1881 in music

See also: 1880 in music, other events of 1881, 1882 in music and the list of 'years in music'.

Events

• February 10 – Offenbach's Tales of Hoffman debuts in Paris
• November 9 – Johannes Brahms' Piano Concerto No. 2 is given its public premiere in Budapest
• December 4 – Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto is premiered in Vienna

Published popular music

• "Loch Lomond"
• "Good Bye!" by Francesco Paolo Tosti
• "My Bonnie Lies over the Ocean"
• "Slowly and Sadly" (President Garfield Memorial Tribute)" by Arabella M. Root

Classical music

• Rébecca (oratorio) by Cesar Franck

Opera

• Joan Of Arc by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Musical theater

• Les Contes d'Hoffman (Jacques Offenbach) –      Paris production
• Patience (Gilbert and Sullivan) –      London production

Births

• March 25 – Béla Bartók
• August 15 – Ted Snyder, US composer and music publisher
• November 22 – Ethel Levey, US singer, dancer & actress
• November 28 – Stefan Zweig, librettist of Richard Strauss's Die schweigsame Frau (The Silent Woman)
• December 3 – Henry Fillmore
• December 24 – Charles Wakefield Cadman, composer and songwriter

Deaths

• 28 March – Modest Mussorgsky