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This article is about music-related events in 1880.

• 1880 in Norwegian music

• April 3 – Gilbert and Sullivan's comic opera The Pirates of Penzance has its London premiere at the Opera Comique on the Strand.^[1]
• June 12 – Richard Strauss completes composition of his first major work, his Symphony in D minor, at age 16.^[2]
• June–August – Gustav Mahler takes his first professional conducting job, in a small wooden theatre in the Austrian spa town of Bad Hall, conducting operetta.^[3]
• November 1 – Mahler completes composition of Das klagende Lied.
• November 27 – The Teatro Costanzi in Rome is inaugurated with a performance of Rossini's opera Semiramide.

• "The Beauty of Limerick" – David Braham
• "Blow the Man Down"     trad
• "Funiculì Funiculà"     w. G. Turco m. Luigi Denza
• "Keep the Horseshoe Over the Door" w. m. Joseph P. Skelly
• "Haste to the Wedding" published by Jean White
• "In The Evening By The Moonlight" w. m. James A. Bland
• "O Canada!" w. Adolphe-Basile Routhier m. Calixa Lavallée
• "Roses from the South" m. Johann Strauss II
• "Sailing, Sailing"     w.m. Godfrey Marks
• "Softly and Tenderly" w.m. Will L. Thompson
• From The Pirates of Penzance, w. W. S. Gilbert m. Arthur Sullivan
  • "Away, Away! My Heart's On Fire"
  • "Now for The Pirates' Lair"
  • "Oh, Better Far To Live And Die"
  • "A Rollicking Band Of Pirates, We"
  • "To Gain A Brief Advantage"
  • "When A Felon's Not Engaged"
  • "When The Foeman Bares His Steel"
  • "When You Had Left Our Pirate Fold"
  • "Yes! I Am Brave! Oh, Family Descent"
• "Come and meet me, Rosa darling," w. by Samuel N. Mitchell, m. by William A. Huntley^[4]

• Ján Levoslav Bella – String Quartet No. 2 in C minor
• Giovanni Bottesini – Gran Duo Concertante
• Johannes Brahms
  • Tragic Overture
  • Academic Festival Overture
  • 2 Rhapsodies, Op.79, premiered January 20 in Krefeld.
• Alfons Czibulka – Stephanie-Gavotte, Op.312
• Felix Draeseke – Weihestunden. Six songs for baritone (or mezzo-soprano) and piano
• Antonín Dvořák
  • Waltzes, Op.54
  • Violin Sonata, Op. 57 (B. 106)
  • Symphony No. 6 in D major, Op. 60 (B. 112)
  • Songs My Mother Taught Me
• Gabriel Fauré – Élégie, for cello and piano
• César Franck – Piano Quintet, premiered January 17
• Niels Gade – Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in D minor, Op.56
• Edvard Grieg – 2 Elegiac Melodies, Op.34
• Emilie Mayer – Faust Overture
• Ion Ivanovici – The Danube Waves
• Hubert Parry – Piano Concerto
• Giacomo Puccini – Messa di Gloria
• Hans Rott – Symphony in E major
• Camille Saint-Saëns
  • Suite algérienne in C major
  • Violin Concerto No. 3
  • Septet
• Pablo Sarasate – Spanish Dances for violin and piano, Book III
• Richard Strauss – Symphony in D minor
• Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
  • 1812 Overture
  • Italian Capriccio, Op.45, premiered December 18 in Moscow.
  • Serenade for Strings

• Dudley Buck – Deseret, or A Saint's Affliction
• Léo Delibes – Jean de Nivelle
• Miguel Marqués – Florinda
• Adolf Neuendorff – The Rat-Charmer of Hamelin/Der Rattenfänger von Hameln
• Anton Rubinstein – The Merchant Kalashnikov
• George Stephănescu
  • Peste Dunare
  • Sinziana si Pepelea
• Johann Strauss, Jr. – Das Spitzentuch der Königin, premiered October 10 in Vienna.

• La Mascotte     Paris production
• The Pirates of Penzance     London production

• Alexander John Ellis – The History of Musical Pitch

• January 3 – Lina Abarbanell, German-American singer and actress (d. 1963)^[5]
• January 5 – Nikolai Medtner, Russian pianist and composer. (d. 1951)
• January 6 – John McKenna, traditional Irish flute player (d. 1947)
• February 19 – Arthur Shepherd, American composer (d. 1958)
• April 7 – Fritz Grünbaum, Austrian Caberet artist (murdered 1941)
• June 13 – Vincent Rose, Italian-born American bandleader and composer (d. 1944)
• July 5 – Jan Kubelík, Czech violinist (d. 1940)
• July 24 – Ernest Bloch, Swiss-born American Jewish composer (d. 1959)
• July 31 – Manuel Penella, Spanish composer (d. 1939)
• September 19 – Zequinha de Abreu, Brazilian musician and composer (d. 1935)
• September 20 – Ildebrando Pizzetti, Italian composer (d. 1968)
• September 27 – Jacques Thibaud, French violinist (d. 1953)
• October 12 – Healey Willan, English-born Canadian composer (d. 1968)
• November 2
  • John Foulds, English-born composer (d. 1939)
  • Brian Hooker, American lyricist and librettist (died 1946)
• Aunt Molly Jackson, American folk singer and union activist (d. 1960)

• January 24 – George Jackson Lambert, English organist and composer (born 1794)
• February 18 – Christina Enbom, Swedish operatic soprano (born 1804)
• March 20 – Joaquim Antônio da Silva Calado, choro composer and flautist (born 1848)
• March 31 – Henryk Wieniawski, violinist and composer (born 1835) (heart attack)
• May 1 – Samuel Naumbourg, composer (born 1817)
• May 9 – Hermann Berens, composer (born 1826)
• May 30 – James Planché, word artist (born 1796)
• August 16 – Ernst Ferdinand Wenzel (born 1808)
• August 17 – Ole Bull, Norwegian violinist (born 1810)
• October 5 – Jacques Offenbach, composer (born 1819)
• October 7 – Fredrika Stenhammar, operatic soprano (born 1836)
• November 24 – Napoléon Henri Reber, composer (born 1807)
• November 27 – William Saurin Lyster, opera impresario (born 1828)
• December 2 – Josephine Lang, composer (born 1815)
• December 27 – Alessandro Nini, composer (born 1805)
• date unknown – Knut Eriksson Helland, Hardanger fiddle maker (born 1851)