February 27 – Robert Schumann unsuccessfully attempts suicide by throwing himself from a bridge into the River Rhine.
June 24 - Franz Liszt premieres Franz Schubert's opera Alfonso und Estrella in Weimar, thirty-two years after it was composed.
Anton Rubinstein begins a four year concert tour of Europe, establishing his reputation as the leading piano virtuoso of his generation.
Richard Wagner completes Das Rheingold.
"Hard Times Come Again No More" w.m. Stephen Collins Foster
"(I Dream of) Jeanie With the Light Brown Hair" w.m. Stephen Collins Foster
"Maggie by My Side" Stephen Collins Foster
"Old Dog Tray" Stephen Collins Foster
"What Is Home Without A Mother" w.m. Septimus Winner
Hector Berlioz – L'enfance du Christ
Charles Gounod – Chant de paix
Franz Liszt – Les préludes
Henri Wieniawski – Le carnaval russe for Violin and Piano
Johannes Brahms
Op.8 Piano Trio No. 1 (revised in 1889)
Op. 9, Variations on a Theme by Robert Schumann in F-sharp minor, for piano. The theme is from Op. 99, Bunte Blätter.
Op. 10 Ballades
Opus 21 No.2 Fourteen Variations on a Hungarian Melody, in D major
Karel Miry – La Lanterne magique (opera in 3 acts, libretto by Hippoliet van Peene, premiered on March 10 in Ghent)
April 13 – António D'Andrade, opera singer (d. 1942)
May 6 – Laura Joyce Bell, contralto singer and actress (d. 1904)
July 3 – Leoš Janáček, composer (d. 1928)
July 14 – Alexander Kopylov, violinist and composer (d. 1911)
August 24 – Alfred Dudley Turner, composer (some sources have b.1853) (d.1888)
September 1 – Engelbert Humperdinck, composer (d. 1921)
November 6 – John Philip Sousa, composer (d. 1932)
November 14 – Dina Edling, opera singer (d. 1935)
January 12 – Philip Klitz, composer (born 1805)
March 3 – Giovanni Battista Rubini, operatic tenor (born 1794)
March 26 – Emilie Hammarskjöld, pianist, singer and composer (born 1821)
April 18 – Józef Elsner, composer and teacher (born 1769)
May 1 – Jean Coralli, dancer and choreographer (born 1779)
May 31 – Vatroslav Lisinski, composer (born 1819)
June 17 – Henriette Sontag, operatic soprano (born 1806) (cholera)
July 14 – Louis-Pierre Norblin, cellist (born 1781)
August 21 – August Ferdinand Anacker, composer (born 1790)
October – Luigi Tarisio, violin dealer and collector (born c. 1790)
November 2 – Anton Pann, poet, musicologist and composer (born c. 1790)
November 17 – Alberich Zwyssig, composer of the Swiss national anthem (born 1808)
1854 in music Wikipedia (Text) CC BY-SA
