneau, French composer (died 1934)
• March 4 – Henry W. Petrie, US songwriter (died 1925)
• March 8 – Ruggiero Leoncavallo, Italian opera composer (died 1919)
• April 21 – Paul Dresser, US composer (died 1906)
• April 29 – František Ondříček, Czech violinist and composer (died 1922)
• May 2 – Frederic Cliffe, English composer (died 1931)
• May 9 – Luigi Illica, librettist for Puccini, Catalani, Giordano and others (died 1919)
• May 12 – Lillian Nordica, opera singer (died 1914)
• June 2 – Edward Elgar, English composer (died 1934)
• June 5 – Árpád Doppler, composer (died 1927)
• August 8 – Cécile Chaminade, French composer (died 1944)
• September 8 – Olga Björkengren, opera singer (died 1950)
• October 12 – Paul Lange, German musician, teacher, orchestra and choir leader (died 1919)
• November 5 – Joseph Tabrar, songwriter (d. 1931)
• November 14 – Rosalind Ellicott, composer (died 1924)
• December 27 – Charles Manners, operatic bass and opera company manager (died 1935)
• December 30 – Sylvio Lazzari, Italian composer and conductor (died 1944)

Deaths

• January 19 – Franz Limmer, conductor and composer (b. 1808)
• February 14 – Johannes Bernardus van Bree, violinist, conductor and composer (born 1801)
• February 15 – Mikhail Glinka, composer (b. 1804)
• March 1 – Benjamin Cross, organist, singer, conductor and composer (b. 1786)
• April – Alessandro Curmi, pianist and composer (b. 1801)
• June 28 – Joseph Fischhof, pianist, composer and music teacher (born 1804)
• July 15 – Carl Czerny, pianist and composer (b. 1791)
• July 16 – Pierre-Jean de Béranger, songwriter (b. 1780)
• August 1 – Emilie Zumsteeg, pianist and songwriter (b. 1796)
• October 20 – John Diamond, dancer (born 1823)
• October 21 – Ananias Davisson, singing teacher and printer of shape note books (b. 1780)
• December 11 – Castil-Blaze, music critic, musicologist and composer (b. 1784)
• probable – Ferdinand Prévôt, operatic baritone (born c.1800)

References