1906 in music

Events

February – Abyssinia receives its première at the Majestic Theatre (Broadway), with a score co-written by Bert Williams, including premiere of Nobody.

May 27 – Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 6 receives its première in Essen, Germany.

December 11 – The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra plays its first concert, the oldest continuously active professional orchestra in Australia.

Amelita Galli-Curci makes her operatic debut at Trani, as Gilda in Verdi's Rigoletto.

Approximate start of Shaoxing opera.

Last full-scale court performance of gambuh dance-drama with gamelan ensemble in Bali.

Published popular music

"Abraham Jefferson Washington Lee" Harry Von Tilzer

"Ain't You Coming Back To Old New Hampshire, Molly?" w. Robert F. Roden m. J. Fred Helf

"Alice, Where Art Thou Going?" Heelan, Gumble

"All In Down And Out" w. Cecil Mack m. Chris Smith, Billy B. Smith & Elmer Bowman

"Anchors Aweigh" w. Alfred Hart Miles & R. Lovell m. Charles A. Zimmerman

"Andulko Safárova" Kmoch

"Anxious" William Jerome, Jean Kendis, Paley

"Are You Coming Out Tonight, Mary Ann?" w. Andrew B. Sterling m. Harry Von Tilzer

"Arrah Wanna" w. Jack Drislane m. Theodore F. Morse

"At Dawning" w. Nelle Richmond Eberhart m. Charles Wakefield Cadman

"Because You're You" w. Henry Blossom m. Victor Herbert

"The Bee That Gets The Honey Doesn't Hang Around The Hive" w. Ed Rose m. J. Fred Helf

"The Bird On Nellie's Hat" w. Arthur J. Lamb m. Alfred Solman

"The Buffalo Rag" Tom Turpin

"By The Side Of The Zuyder Zee" w. A. J. Mills m. Bennett Scott

"Captain Baby Bunting Of The Rocking Horse Brigade" w. Ed Gardinier & Will D. Cobb m. J. Fred Helf

"Cheyenne" w. Harry H. Williams m. Egbert Van Alstyne

"Colleen Bawn" w. Edward Madden m. J. Fred Helf

"College Life" w. Porter Emerson Browne m. Henry Frantzen

"Come, Take A Skate With Me" w.m. Raymond Brown & Gus Edwards

"Crocodile Isle" Morse

"Dill Pickles Rag" m. Charles L. Johnson

"Do Re Mi Fa So La Ti Do" w. William Cahill m. Benjamin Hapgood Burt

"Don't You Think It's Time To Marry?" Edwards

"Dreaming" w. L. W. Heiser m. J. Anton Dailey

"Every Day Is Ladies' Day To Me" w. Henry Blossom m. Victor Herbert

"The Free Lance March" m. John Philip Sousa

"Frog Legs Rag" m. James Scott

"The Galloping Major" w. Fred W. Leigh m. George Bastow

"The Game Of Peek-a-Boo" Edwards

"Girlie, I Love You" Morse

"The Good Old USA" w. Jack Drislane m. Theodore F. Morse

"The Grand Old Rag" (aka "You're a Grand Old Flag") w.m. George M. Cohan

"He Walked Right In Turned Around And Walked Right Out Again" w. Edward Rose m. Maxwell Silver

"Here's To Our Absent Brothers" w.m. J. Fred Helf

"He's A Cousin Of Mine" w. Cecil Mack m. Chris Smith & Silvio Hein

"Highland Birthday Party" w.m. Hector Grant

"Holding Hands (You Don't Say Nothing At All)" w. Jack Norworth m. Albert Von Tilzer

"Honora H. Doolin" Mills

"I Don't Like Your Family" Howard

"I Just Can't Make My Eyes Behave" w.m. Will D. Cobb & Gus Edwards

"I Miss You In A Thousand Different Ways" w. Will D. Cobb m. Gus Edwards

"I Never Saw Such Jealousy In My Life" w. Andrew B. Sterling m. Harry Von Tilzer

"I Was Born In Virginia" w.m. George M. Cohan

"Ida-Ho!" Von Tilzer

"If Anybody Wants To Meet A Jonah Shake Hands With Me" w.m. Harry Hoyt

"I'm Sorry" Von Tilzer

"I'm Wise" w. Harry Williams m. Egbert van Alstyne

"In Old New York" w. Henry Blossom m. Victor Herbert

"Is It Warm Enough For You?" Paley

"I've Said My Last Farewell" Sischer

"Just One Word Of Consolation" w. Frank B. Williams m. Tom Lemonier

"Keep on the Sunny Side" w. Jack Drislane m. Theodore F. Morse

"Kiss, Kiss, Kiss (If You Want To Learn To Kiss)" w. Harry B. Smith m. Gertrude Hoffmann

"Lassie, Dinna Sigh For Me" w.m. Hector Grant

"A Lemon In The Garden Of Love" w. M. E. Rourke m. Richard Carle

"Let Bygones Be Bygones And Let Us Be Sweethearts Again" w. Alex Rogers m. Bert Williams

"Let It Alone" w. Alex Rogers m. Bert Williams

"Let Me See You Smile" Fischer

"The Little Chauffeur" Bowers

"The Load That Father Carried" w. Frank Fogerty m. J. B. Mullen

"Love Me And The World Is Mine" w. Dave Reed Jr m. Ernest R. Ball

"Mississippi Sunflower" (characteristic march & two-step) m. Otto and John Heinzman

"Moonbeams" w. Henry Blossom m. Victor Herbert

"Moonlight Dance" m. Herman Finck

"Mr Monkey" Edwards

"My Mariuccia Take A Steamboat" w. George Ronklyn m. Al Piantadosi

"National Emblem March" w. E. E. Bagley

"The Next Horse I Ride On" w.m. Fred Murray & George Everard

"Not Because Your Hair Is Curly" w.m. Bob Adams

"Nothing Like That In Our Family" Heelan, Furth

"Poor John" w. Fred W. Leigh m. Henry E. Pether

"The Poor Old Man" w.m. Vincent Bryan

"School Days" w. Will D. Cobb m. Gus Edwards

"Since Father Went To Work" w.m. William Cahill

"Some One Looks Good To Some One" Weaver

"The Streets Of New York" w. Henry Blossom m. Victor Herbert from the musical The Red Mill

"Sunbonnet Sue" w. Will D. Cobb m. Gus Edwards

"Sweet Anastasia Brady" Schwartz

"That's The Reason Noo I Wear A Kilt" w.m. A. B. Kendal & Harry Lauder

"Waltz Me Around Again Willie" w. Will D. Cobb m. Ren Shields

"We Parted On The Shore" w.m. Harry Lauder

"We've Been Chums For Fifty Years" w.m. Thurland Chattaway

"What A Mouth" w.m. R. P. Weston

"What's The Use Of Dreaming?" w.m. Joseph E. Howard

"What's The Use Of Loving If You Can't Love All The Time" w. Joseph Mittenthal m. Harry Armstrong

"When Love Is Young In Springtime" w.m. Rida Johnson Young & Melville Ellis

"When The Whip-poor-will Sings, Marguerite" w. C. M. Denison m. J. Fred Helf

"When Tommy Atkins Marries Dolly Gray" w. Will D. Cobb m. Gus Edwards

"When You Know You're Not Forgotten By The Girl You Can't Forget" w. Ed Gardinier m. J. Fred Helf

"While The Old Mill Wheel Is Turning" w. Will D. Cobb m. Kerry Mills

"Whistle It!" Blossom, Herbert

"Wonderland" w.m. Thomas S. Allen

"Won't You Come Over To My House" w. Harry H. Williams m. Egbert Van Alstyne

"Wouldn't You Like To Flirt with Me?" Rogers

"You Can Have Broadway" w.m. George M. Cohan from the musical George Washington, Junior

"You Can't Give Your Heart To Somebody Else And Still Hold Hands With Me" Edwards

Recorded popular music

"Stop Your Tickling Jock" – Harry Lauder

Classical music

Frank Bridge – Three Idylls for String Quartet, Quartet no. 1 in E minor Bologna

Grigoraş Dinicu – Hora staccato

Edward Elgar – The Kingdom (oratorio)

George Enescu –

Au soir, for four trumpets

Concertstück, for viola and piano

Decet for winds in D major, op. 14

Légende, for trumpet and piano

Charles Ives – Central Park in the Dark

Gustav Mahler – Symphony No. 6 (3rd version)

Carl Nielsen – String Quartet No. 4 in F major, op. 44

Sergei Rachmaninoff – Symphony No. 2 in E Minor

Max Reger – Serenade in G for orchestra op. 95

Arnold Schoenberg – Chamber Symphony No. 1

Josef Suk – Symphony No. 2 Asrael finished

Sergei Taneyev – Piano Quartet in E major op. 20

Edgard Varèse – Un grand sommeil noir

Anton Webern – Rondo for string quartet

Opera

Walter Braunfels – Falada

Jules Massenet – Ariane

Carl Nielsen – Maskarade

Sergei Rachmaninoff – Francesca Da Rimini

Dame Ethel Smyth – The Wreckers

Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari – I quattro rusteghi

Musical theater

About Town Broadway production

Forty-Five Minutes From Broadway Broadway production

The Free Lance Broadway production

George Washington, Junior Broadway production opened at the Herald Square Theatre on February 12 and ran for 81 performances.

The Glass-Blowers Broadway production

The Little Cherub London production

The Red Mill Broadway production

Seeing New York Broadway production opened at the New York Roof Theatre on June 5 and ran for 75 performances

The Spring Chicken Broadway production opened at Daly's Theatre on October 8 and transferred to the New Amsterdam Theatre on December 10 and ran for a total of 91 performances.

The Vicar of Wakefield London production

Births

January 1 – Giovanni D'Anzi, Italian songwriter (died 1974)

January 4 – Frankie Newton, American trumpeter (died 1954)

January 27 – Radamés Gnattali, Brazilian composer (died 1988)

January 15 – Alessandro Cicognini, film composer (died 1995)

January 31

Benjamin Frankel, composer (died 1973)

Roosevelt Sykes, blues musician (died 1983)

February 1 – Hildegarde, actress and cabaret singer (died 2005)

February 5 – Zara Levina, pianist and composer (died 1976)

February 19 – Grace Williams, Welsh composer (died 1977)

February 21 – Jeanne Aubert, singer and actress (died 1988)

March 3 – Barney Bigard, jazz musician (died 1980)

March 13 – Frank Teschemacher, jazz musician (died 1932)

March 20 – Ozzie Nelson, actor, band leader (died 1975)

March 25 – Jean Sablon, French singer (died 1994)

March 27 – Pee Wee Russell, jazz musician (died 1969)

April 9 – Antal Doráti, conductor (died 1988)

April 18 – Little Brother Montgomery, jazz musician (died 1985)

May 23 – Lucha Reyes, singer

June 1 – Walter Legge, record producer (died 1979)

June 3 – Josephine Baker, US singer, dancer and toast of Paris (died 1975)

June 26 – Alberto Rabagliati, Italian singer and actor (died 1974)

June 28 – Safford Cape, American conductor and musicologist (died 1973)

July 7 – Anton Karas, Austrian zither player and composer (died 1985)

July 30 – Ľudovít Rajter, Slovak composer (died 2000)

September 4 – Alexander Moyzes, Slovak composer and conductor (died 1984)

September 25

Jaroslav Ježek, composer (died 1942)

Dmitri Shostakovich, composer (died 1975)

September 30 – Mireille Hartuch, French singer (died 1996)

October 9 – Janis Ivanovs, Latvian composer (died 1983)

October 10 – Paul Creston, composer (died 1985)

October 15 – Victoria Spivey, US singer, pianist and composer (died 1976)

October 22 – Charles Lynch, Irish concert pianist (died 1984)

October 31 – Louise Talma, composer (died 1996)

November 3 – Alma Rosé, violinist (died 1944)

November 9 – Pete Brown, jazz musician (died 1963)

December 10 – Harold Adamson, US lyricist (died 1980)

December 26 – Morgan Lewis, songwriter (died 1968)

December 27 – Oscar Levant, pianist and actor (died 1972)

Billie Maxwell, country guitarist/vocalist (died 1954)

Deaths

January 23 – Charles Hunter, ragtime composer (born 1876)

January 30 – Paul Dresser, US composer (born 1857)

February 25 – Anton Arensky, composer (born 1861)

March 22 – Martin Wegelius, composer (born 1846)

April 25 – John Knowles Paine, organist and composer (born 1839)

May 9 – Helen Lemmens-Sherrington, operatic soprano (born 1834)

May 11 - Gottardo Aldighieri, operatic baritone (born 1824)

May 24 – Heinrich Reimann, organist and composer (born 1850)

May 30 – Enrique el Mellizo, flamenco singer (born 1848)

June 7 – Signor Brocolini, opera singer (born 1841)

July 1 – Manuel Patricio Rodríguez García, singer and music teacher (born 1805)

July 8 – Ivan Melnikov, operatic baritone (born 1832)

July 9 – Alfred Stelzner, designer of musical instruments (born 1852)

July 29 – Alexandre Luigini, composer (born 1850)

August 26 – Eugen Gura, opera singer (born 1842)

September 1 – Giuseppe Giacosa, librettist for Giacomo Puccini

October 18 – Léon Gastinel, composer (born 1823)

December 14 – Federico Consolo, violinist and composer (born 1841)

December 30 – Eugène Goossens, père, conductor (born 1845)

date unknown

Léontine de Maësen, operatic soprano (born 1835)

Nissan Spivak, cantor and composer (born 1824)