Russian composer Pyotr Tchaikovsky dies after a short illness, possibly from cholera or perhaps in sinister circumstances that remain the subject of controversy

Hansel and Gretl, an opera by German composer Engelbert Humperdinck, has its premiere in Weimar

Claude Debussy's tone poem L'Après-midi d'un faune has its premiere in Paris

The tenor Enrico Caruso makes his debut in his home town of Naples

Swan Lake is performed in St Petersburg in its definitive version, with choreography shared between Lucien Petipa and Lev Ivanov

Australia has a catchy new song in "Waltzing Matilda", written by Banjo Paterson to music by Christina Macpherson

A promenade concert, presented by Henry Wood in London's Queen's Hall, turns out to be the beginning of a very long tradition

Giacomo Puccini's opera La Bohème has an unsuccessful premiere in Turin

Jean Sibelius's 'symphonic legend' The Swan of Tuonela has its premiere in Helsinki

Jewish composer Gustav Mahler is baptized a Christian so as to be eligible to conduct the Vienna Opera

Rachmaninov's First Symphony has a disastrous premiere in St Petersburg, probably caused by the incompetence of Glazunov as conductor

The Australian soprano Nellie Melba forms the Melba Grand Opera Company as a touring venture in the USA

Edward Elgar teases with the word 'enigma' printed at the head of his orchestral Variations on an Original Theme

Austrian composer Arnold Schoenberg composes the string sextet Verklärte Nacht

Giacomo Puccini's Tosca brings in the new century with a January premiere in Rome

Scottish music-hall artist Harry Lauder makes his first London appearance at Gatti's music hall in Westminster

Enrique Granados completes the ten piano pieces forming his Danzas españolas

Jean Sibelius's Finlandia stirs national instincts in Helsinki

Edward Elgar writes the oratorio Dream of Gerontius, setting Cardinal Newman's poem of the same title

Gustave Charpentier's opera Louise has Paris premiere at the Opéra-Comique

Vast crowds line the streets for the Milan funeral of a national hero, the 87-year-old composer Giuseppe Verdi

Rusalka, by the Czech composer Anton Dvorák, is performed in Prague

The first of Edward Elgar's five Pomp and Circumstance marches has a trio section that becomes "Land of Hope and Glory"

Sergei Rachmaninov's Second Piano Concerto gives him renewed confidence after the disaster of his First Symphony in 1897

Frederick Delius completes his opera A Village Romeo and Juliet, but it is not performed until 1907 in Berlin